Tuesday, April 9, 2013

AMAZING IS EVERYWHERE (OR HOW I ENJOYED THE TOURNAMENT)

The nets have been cut down. Coach Pitino was scared sh**less by what he thought were gun shots and the Louisville Cardinals have prevailed as the last man standing in the field of 64 (I know it’s 68 but I like 64) or as it’s been called March Madness. This year’s tournament has never seen as many low seeds win, #1 seeds fall so soon or get upsets. Yet, all I’ve heard are sports pundits and talking heads on sports talk radio and TV say this tournament isn’t valid because of so many ‘one and done’ kids leaving after one year of school for the NBA. I actually heard sports personality, Dan Patrick, whom I actually like, say, “The Cinderella teams are great for the first two rounds but after the Sweet 16 we need the college powerhouses, the Dukes, the Michigans, the Jayhawks and the Louisvilles.” Dan this is the tournament for which you base your daily argument for a college football playoff system. Why is the tournament so great? Because it is not a beauty contest, it is one team strapping up just like any other team and when the dust settles, one is the victor. It doesn’t get any more primal than that. People, aka spoiled Americans, you can’t clamor for upsets and then get pissed when you get them When I hear the many complaints about this tourney I can’t help but ask “What else do you want? Do you want to have your cake, eat it, and crap it and hope it smells like lilac?” To those who say the competitive level of basketball is off isn’t watching. Parity has been created in the tournament because the rosters of the normal powerhouses are revolving doors to the NBA and the mid majors and small schools are littered with players that the powers rejected. The rosters of these smaller teams remain and grow together as teams, so when these teams meet the Blue Chip mega teams that just met at registration, it’s an equation for an upset loss. That doesn’t make the quality of basketball bad, it just doesn’t make it the outcome you’re used to or wanted to see. Universities with nine figure athletic complexes, top flight medical staffs, the best equipment and 5 star, blue chip athletes are losing to teams with weight rooms no larger than studio apartments. They’re grabbing the athletes, the powerhouse schools rejected and coming to win, as Florida Gulf Coast, Harvard and ninth seeded, Wichita State came to do. When will we be able to see the amazing that took place in this tournament or the amazing things that happen in daily life? A few weeks ago, it rained and I saw a rainbow, not a small portion, no a rainbow that stretched and arched across the sky. Many may have seen that before, but I had not and I appreciated despite the fact I didn’t find a little man wearing green with a pot of gold. But someone will find a way to be dismissive about it. Did you know that the same amount of technology you’re using in your 3G cell phone was more than the energy used to get Apollo 11 to the moon? Wrap your head around that. Folks complain about their iPhone not updating Facebook quick enough and Neil Armstrong was just praying that the same technology to sling him and his crew around the dark side of the moon. We’ve been spoiled and we just ignore things and don’t take them in for what they’re worth. We just witnessed a tournament in which every round leading up to the Final game tonight had at least one surprise teams. The ninth ranked Wichita State Shockers, shocked the world by getting to the semi-finals and as some think they could’ve beat Louisville if not for any last minute costly mistakes. The film Jurassic Park recently re-opened in 3D and picked up a cool eighteen million dollars. Hollywood executives are expressing disappointment in this opening. Really? Your company just picked up 18 million dollars for a 20 year old movie that recreated the effing, dinosaurs. The T-Rex hasn’t existed for 65 million got damn years old but it does now on screen and movies . No recollection but some wayward drawings, no photos to recreate them and we believed them, wholeheartedly. Still not enough, we’ve got to seem them in 3D, coming out the got damn screen giving grandparents heart attacks. As simple as those acts were, they were amazing, as many other thing are if you just take the time and look. I honestly don’t know why I wrote this entry but it’s one before Now Follow Me! Follow Me To Freedom!

Sunday, April 7, 2013

THE BALCONY IS TRULY, CLOSED

“I respectfully and totally disagree with you, Gene.” Those would be the first of many firm words, directed at film critic Gene Siskel, I would hear from Chicago Sun Times film critic Roger Ebert. At the time televised, entertainment in my home consisted of the three major networks, the UHF channel reserved for reruns and the publicly supported PBS. Roger and film critic Gene Siskel were arguing about a film, which one I couldn’t recall, and I marveled at this because to date I had never seen this. Film reviews and criticism were reserved to the always annoyed Rex Reed and the heavily mustached Gene Shalit. I’d never seen people disagreeing about a film and it was interesting. I can’t say that it was Soprano’s-like appointment TV for me. It was more like I wasn’t old enough to go out and my Saturday nights consisted of regional wrestling, Miami Vice and in between them, At The Movies as a transition. But as a teenager, I would find myself delaying my weekend evenings in the NOLA streets to take in their half hour of discourse. I liked to hear both of their opinions but from the start Roger always seemed to look at all films more objectively, while performing this ostensibly subjective task. If he disliked a film he could always give you some kind of bright spot within the opus, for he respected the art form and all filmmakers efforts. Roger felt if he was going to criticize filmmakers he had least needed to attempt to be one. He would go on to scribe the sequel to Valley Of The Dolls, which was appropriately titled Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Roger himself would give the film a patented “thumbs down”. That is why so many filmmakers respected Ebert’s opinion. He had danced with devil, been in the trenches or whatever hyperbole or analogy used by filmmakers likening themselves to Gulf War veterans. Roger was passionate and seemed to embrace the new films, new filmmakers and new advances in the medium as much as he welcomed new works by seasoned filmmakers. Plain and simple Roger just dug film. He’s said before and I’m paraphrasing, “Film is about a visceral feeling. Be it a big budget film or small independent film. It makes you feel.” And with this train of thought Roger had no problem embracing the big budget film, which I think your more erudite film critics knocked on him. But it’s also this train of thought that which made his embrace films from all points of views. I recall when Spike Lee’s SHE’S GOTTA HAVE IT opened in theaters, I didn’t know what to expect from Siskel or Ebert from this film I had already seen five times. Roger raved about this film as being a refreshing point of view of black culture from black people instead of white people. He would champion many black films in the future, one being the controversial DO THE RIGHT THING. Roger has always championed films starring people of color as just films, as all filmmakers want, and not some celluloid aberrations. You could see his passion as he stood in defense of Asian American director Justin Lin’s debut feature, BETTER LUCK TOMORROW at the Sundance Film Festival. A Caucasian man complimented the film, but questioned it's negative portrayals of Asian Americans. Ebert defiantly yelled across the theater in the Q & A, "What I find very offensive and condescending about your comment is that nobody would say to a bunch of white filmmakers, 'How could you do this to your people?' This film has the right to be. And be whatever the hell they want the characters to be." That is who he and he didn't give a damn what your color was. His partner in crime, Gene Siskel would sadly leave us in 1999 due to a brain tumor. After his death, Roger would have others fill in for Gene, but he would never find that same healthy debate. Gene made Roger good and Roger made Gene good. It was like any classic battles, Russell and Chamberlain on the court, Brady and Manning on the field, Steve Harvey and tasteful clothes in public. But with Gene’s death, Roger’s sun would shine brighter as a critic. And as the years progressed and film critics speaking at length with the filmmakers regressed into five minutes at press junkets, Roger stayed true to the form. Roger said, “I’m glad I don’t live in Los Angeles. I wouldn’t want relationships with the filmmakers, because it makes it hard to review their films.” Roger would be stricken with cancer in the last few years. He would literally lose his voice and some of his jaw but it did not slow him down. His voice became even louder, via his website and Twitter account, as he was still reviewing over three hundred movies a year. As evidenced by the reaction and outpouring to his death, he will be missed and remembered. I toast you Roger Ebert for seeing black films as just films with black people and being one half of ground zero of film debate. Now Follow Me! Follow Me to Freedom!