It's Been a Little While.....

It's been a little while but there are a couple if things that I would like to get off my chest.

1. This came up completely out of the blue, but apparently JImmy Kimmel is teaming up with Norman Lear to produce a one off special recreating episodes of All in the Family and The Jeffersons. With an all star cast that includes Woody Harrelson, Marisa Tomei, and Jamie Foxx amongst others. I don't know what to feel about this. On one hand, why go to the trouble of recreating episodes? Why not just show the old ones? (I know, I know, MILLENIALS SCARED OF LOW DEF!) IN addition to that, I know that the Brits tried this a few years ago and it didn't work ( the one I quickly looked at was Are You Being Served? and it was ghastly). On the other hand, Norman Lear is involved so obviously it raises the bar of the quality of this production.

One thing I beg of Kimmel and Lear. No Trump jokes. After all, Donald Trump wasn't even in the public consciousness when these classic shows aired. Now they could skip around that point by alluding to Nixon, who clearly was around and doing some of the same things Trump has been claimed to have done (Thanks Mueller Report!). Either way. I'm sure they are going to get a shot in somehow, but how they do it needs to be handled with the class that these shows entail. I wish them good luck in their endeavor.

2. Random one I had just now, but did you know that Star Wars is older than the last time France used the guillotine to execute someone? France last used the guillotine in September 1977, a few months after Star Wars came out. Huh

3. I'm still annoyed that the Mister Rogers documentary wasn't nominated for an Oscar. I understand that the creator, Morgan Neville, won the Oscar the year prior, but still? Nominations should go to the best candidates. And I think that that film, while basic in style, was very effective and powerful in telling its story. But I think Tom Hanks, playing Fred Rogers later this year in a film, will nab and Oscar nom in a way of repentance (and the fact that he is an incredible actor).

4. A ton of injuries happening in baseball (which the Yankees seem to be the victim of the most) and we keep hearing how trained these athletes are  and how brittle they are. There has to be a way to be strong and flexible at the same time. A long time ago, baseball players were not creatures of muscle. They were skinny guys, fat guys etc. But they were limber and pitched and hit without giving full effort all of the time (most of them anyway). In that way, they were able to last longer in their careers and suffered fewer injuries. In addition to this, because of free agency, players don't have to take second jobs like they used to and spend the time lifting weights now. Whatever it is, a balance has to be made, otherwise we are going to see a lot more of the Michael Conforto (2 years ago) and Aaron Judge (today) like injuries.

Rutbreaker: The Title Sequence of "Working Girl"

 As usual with my random searches and delvings into the endless pit of who knows; I do not how how I landed on this particular thing. But I am glad that I did. I had a passing knowledge of the 1988 movie Working Girl, Melanie Griffith played a secretary in New York and the title song "Let the River Run" won an Oscar and it was composed by Carly Simon.

I will add to that list that it has one of the best opening title sequences for a movie that I have ever seen in my life. Without further adieu, here it is; the opening of Working Girl:

My God. It's wonderful. And I will tell you why it's wonderful:

1. The song "Let the River Run" won the Oscar and a single was released with Carly Simon singing the main vocal. The song doesn't work that way. It works better with a chorus of voices, especially since I believe it was meant to be a kind of jungle spiritual, with New York as the jungle. The version in the opening is perfect and exact.

2. Look at the actual camerawork. It's one continuous shot around the Statue of Liberty and to the Staten Island Ferry to come up alongside it.  I'm sure that with a steady-cam, which probably existed by the last 80s, you could do this from a chopper or small plane. Nowadays, people might not bother and just use CGI for it. It is a brilliant piece of camerawork, and should be remembered alongside other great like sequences in film history (the restaurant entrance scene in Goodfellas comes to mind).

3. Looking in comments underneath the title sequence, it seems to hearken back to a more meaningful time not only for the city but for the country. Unfortunately, you can see a big difference when the camera comes up on the ferry and you see the Twin Towers, in their commercial glory. The 80s in New York were documented in other movies such as Wall Street and they illustrated the dark points of the city. This sequence seems to show it as a magnificent palace, where the impossible can and will happen. So it worked on many different levels, not just being a pretty image, but also at the psychological level.

This title sequence does everything that you need a title sequence to do and it does it in a simple elegant matter. Very impressive and definitely worth remembering

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