What Was Really Waiting For Martin Balsam at the Top of the Stairs

Jeff's Jukebox: C-3

C-3: "Ode to Billie Joe," Bobbie Gentry

About as far from European synth-pop as you can possibly get. A southern gothic mystery novel, within the grooves of a 4:15 single.

The Last Favre Post

Well, I'm going to take the advice of the fan who I managed to offend with my Brett Favre posts, put my "money and my mouth in sink," and make this the last Favre-related post until he does something worth writing about when the season begins.

I'll just close by noting that Favre will be moving from the team with the most forgiving fans in the league, to the team (certainly the city) with perhaps the least forgiving fans in the league.

It will be interesting.

Exclusive Footage From the Favre Bidding War!

The bidding begins roughly 2:50 into the video. Before that, Favre can be seen making his case to the brain trusts of the Packers, Buccaneers, and Jets.



Man, I take back what I said before. This is some exciting sh*t!

The 4th Sign of the Apocalypse

SI.Com has set up the Favre Tracker.

UPDATE: At 1:49 p.m. EDST, Favre entered Illinois airspace.

That is, if he was on the plane in question.

If not, then he didn't.

Stay tuned for further updates!

Plugging Elvis

No, not "de Elvis Presley," as Andy Kaufman used to say. I'm talking about Elvis Mitchell, the film critic who in July hosted his own interview program, Under the Influence, on Turner Classic Movies.

The premise of the program is simple. Mitchell talks to prominent film folk - stars from in front and behind the camera - about those from the past who influenced their work. From all appearances, Mitchell has an encyclopedic knowledge of film history, as well as a fine-tuned appreciation for what makes great films work.

Mitchell's subjects for the initial set of 30-minute interviews were the late Syndey Pollack, Bill Murray, Laurence Fishburne, and Quentin Tarantino. In each, Mitchell was easily able to get them to open up, to the point where I'm sure the interviews could have gone on for another 30 minutes without losing steam. Pollack did a great job of explaining how his acting experience informed his work behind the camera, Fishburne was positively eloquent about how he learned from the things that Clark Gable did on screen that had nothing to do with dialogue, and Quentin Tarantino was like a hyped-up kid after eating too much candy on Halloween. Great stuff, and without the fawning that has turned James Lipton into a caricature of himself.

The bad news is that the show does not return until November (with subjects Joan Allen, Richard Gere, John Leguizamo, and Edward Norton). The good news is that if you have Comcast Cable, it is still running in the On Demand feature. Check it out; you won't be disappointed.

The official Under the Influence site is here.

An interview with Elvis about the show can be found here.

Yum.

National Night Out

Favre Watch

In this photo taken today, we see Brett Favre taking the remaining shreds of his honor and character out to the trash.

Stay tuned for further updates!

Robert Crais: "Chasing Darkness"

When considering Robert Crais, it’s easy to find the turning point where a reader can classify his books as “before and after.” That turning point is “L.A. Requiem,” which stands along with James Ellroy’s “L.A. Confidential” as the modern masterpiece of detective fiction. Crais wrote seven novels before “L.A. Requiem” and he’s written seven novels since, and even though he’s never written a bad one, it’s not likely that he’ll ever top “Requiem.” It’s that good.

The books preceding “L.A. Requiem” all featured Elvis Cole, a wise-cracking, Hawaiian shirt-wearing Vietnam Veteran, and his mysterious partner Joe Pike, a man of visceral force but one of few words. Pike played the perfect counterpart to the smart-aleck Cole – his wardrobe rarely deviating from his preferred t-shirt with the arms cut off and jeans, rarely talking, his eyes always hidden behind the reflector sunglasses that never leave his face. Cole, on the other hand, took the sarcastic and sardonic tendencies of Spade, Marlowe and Archer to their logical extreme, never missing an opportunity to make light of the situation, however dire, but leaving the reader always aware of a vulnerable side buried deep within.

“L.A. Requiem” stood above the books which came before it through the depth and gravitas that Crais added to both characters, particularly Pike. Through a series of flashbacks, the story of how a scared, young boy became Joe Pike is told, and that story drives the narrative of the novel, where much more is at stake than in the past - for the first time both Cole and Pike seem to be in over their heads, grappling with a case that threatens to take away everything they care about – up to and including their own lives.

After "L.A. Requiem," it’s almost as if Crais knew that he needed to take a breather from Cole and Pike. The next two books were stand-alone stories, one (“Demolition Angel”) featuring Carol Starkey, a chain-smoking member of the bomb squad who never quite came to terms with the fact that she was killed (and brought back to life, needless to say) by the bomb which killed her partner. Starkey has returned to play a supporting role in several Crais novels. The second stand-alone, “Hostage,” was turned into a movie with Bruce Willis, and it reads as if it was written to become the basis for an action movie (I don’t mean that as an insult).

Cole and Pike returned in three of Crais’ next four novels – “The Last Detective,” “The Forgotten Man,” and “The Watchman” (the latter which turned the tables by featuring Pike in the lead, with Cole playing second banana). All three were outstanding, and all dealt in one way or another with the ramifications of the events of “L.A. Requiem.” Perhaps sensing that it would be folly to try, none surpassed “Requiem” in terms of quality, but all carried within them a sense that things were now different. There is less joking from Cole, each case seems to have more is at stake, particularly on a personal level, and each man better understands than before his own mortality.

All of which brings us to Crais’ latest novel, “Chasing Darkness.” The book's premise is not original – in fact, it is strikingly similar to Michael Connelly’s 2006 novel, “Echo Park.” In that book, Harry Bosch must deal with a presumed mistake that he made years before that resulted in a serial killer remaining free to kill for years to come. In “Chasing Darkness,” Elvis Cole is confronted early on with the accusation that he made a mistake in a case three years ago, and because of that mistake a killer was set free and went on to claim two more victims. Cole knows that what he learned about the accused three years ago proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the man could not have been the killer, but now he must prove it all over again, not only to himself but to the family of the most recent victim.

As with the two most recent Cole books, the story no longer is about brave Elvis coming to the rescue of someone in distress. Now, his own character is at stake, and unlike the pre-“Requiem” books, there now is always a sense of doubt that things are going to turn out alright in the end. Pike is there to help, as is Carol Starkey, but until the very end the reader remains uncertain whether this will be a triumph that Elvis can truly celebrate. While I’d hesitate to classify it in the same category as Crais’ masterpiece, I do think - despite the lack of originality - that it is his best book since then. And for fans of the genre, that should be more than enough.

Great Olympic Moments - The 1976 U.S. Boxing Team

For more than a dozen years running when I was growing up, my family would spend the last week of July at a cabin in South Lake Tahoe, swimming in the frigid lake every day (sometimes twice – once in the morning, and once in the afternoon), playing miniature golf, taking walks, and getting bored in the evenings while the adults would go down to Harvey’s or Harrah’s to gamble. We always brought a little TV, even though the reception was lousy, for those evenings with grandma.

Our trip in 1976 coincided with the final week of the 1976 Olympiad in Montreal, which meant that we were doing a lot of squinting during those evenings to try and figure out exactly what we were seeing. I think we put the TV in about 20 different positions, trying to find the spot that was best. We finally landed on the middle of the dinner table, which wasn’t very convenient for dinner, but worked well once the dishes were cleared (it was a small cabin).

My lasting memory of that Olympiad is the final night of boxing – July 31, 1976. That year, the U.S. had what was almost certainly the strongest boxing team it had ever put into the ring. But entering the games, one had to wonder whether even that was enough. The Cuban team had come seemingly out of nowhere at the 1972 Olympics – led by heavyweight Teofilo Stevenson (the mind still reels at what might have been had Castro allowed Stevenson to fight Ali, Foreman or Frazier – he was that good), they would dominate Olympic boxing for close to two decades.

But in 1976, it was the Americans’ turn. I remember watching each bout in succession, with my dad getting more excited with each one, and Howard Cosell about coming out of his chair with glee – although Howard prided himself on his objectivity, when it came down to this night, he clearly wanted the American men to walk out with the gold. And that night, five of them did:

• Leo Randolph, Flyweight
• Howard Davis, Lightweight
• Sugar Ray Leonard, Light Welterweight
• Michael Spinks, Middleweight
• Leon Spinks, Light Heavyweight

All five would go on to fight for a world championshp, and four would win one. Sugar Ray Leonard, the best of the bunch, would go on to become one of the greatest boxers in the history of the sport.

This clip shows Leonard’s winning bout, as called by Howard Cosell and George Foreman. Cosell is typically great (as he always was with boxing), but the real revelation here is Foreman. Even at such a young age, he clearly knew what he was talking about as a commentator, and expressed it well.

Twilight

Sites Along The Trail

A goodly portion of Elk Grove, California can best be described as suburban sprawl at its worst. I've lived here since 1989, and fought the good fight for planned, logical development in the early 1990s as a member of the Franklin-Laguna Area Community Planning Advisory Council. I spent a lot of evenings in those days in vain efforts testifying before the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors and the County Planning Commission - suffice to say we ended up on the short end of a lot of votes on proposals for yet more housing at the expense of just about everything else.

Elk Grove voted to incorporate in 2000, and while one would have thought things were going to get better on the planning front, in fact they got worse. To call the originally elected City Council a disaster would be the understatement of the 21st Century; they were (and are - three of them still sit on the Council, though I hope that changes for at least two of them in November) well-meaning people who failed miserably in their efforts (and I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt in assuming that they tried) to control growth in Elk Grove. And now it is too late; the die is cast and the city is left with playing the hand that it dealt itself. And it's not a good one.

Which is not to say that there are not nice areas in Elk Grove. There are; and by and large it remains a nice place to live. And even within the confines of suburbia, it is possible to find and enjoy a little slice of open space and wilderness. The best example of that may be the Laguna Creek Trail, which son #2 and I biked this morning.

The first shot above is of Laguna Creek, near the eastern-most portion of the trail.

The second shot shows where the trail goes under the train trestle; our timing was good today and we just happened to go beneath the trestle when the 12:00 Noon Amtrak went whizzing by.

The third picture is where the Creek reaches its end, into a pond which serves as home to ducks, geese, egrets, rabbits, turtles, and a host of other wildlife.

And finally, we conclude with another shot of the railroad trestle, from the opposite side.

And it is all within the city boundaries.

Jeff's Jukebox: C-2

C-2: "Dance Hall Days," Wang Chung

The last European synth-pop for a while, I promise. I'm guessing a lot of people make fun of this band, but hey - this is a great song. They also did a great job with the soundtrack for To Live and Die in L.A.

Cat on a Sunday Afternoon

The Dark Knight

(Mild spoiler alert – as if anyone who wanted to see the movie hasn’t already seen it)

Batman and I go back a long, long way. My first introduction to him was the Adam West/Burt Ward television series, and I was young and dumb enough not to know that they were playing it for camp. I really thought Batman was in peril at the end of the first part of all those two-parters, and would rejoice when a few “POW” and “WHAP” fights would set the universe back on its course and return Gotham City to a period of relative peace. Until the next bad guy/gal came along.

In those days, I was also a collector of Batman trading cards. They were sold in bubble gum packs, just like Topps baseball cards, and each card depicted a piece of a story – a typical story would be comprised of several dozen cards, so you had to buy a lot of lousy gum to get the complete set. But each card was like a little storyboard, and since there were usually two or three stories going on at any given time, you could set all of your cards in front of you, put them in a particular order, and create your own little stories. That was usually more fun than just going along with the story that they had written for you.

Batman’s image as haunted dark knight of vengeance was rehabilitated a bit in the 1970s, thanks primarily to Dennis O’Neill, a talented writer for DC Comics who also spent some time during that decade reinvigorating DC’s other top franchise, Superman. O’Neill doesn’t get as much ink as some of the other great comic writers that came after him, but he deserves a lot of credit for setting both characters down a path that would ultimately result in series of films which have made billions of dollars.

What really pushed Batman back into the zeitgeist was The Dark Knight Returns, the 1986 four-part graphic novel by Frank Miller which set new standards for the darkness and violence surrounding the character, while maintaining Batman’s humanity through his discovery and nurturing of a new Robin character (this time, a young girl). After Dark Knight, the number of Batman books exploded, and it was a veritable feast for those who had longed for his return to the spotlight. Alan Moore, author of Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and other famous books, contributed a story that was one of the best, The Killing Joke – featuring, of course, Batman’s best foil, The Joker.

I don’t want to spend a lot of time talking about the Batman franchise of movies which began in 1989. They haven’t aged particularly well, though there are great moments in each, with the exception of Batman and Robin, the abomination which featured what were probably the worst performances ever from George Clooney, Uma Thurman, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The first two movies were pretty good, though after years of reflection they were probably less about Batman than they were about Tim Burton - a talented director who has made great movies but was probably a bad choice for Batman. Michael Keaton was good, Jack Nicholson less so as Joker, and the rest was hit-and-miss.

At the time of its release, Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins was the best Batman movie ever made. It took the character seriously, and established a strong back-story for what was to come. But even that movie could not possibly have prepared Batman fans for what was to come.

Which brings us to the second entry in the Christopher Nolan Batman franchise, The Dark Knight. As anyone with access to a newspaper or the Internet knows, the movie has been enormously popular, has generated critical raves, and has inspired an enormous amount of debate, both good-natured and otherwise.

What do I think?

To say that The Dark Knight is the best Batman film ever made is to state the obvious. Even saying that it is the best comic-book movie ever made doesn’t do it justice. As far as I’m concerned, The Dark Knight merits consideration as one of the greatest movies made in my lifetime. True, I was prepared to love the movie, but even I was surprised at how captivated I was throughout. It is the first time since Moulin Rouge, and before that Pulp Fiction, where I felt completely immersed in a movie, where what was happening on the screen pushed out all other thoughts and considerations from my mind. It is the movie that the character has always deserved, and it is the movie by which all others based on comic books that follow it will be judged.

“Sometimes, truth isn't good enough, sometimes people deserve more. Sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded.”

Make no bones about it, this is a dark, dark movie. It is a troubling movie. It is not a movie with a lot of laughs in it, aside from the nervous ones that follow a scene where you’re just happy that things didn’t turn out quite as badly as they might have. This is not a movie for anyone under the age of 10, and perhaps even older than that. As did Batman Begins, The Dark Knight takes seriously the world that we live in, and the darkness which fuels the actions of the Batman. It presents moral choices and moral dilemmas – suggesting at one point that blind vengeance may be the only solution to the problems ailing Gotham City (standing in for the world), and later that blind vengeance only results in the very things that the vengeance-driven actions of the Batman are designed to rid the city of. It explores the concept of heroism, and what constitutes a hero. The conclusion that the film reaches – that Batman can only be effective if he is not held up as a public hero – fuels the tragic nature of the character. There is no place for love and gratitude in the world of the Batman.

“You crossed the line first, sir. You squeezed them, you hammered them to the point of desperation. And in their desperation they turned to a man they didn't fully understand.”

The performances are stellar. Maggie Gyllenhaal is an enormous improvement over Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes, the would-be love of Bruce Wayne’s life. Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman are predictably great. Gary Oldman has been criticized for mumbling through the role of Commissioner Gordon, but I don’t agree – his understated performance is what establishes Gordon as the moral center of Gotham City, in quiet contrast to the confidence and bluster of Harvey Dent, perfectly portrayed by Aaron Eckhart.

“I took Gotham's white knight, and brought him down to our level. It wasn't hard. Y'see, madness, as you know, is like gravity. All it takes is a little...push.”

But the film boils down to Christian Bale and Heath Ledger. Bale is the perfect Batman, easily surpassing those who preceded him in the role (only Michael Keaton came close). But even Bale’s performance is eclipsed by the performance of Heath Ledger as the Joker. You can count me as one of those who was skeptical when it was announced that Ledger had been tabbed to play the Joker. But Ledger is magnificent. Every move he makes on the screen, every word that comes out of his mouth, is harrowing and terrifying. It is a performance for the ages, and a fitting testament to a career cut tragically short.

“Do I really look like a man with a plan, Harvey? I don't have a plan. The mob has plans, the cops have plans. You know what I am, Harvey? I'm a dog chasing cars. I wouldn't know what to do if I caught one. I just *do* things. I'm a wrench in the gears. I *hate* plans. Yours, theirs, everyone's.”

I don’t know if Nolan plans to continue on with the franchise, but it is hard to imagine how he will ever top The Dark Knight. I’ll be happy if he manages to come close.

“...and so we'll hunt him, because he can take it.”