I’m in Baltimore for the first time, and I’m not sure what to make of it — maybe one part Philly, one part Vancouver, and one part the south Bronx Harlem-is-burning of my youth. They take their baseball seriously in beautiful Camden Yards (the Orioles beat the Astros in three straight games, missed out on the bobble head day), and their mayor is being investigated for corruption. The word BELIEVE is around the city, not realizing that it wasn’t Obama viral marketing, but an attempt to reframe the war against drug dealers.
Will have to find crab cakes – I hear the ones in Lexington Market are the best. Also will have to spend some time checking out Edgar Allen Poe’s gravesite, which happens to be around the block from UMB Law School.
Sunday: I thought the Tony Awards show was interesting, but not that much fun. The ending was kind of rushed (as usually the case with awards shows) and there were too many samplings from the Disney musicals (I could do without those, even though I do understand that they have them for the purposes of trying to entice people to come see Broadway fare). Whoopi Goldberg’s skits were a little silly, but were again probably to entice people to come see Broadway fare. Not enough on the plays – would have liked some samplings of those.
But, I really enjoyed the samplings from “Sunday in the Park With George” and “South Pacific” (the stars were quite hot…), and enjoyed the enthusiasm of the new stuff “In the Heights” and “Passing Strange.” I also thought the “Rent” reunion was also poignant.
The sad and strange firing of NY Mets manager Willie Randolph. I’ll grant that firing Willie Randolph as Mets manager may have been warranted; but it was the way that it was done that was terrible. 3am EST in California, after the Mets won a game? Ridiculous! NY Times’ William Rhoden notes that as bizarre and humiliating as it was, it wasn’t a surprising firing and it’s a resolution and now time to play ball. Newsday’s Barbara Barker notes that, whether we like Willie Randolph or not, it was how the firing was done. I kind of wonder if firing someone’s like a band aid – it may be painful, but you just got to do it. Being indecisive about it doesn’t make anyone look good.
Big Bird!!! (or at least a fascinating video profile on how Carol Spinney’s been doing Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch all these years and counting — watch the end, where Carol Spinney, rehearsing a Sesame Street scene, waves to the Associated Press camera and says in the Big Bird voice “Bye, bye, everybody. Don’t watch Barney…” LOL! .. oh, and the text version of the profile‘s also interesting, but the video’s priceless.
On a sadder note: the passing of Cyd Charisse, known for her dancing on the MGM movies. I always loved this quote of hers, on how her husband knew who she was dancing with in a filming: “‘If I was black and blue,’ she said, ‘it was Gene [Kelly]. And if it was Fred [Astaire], I didn’t have a scratch.'” Watch those dance moves she had with Gene Kelly – wow, that was stunning stuff (not knocking Astaire, but I love Kelly). How sad that they’re now all gone.
The Friday Battlestar Galactica half-season cliffhanger was fantastic, but the promise of the final five being revealed did not exactly happen, at lease not as it was being teased at the beginning of each episode. And they find Earth!!! But they have 10 more episodes in season 4.5, so there are plenty of loose ends to tie up. And how the hell did Brooklyn got nuked!!! The remains of the temple of Aurora seems to be sitting right where the Fulton Ferry is now.
You know when things are old when the oldies station plays the greatest of the 80’s, 90’s and today. By that token, The TWIT Daily Giz Wiz podcast, which specializes in showing old gadgets, whips out the Palm Pilot (which is circa 1997 tech!). I fondly remember that. InsideDGW has a recap.
