Southern Bookman

Covid-19 surge makes college football season unlikely

College football this autumn looks increasingly doubtful.

The Big 10 announced Thursday that only conference games will be played, and the Ivy League scrapped its season. Big 10 Commissioner Kevin Warren admitted that football is endangered.

Other power conferences are expected to follow the Big 10, which left open the possibility of canceling its entire season.

The benefits of the Big 10's move are puzzling. Within the conference, teams still have to make long road trips, increasing their risk of Covid-19 exposure. Ohio St. now won't travel to Eugene to play Oregon, but will go to East Lansing, Mich., Champaign, Ill., and State College, Pa.

All of the major conferences span huge geographical areas. If the aim is to protect players' health, rather than save money, a national rush to inter-conference play won't reduce the travel danger.

For example, an ACC move to inter-league play would scrap Georgia Tech's annual game with Georgia, 80 miles away. But the Yellow Jackets would still take long trips to play ACC foes Pittsburgh and Syracuse.

If the major conferences follow the Big 10, athletes and coaches will still risk their health traveling long distances.

With the Covid-19 pandemic worsening, the college football season should be postponed, as the Ivy League has done.

 

 

 

"Hamilton" close up

We found ourselves by good fortune watching "Hamilton" streaming on the Disney + channel on Independence Day.

The "Hamilton" film shows the orignal cast in an edited version of three live performances of the musical recorded in June 2016. We'd seen the production at New York's Richard Rodgers Theater at about that time, so it was thrilling to see close-up stage views of what we'd witnessed from distant seats.

For the first time, we saw the show's creator Lin-Manuel Miranda playing Alexander Hamilton; he'd been ably replaced by understudy Jon Rua for our performance, with the rest of the cast present.

While Miranda's acting is superb, his singing falls short of the other cast members. But the emotional depths he reaches overcomes the deficiencies of his voice.

Miranda's music is amazing, especially his ability to translate complex historical material into jaunty song lyrics. I'd forgotten that the play's narrative is almost totally conveyed by songs. The frequent rap numbers take the place of spoken dialogue, but many of the pop-oriented songs also progress the story, reminiscent of Rodgers' own "Oklahoma."

As New Yorker writer Lauren Michele Jackson pointed out, "Hamilton" succeeds as a musical, with even politically oriented songs like "In the Room Where It Happened" and "It Must Be Nice to Have Washington on Your Side" as infectious as pop romantic ballads.

The love song "Helpless" recalls the confections of 1960s girl groups, and Jonathan Goff's "You'll Be Back" sounds like a 1950s hit from Dion or Neil Sedaka.

Andy Blankenbuehler's choreography blends with the show, with an admirable absence of ostentation.

Seeing the faces of  the dynamic performers Leslie Odom Jr., Daveed Diggs, Christopher Jackson, Phillip Soo, Renee Elise Goldsberry and Okieriete "Oak" Onaodowan was overpowering.

The closeup camera revealed the inner workings of stagecraft, yet the theatrical magic remained.

 

 

 

Farewell, Carl Reiner

Carl Reiner was a major purveyor of the comforting, self-congratulatory comedy that TV imposed on the American public in the 1960s.

Reiner, who died Monday at age 98 of natural causes, was best known for "The Dick Van Dyke Show," a fantasy about the American suburban family without real problems or threats, safe from the American empire's turbulence.

Writing for and performing on Sid Caesar's "Show of Shows," Reiner learned his craft in the wide-open early days of TV, which gave viewers serious drama and wild, outlandish comedy. Judged too subversive for network advertisers, Caesar was banished after a few years.

Reiner with "The Dick Van Dyke Show" turned Caesar's volatile, madcap show into a bland, consoling version of television land. "The Dick Van Dyke Show," as with Danny Thomas' and Desi and Lucy's shows, presented the TV world as a wacky, but benign haven of middle-class values. TV comics and their families were presented as everyday Americans.

Growing up, I was comforted by "The Dick Van Dyke Show," seeing it as a perfected mirror image of my own upper-middle-class family. Dick Van Dyke's Rob Petrie was a bumbling, non-threatening TV Dad.

Like millions of other adolescent boys, I fell in love with Mary Tyler Moore's winsome, daffy Laura. As with Elizabeth Montgomery's Samantha on "Bewitched," Laura was the beautiful Mom whom we longed to rescue from their idiotic husbands.

As the '60s progressed, network TV would open up briefly to more challenging humor before clamping down again. The "Smothers Brothers" gave us a glimpse of a wider, hipper world with appearances by George Carlin and Richard Pryor before the networks outlawed them from prime time.

Later, I discovered Lennie Bruce, the Beats, James Baldwin, Frank Zappa, the Fugs and others in revolt against the American hegemony represented by the Petries. Reiner's brand of middle-American humor fell flat.

The perfect straight man, Reiner was one of the familiar faces of TV, one of those comics whom we couldn't escape. As a producer and writer, he gave us a vision of America whose laugh track never stopped.

 

 

 

Discovering "Law and Order"

I never watched the old "Law and Order" show when it ran for 20 years on network TV.

But now I'm hooked on the police/trial procedural, whose episodes run in a continuous loop Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Sundays on the We TV channel, which offers vintage crime serials and trashy pop-culture productions.

"Law and Order," like "Naked City" before it, is known for actors who appear in unexpected roles before they gained fame.

Recently, I've seen a selection of eventual "Sopranos" cast members: Michael Imperioli, Dominic Chianese, John Ventimiglia, Vincent Pastore, Edie Falco and Burt Young. I've been hoping for James Gandolfini to show up, but he never appeared on "Law and Order." Nor did Tony Sirico, who played "Paulie Walnuts."

Eventual "Gilmore Girls" star Lauren Graham appeared in fetching mini-skirt suits during a three-episode saga in which she played a striving Hollywood insider smitten with detective Ray Curtis, played by Benjamin Bratt. A young Ron Cephas Jones, memorable as Randall Pearson's biological father in "This Is Us," has played roles in several episodes.

Already well-known stars also appear. I was so excited to see Elaine Stritch as a defense attorney that I had to watch the midnight episode rather than going to bed.

The rotating cast of cops and district attorneys allows fans to divide the show into different eras. Before the long reign of Sam Waterson as the driven prosecutor Jack McCoy, Michael Moriarty held the chair as Benjamin Stone. Chris Noth stood out as detective Mike Logan, but Jesse Green and Bratt also deliver strong performances. S. Epatha Merkerson gives subtle personality shadings to her role as police supervisor Anita Van Buren.

Following Steven Hill's years as the cryptic D.A. Adam Schiff, Diane Wiest comes in, raising one of the show's many cross-references. Waterson and Wiest portrayed an ill-fated couple in Woody Allen's "Hannah and Her Sisters."

And then there are  the savvy and beautiful young assistant district attorneys:. Jill Hennessey, Amy Harmon, Carey Lowell, Alana de La Graza. Their professional competence always comes with a dark side.

As with Gandolfini in "The Sopranos," the show's biggest draw is Jerry Orbach as Lenny Briscoe, the street-hardened detective with a heart of gold. Orbach's cynical wisecracks contrast with his compassion for crime victims, devotion to his different partners and worldly wisdom. A Broadway star who originated the show-stopping  number "Try to Remember" in "The Fantasticks," Orbach brings an enigmatic dimension to the role.

Briscoe's like King Lear turned New York City detective, a poignance heightened by the realization that Orbach battled prostate cancer for years doing the show.

I wish show creator Dick Wolf could have found a way for Stritch and Orbach to do a musical duet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Full bookshelves on coronavirus TV broadcasts

Book-lined rooms have been a staple of at-home TV broadcasts during the coronavirus shutdown.

Network correspondents, medical experts and pundits frequently stand before shelves crammed with books.

A few volumes stand out. Ron Chernow's biographies of U.S. Grant and Alexander Hamilton, which inspired Lynn Manuel Miranda's megahit musical "Hamilton," often appear. The other day, I noticed Oxford scholar Mary Beard's history of the Roman Empire, "SPQR." These days do feel like 476.

The home libraries indicate that Washington-New York-Boston media figures make up the bulk of U.S. book sales, with Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle thrown in.

While some wealthy people are known for displaying books as symbols of success without ever reading them, the TV commentators probably are true readers. Along with books, they likely peruse a range of newspapers and magazines.

Or maybe not. "Rooms Do Furnish a Room," as a volume of Anthony Powell's "A Dance to the Music of Time" proclaims.

As a lifelong book collector, I enjoy trying to see what books the TV folks have on their shelves. Their tastes seem to run to popular political books, histories and biographies, with little fiction or poetry.

I sometimes think of selling or giving away my books, but then I rediscover treasures like a rare first edition of Joseph Mitchell's 1938 collection "My Ears Are Bent," which I bought for $350 at the old Gotham Book Mart on West 47th Street in New York City. At the same time, I also purchased a collection by the old New York sportswriter Jimmy Cannon.

Looking through my books, I recall the times when I read them. They are the pages of my life.

 

College football's return unsettled

The return of college football next fall looks more and more doubtful.

NCAA President Mark Emmert recently said that football won't be played if students don't return to campus. Football "student athletes" wouldn't have even rudimentary classes to attend.

But he seemed to leave loopholes for big-time powers coming back. Would players be able to return to practice by taking online classes?

The Cal State University system announced this week that its campuses will remain closed, and classes will be given online only, with a few exceptions such as biology labs. The system said that sports will be halted without students on campus.

Three Cal State schools: Fresno State, San Jose State and San Diego State, play Division I football in the Mountain West Conference, which has said that resuming play depends upon students returning to school. Fresno State said agricultural classes in the field might be sufficient for football to kick off.

The big question is whether the SEC, ACC, Big 10, Pac-12 and Big 12 find some way to play games, even without students in classrooms. If so, football powerhouses would have even less justification for claiming their main purpose is education, rather than big-time sports. The University of California System, with Pac-12 heavyweights Cal-Berkeley and UCLA, will announce reopening plans this week..

Even if the big schools play, they are unlikely to do so before fans packing stadiums. Bands and cheerleaders probably won't be there either.

The college season might be halted abruptly if even one player tests positive for Covid-19. With cramped locker-rooms, the virus could spread through an entire team.

Football writers reported that the season might be delayed until spring 2021. So much for track, softball and baseball. Would football begin after March Madness and the Final Four, if they come back? Imagine the Rose Bowl on Independence Day.

Some pointed out that moving football to spring would disrupt players' NFL prospects. My god, the NFL draft might even be endangered.

Even before the coronavirus, football powers were fighting declining interest among students, especially when playing weaker opponents. Kids prefer drinking in the Frat House and watching on TV as Big State U hangs 60 on some hapless school no one had ever heard of before.

As the college football season appears increasingly doubtful, the NFL seems hellbent on playing, even before empty seats. The NBA is moving toward resuming play, with Florida and Arizona announcing they would host games.

If Major League baseball, the NBA, college football and the NHL remain sidelined, the already dominant NFL could be the nation's only game. But will players agree to return and risk infection?

Meanwhile, the PGA is rushing to return to action, without fans. Now players who miss the fairway won't have to worry about hitting spectators or moving back the crowd to hit a shot around a tree.

As South Korean baseball grows popular among deprived fans, MLB keeps pushing nutty schemes to resume play. But players fear MLB is using its reopening plans to impose a salary cap like other leagues have. For now, shouts of "play ball" remain dubious.

If sports are lost this fall, gamblers will resort to placing bets on when the leaves turn color.

 

 

Yes, Jake, I still love "Chinatown" despite flaws

Eager to watch "Chinatown" again after reading Sam Wasson's book about the movie, I was delighted to find the film on the "Starz" cable channel.

"Chinatown," directed by Roman Polanski, produced by Paramount savant Robert Evans and starring supernovas Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway, is considered one of the masterpieces of the "New Hollywood" era of the early 1970s, although it wasn't initially that much of a box-office hit.

Wasson's theme is that "Chinatown" marked the end of the self-indulgent era of auteurs like Evans and Polanski taking control from the studios. Here's the link to my review of Wasson's book.

Conceived by noted screenwriter Robert Towne, the movie evokes Hollywood's film-noir era and Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe novels set in the gritty Los Angeles of the 1930s. Nicholson's performance as the rambunctious detective Jake Gittes is one of his defining roles.

Although I savored my inside knowledge from reading Wasson's "The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood," I was somewhat disappointed by the film.

The first section, with its muddled depiction of the Los Angeles water scheme that Gittes uncovers, lacked the taut suspense that I remembered. Flaws in the script I hadn't noticed before turned into major distractions.

Towne received sole credit for the script, winning an Academy Award, but Wasson discovered that Towne's friend Edward Taylor was an uncredited co-author.

Wasson details Polanski's significant changes to the unwieldy script during filming, which explains the movie's incoherence and contrived plot shifts. I was also surprised at how much of the dialogue falls flat. Gittes' intended persona as a savvy detective is belied by his botched maneuvers that bring the tragic ending.

Nicholson and Dunaway again scorched the screen as Gittes and the sultry heiress Evelyn Mulwray. Their love scene when Mulwray explains to Gittes "the flaw in the iris," a birthmark at the corner of her eye, stands among the magic moments of film history.

I winced at the "my sister, my daughter" scene, knowing from Wasson that NIcholson really slapped Dunaway hard during multiple takes.

Performances in minor roles stand out: Burt Young as the cuckholded husband who plays a crucial role in the violent finale Polanski insisted upon; Diane Ladd, Laura Dern's mother, as the client who deceives Gittes; Perry Lopez as the limited police detective Lou Escobar; James Wong, as Mrs. Mulwray's circumspect butler; Nandu Hines in her only movie role as Gittes' pert and efficient secretary; and Joe Mantell as Gittes' assistant Walsh, who delivers the famous last line, "Forget It Jake, It's Chinatown." And what about Jerry Fujikawa as the Japanese gardener?

Wasson gives a lot of attention to Richard Sylbert's production design and his then-wife Anthea's costume design.

Richard Sylbert 's 1930s buildings, gorgeous cars from the era and interior furnishings give "Chinatown" a gauzy, film-noir atmosphere.

Anthea brings back the era's every-day glamour with the men's suits and fedoras, which they wear even in the most hazardous situations, and women's elegant dresses. Dunaway's outfits, including a Katharine Hepburnish pants suit and pillbox hat with veil, define the character's wealth and vulnerability.

Another high point: Jerry Goldsmith's musical score, delivered in a few days as an emergency replacement after the film was finished, as Wasson relates.

Veteran movie-industry trumpet player Uan Rasey, unmentioned by Wasson, delivers the captivating solo.

In the end, the revealed flaws didn’t matter. “Chinatown” still haunted me. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Laurie Garrett's reporting a valuable antidote to coronavirus misinformation

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Laurie Garrett has emerged as one of the most informed, rational voices giving information about the coronavirus pandemic.

Garrett, who predicted such a global outbreak in her best-selling book "The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance," appeared on the shows of CNN's Anderson Cooper and MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell Tuesday night, giving a dose of reality to delusions about rapid development of a Covid-19 vaccine. The Council on Foreign Relations member gave a similar fact-based analysis to The New York Times' Frank Bruni in his Sunday column.

In Bruni's column, Garrett, who won the Pulitzer at Newsday for her reporting on the AIDS outbreak, pointed out how the pandemic has exposed the decline of the Centers for Disease Control under the Trump administration. Like other public health experts, Garrett decried the CDC's inadequate response to the outbreak.

Under Garrett's "best-case scenario," a vaccine could be developed in 36 months and halt the disease globally. But this would require any company that develops the vaccine to forgo profits and share the drug with other manufacturers. Another factor would be whether the vaccine could be given orally or by skin patch, eliminating the need for large quantities of syringes to be produced.

If a vaccine is developed, Garrett believes it should be desseminated throughout the world, even to remote places such as the Himalayas. She also calls for offering the drug to militant groups and countries like Iran. The Trump administration's scorn for international cooperation would prevent such sharing.

Garrett has also called for targeted testing, rather than the diffuse operations taking place throughout the country. She points out that someone who tests negative one day can still be infected the next. Rather than constant widespread retesting, Garrett says that testing of a select group can determine the extent of infections in a larger population, giving necessary information for the reopening of businesses and schools.

With the onslaught of conflicting information about the pandemic, Garrett's clear, rational reporting stands out. Beyond Bruni's column, The New York Times would provide a valuable public service by giving her a frequent forum on its op-ed page.

 

Sundays without the Braves

On Sunday afternoon, I realized that I would be watching or listening to the Braves in a normal springtime.

I haven't missed sports that much during the coronavirus shutdown. But the Braves have been a Sunday ritual for years. All of a sudden, I longed for a Ronald Acuna home run, a Mike Soroka strikeout, a Dansby Swanson-Ozzie Albies-Freddie Freeman double play.

Chip Caray's voice echoed in my mind. I imagined Don Sutton on the radio.

But there was no baseball.

 

 

 

Musical stars stand in support of World Health Organization as Trump disparages agency

The World Health Organization received glowing tributes during an all-star musical special Saturday night, clashing with Donald Trump's cutoff of U.S. funding for the agency.

So much for "One World Together," the theme of Global Citizen's event featuring at-home performances from a dazzling array of musical talent, ranging from the Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Jennifer Lopez and Paul McCartney to Lizzo, Lady Gaga, Kacey Mulgraves, Billie Ellish, John Legend, Sam Smith, Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes.

The uneven performances included Mick Jagger playing acoustic guitar, Keith Richards doing something with his instrument on the couch and Charlie Watts banging his sticks on the furniture on the Stones' split-screen "You Can't Always Get What You Want." The old boys' raucous spirit gave a welcome respite from the younger performers' solemnity.

The old trouper McCartney delivered an endearing"Lady Madonna" with his fading voice, while Lopez diverged from the tehme with a slick, obviously prr-recorded performance of "People." Barbra Streisand must have been busy.

Lizzo's rendering of Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Going to Come" jangled nerve endings, while Ellish's living room offering of the 1960s pop confection "Sunny" was not much better than any moderately talented high school kid could do.

John, playing piano in his backyard," showed that he remains the king of infectious hooks with a spirited but ragged rendering of "I'm Still Standing."

Mulgraves' "Rainbow" performance was sincere, but won't make anyone forget Judy Garland, and Taylor Swift presented an emotional"Soon You'll Get Better" while playing piano.

Videos throughout the show highlighted WHO's work throughout the world, especially in Africa, essential services that would be crippled by Trump's cutoff. Trump hasn't commented upon the special. Presumably, he would treat it with the same contempt he hurls at CNN and other news organizations during his daily propaganda appearances.

Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon in hosting "One World Together at Home" displayed more gravity than Trump.

"One World Together at Home" also saluted the heroic health-care professionals pushed to the limit by the coronavirus epidemic. While doctors, nurses and medical technicians make their valient efforts, Trump's supporters want to undermine them by prematurely reopening businesses.

New York magazine reveals Trump outrages

Trump seeks to squeeze U.S. hospitals caring for Covid-19 victims, according to two reports by New York magazine, which has provided outstanding coverage of the epidemic as it ravages its home city.

National affairs reporter Jonathan Chait's astute analysis of Trump's malign handling of the crisis continued Mondaywith an article outlining  the administration's plan to force states to prematurely open their economies by starving their finances, reducing medical supplies and fomenting right-wing rebellion. A major purpose is to shield Trump from responsibility and cast blame on the states.

David Foster-Wells, noted for his extensive reporting on climate change, has also produced essential work on the pandemic. Supporting Chait's findings,Foster-Wells revealed how the administration is blockading medical supplies, even those directly purchased by hospitals.

The magazine's John Barro has delved into the pandemic's economic devastation, while Frank Rich has punctured Trump and the GOP with his weekly "National Circus" columns. Political writer Ed Kilgore analyzes the panedmic's ramifications for the presidential election.

New York readers were upset when the magazine switched to a pay-wall model. But that's given the magazine reserves for its strong pandemic coverage. We hope it can continue its stellar work.