Cleveland Sports Forum

I just finished viewing Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris on pay per view. It may have entered the very top of my Woody Allen faves on his all time list.

If you liked Purple Rose of Cairo, you'll like this work and likely even more.

I found it neat that Allen worked in a primary character named "Gil" in each movie.

He also overtly worked in predominant literary methods of Forrest Gump, The Time Machine and even Biff with the book of sports results from Back to The Future Part II.

I wasn't overly enthused initially to see Midnight in Paris when I read it was heavily based in 1920's Paris. I was wrong, and 1920's Paris plays much better than I expected.

The Golden Age.

Woody Allen may have had his best accomplishment of all his movies for casting nice looking actresses. Forget the story line, the movie was easy for a guy to watch just for the eye candy.




I truly believe Woody Allen directed Owen Wilson to conjure the young Woody Allen, and his personal prior demons, as he played the lead role.

And Allen directed all his actors to play it "over the top." It worked. Especially the Hemingway actor.

I also admired Allen working in the “Right Wing Republicans” and “Tea Party folks” along the way and allowing the characters to be believable and good people.




A bit of a flavor of Mary McGregor's "Torn Between Two (or more) Lovers,” and then a realization that this time travel stuff can become awfully slippery awfully fast.

I’ve never had a strong desire to visit Paris. On my prior travels of Europe I’ve left it off the schedule declaring it to be a destination city all it’s own for a future trip.

After watching “Midnight in Paris,” I have developed an appetite for a trip to Paris.

By night, by day, and especially in the rain.

I'm bored, he's bored, we're all bored.

Words from an Alabama conjured lass by Woody Allen, the wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald, as she moves them all off to another venue.

"I'm into bathtub gin, what do you do?"

Damn, I dated that girl.

I agree on Midnight in Paris as being one of Woody's finest.

Having spent some time in Paris I can attest that it is one of the best movies I have ever seen which captures the city just right.

My wife and I walked around Paris in the rain quite a bit. We called it Paris under the awnings.

loufla wrote:I agree on Midnight in Paris as being one of Woody's finest.

Having spent some time in Paris I can attest that it is one of the best movies I have ever seen which captures the city just right.

My wife and I walked around Paris in the rain quite a bit. We called it Paris under the awnings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU1yg6_l0_4

With a nod to Count Basie, I realized a bit ago I have 24 more hours of my viewing of Midnight in Paris.


He had a thing for April in Paris


Midnight in Paris is once more on with me here.....


"one more time....."

We called it Paris under the awnings.


LOL!

Actuallly, I really do not appreciate getting wet in urban rains, either.

But for the right woman, I would.

Oh wait, that woman is my wife.


I don't think she'd like getting rained on in Paris very much. She's a San Francisco born conservative right winger who begs me daily to teach her to shoot. I usually sidestep the request.

I don't like to get my hair wet in urban rains because I have thinning hair, and consider myself better positioned, cunning and perhaps good looking with dry hair.

"That's the problem with writers, they are so full of words."

The other character.

The pedantic one.


"Say Hi to Trotsky."

I took my wife to a wine tasting late this afternoon. She was still exhausted after a whirlwind trip back east that involved seeing our kids, and some work.

After I bought her her favorite Sushi roll and a bottle of wine for dinner, she nodded off quickly. And couldn't be roused an hour later....at 6:40. I put the living room TV on some obscure channel with Walt Disney documentaries all evening. I was successful in waking her up a couple hours later to watch Them Idiots Whirled Tour with Foxworthy, Larry the Cable Guy and Bill Engvall.

I then fell asleep.

And awoke a bit ago to check the channel listings and guide and noted that 2:00AM was missing.

Missing.

The guide went from the 1:30AM block to the 3:00AM block.

After an initial WTF?, I happily recollected Spring Forward, Fall Back.

Barbecue at my house early Sunday evening.....

Neighbors fret about plan for 'Field of Dreams'
By RYAN J. FOLEY, Associated Press – 1 day ago

DYERSVILLE, Iowa (AP) — Should we build it, and would they come?
Those are the questions being debated in the Iowa town where the "Field of Dreams" movie was filmed as it considers a $38 million proposal to turn the farmland around the famous cornfield diamond into one of the nation's largest youth baseball tournament and training complexes.

An Illinois couple has announced plans to buy the farmhouse and baseball field featured in the 1989 film, along with surrounding land, to build the "All-Star Ballpark Heaven," a complex of 24 baseball and softball diamonds, an indoor training facility and lodging that would draw teams from all around to compete in major tournaments.

While the project could provide an economic jolt and breathe new life into Dyersville's most valuable asset, it has unleashed fierce emotions that have pitted neighbors against each other and raised difficult questions for leaders of the town of 4,000. Should the city extend water and sewer service to make the project viable? Would enough people come to make it succeed? And if so, would the development ruin the nostalgic, country feel that made this part of rural Iowa a draw in the first place?

"This is one of those projects that has a high risk, but a high reward," said Jim Heavens, a cattle nutritionist who has been the city's part-time mayor for nine years. "If everything goes according to Hoyle, it would be a boom for the town and a boom for the state and do something nice for youth. If it doesn't work out, there's going to be a lot of pieces to pick up."

Dyersville, surrounded by lush farmland in the hills 30 miles west of Dubuque, has barely grown in recent decades and some residents say that's fine. The town has low unemployment and low taxes.

Since the movie was filmed, about a farmer who builds a baseball field that attracts the ghosts of Shoeless Joe Jackson and other White Sox players banned for throwing the 1919 World Series, the farm has attracted a stream of visitors despite few amenities: a house that is usually closed and a well-kept baseball field surrounded by corn. One of the most popular activities is a simple game of catch at the site. But some businesses and attractions, such as the National Farm Toy Museum, got used to the tourism and were hurt when it began to drop in recent years. Two years ago, owners Don and Becky Lansing put the farm up for sale.

The most vocal opposition to the proposed development comes from a small group of the farmers who raise cattle and pigs and grow corn and soybeans nearby. They worry the 193-acre project, expected to draw caravans of players and families every year, would disrupt their rural life. They worry about driving farm equipment in the traffic, and whether they'll face regulations on spraying crops and spreading manure with so many children nearby.

Wayne Ameskamp, whose family sold its portion of the movie site to the Lansings in 2008 after years of feuding between the families over its use, has spoken out in public and private meetings with city officials and neighbors. "Don't let them build these baseball diamonds out in the country and take our farmland out of production and ruin our piece of heaven," he told the city council recently. He worries his family would no longer be able to peacefully gather around a fire at its private campsite, nicknamed "Hillbilly Heaven."

Jeff Pape, whose family farm dates to 1851, said he worries the development, if done incorrectly, could "totally destroy" years of work by farmers to reduce runoff and pollution in a creek running through the site.

Investors Mike and Denise Stillman came up with the idea for the baseball complex in 2010 after Mike, a lawyer, and his son, then 8, stopped to play catch on the way home from a Minnesota Twins game. As planned, it would join a handful of such complexes in the U.S., including one near the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

The site would create hundreds of jobs in restaurants, lodging and recreation in a six-county region, according to a study commissioned by developers. Up to 1,500 families of players aged 8 through 14 would trek to the site weekly for camps and tournaments, the study said.

Many neighbors are skeptical about those figures. And some employers who already have difficulty finding workers wonder about the impact on the labor pool.

"I have to take the Stillmans' word that these people are really out there," Pape said. "If they do come and tourism comes back, they'll be heroes."

For the Stillmans, who watched "Field of Dreams" on one of their first dates, the neighbors are one of many hurdles. The couple is lobbying for a bill to allow the site to keep the sales tax charged on merchandise for 10 years — up to $16 million. Some lawmakers oppose the plan.

The Stillmans say they need to raise $18 million to make the development viable, and have an approaching deadline to decide whether to exercise their right to purchase. If they move forward, Dyersville would need to annex and rezone land and build water and sewer lines to the site. Heavens said that project could cost $7 million, more than initially expected.

Denise Stillman, who quit her health care consulting business to run the development startup, Go the Distance LLC, said she's confident about the project. "There's too many stars aligned for it to not happen," she said.

Jacque Rahe, a neighbor who leads the Dyersville Economic Development Corporation, calls the project "a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" that has been disparaged by misinformation.

"No one realized what the movie would mean to us and it has far exceeded our expectations," said Rahe, whose husband was a member of the Ghost Players comedy troupe that performed at the farm. "Now, almost 25 years later, it's time for a boost. There's a whole new generation of people who don't have a strong connection to the 'Field of Dreams' and need to be introduced to it."

I've been to the Field of Dreams site in late September or early October one of my single years after the movie. A girl I had met in Des Moines who was in town for a convention invited me to meet her in her hometown of Elkader, Iowa a couple of weeks later.

On the night I met her.....at a 50's bar near The River, she told me she lived in the hills of Iowa. I called BS, but was later personally proven she was right. I learned about areas that escaped the glacier.

She was very familiar with The Carolina's and spoke fondly of the poultry business and operations there.

She did something with pig food or pig drugs for her career money, as I recall.

As I drove into Elkader from my base of the day I noted a yellow trailer sign marquis outside of the local convenience store that was lettered with the equivalent of "Welcome to Elkader, Tribe Fan in SC/Cali."

It was a whirlwind weekend that involved an all night bar where the farmers and the cowmen struggled to be friends, and open cash was played in a downtown bar for way more than quarter ante poker.

As dawn approached, all the cowmen had to go home to do the milking.

The farmers had already gotten their harvest in, or were close to doing so, to be done until Spring. They ribbed the cowmen good as they had to leave at 3:30AM.

The girl I met in Des Moines took me to a place down a gravel road where I was served the best steak perhaps I have ever consumed.

She also went with me to something called "Heritage Days" where honest to goodness they had a buffalo on display with little more than chicken wire as the boundary.

She also took me to bluffs several hundred feet above The Mighty Mississippi River.

When she guided us to the Field of Dreams, I was mesmerized.

I walked into the corn, took a left, and a left (NASCAR training), and came back out misty eyed.

She pretended she didn't care.

That was a good weekend, and she would have been a good catch.

The metronome and timing just didn't work out.

Iowa is a very great state and place to live that most do not think about, or understand.

That said, I'm not sure "Field of Dreams", the movie, has legs to make profit. It's been nearly a quarter of a century since it's release.

Keep the place austere but playable, and enough who have learned the story, might come.

Oddly, I was on the top floor of The Marriott in downtown Des Moines as Hurricane Hugo unexpectedly inflicted damage deep into The Carolinas. I had CNN in the hotel, and was on the phone with people I knew back in my home of those days who were in the dark with nothing but a land line for a connection to the outside world.

I tried to give them updates as best I could, and kept the line open.

As I was offering assistance, I did not mention there was a petite pro stripper with me pro bono that I met at the aforementioned "50's bar" near The River in Des Moines.

It's always a challenge to wade between Midnight, Good... and Mostly Fun.....and Right.

Lehigh upsets Duke, 75-70, in NCAA Tournament

Published: Friday, March 16, 2012, 9:56 PM Updated: Friday, March 16, 2012, 10:11 PM

By Associated Press sports staff



GREENSBORO, N.C. — C.J. McCollum, a graduate of Canton GlenOak, scored 30 points and Lehigh upset Duke 75-70 to become the second No. 15 seed to beat a No. 2 during a wild Friday in the NCAA tournament.
The Mountain Hawks are the sixth 15 seed overall to pull off the trick. Norfolk State edged Missouri 86-84 in the West Regional earlier in the day, and No. 14 seed Ohio knocked off Michigan to add to the madness.
Duke dropped its first tournament game for only the second time in the past 16 years, and this one occurred just 55 miles from its campus. The Blue Devils also dropped their opener against 11th-seeded Virginia Commonwealth in 2007.
The Blue Devils had no answer for McCollum, a speedy guard who's a two-time Patriot League player of the year and the nation's fifth-leading scorer.
It didn't help that the Blue Devils hit just 6 of 26 shots from 3-point range.
Lehigh (27-7) led most of the game, drawing support from North Carolina fans who borrowed brown signs from Mountain Hawks supporters that read "Go Lehigh" to root against their rivals.
Lehigh coach Brett Reed said before the game his team came to Greensboro to do more than just compete — and that's exactly what it did.
The Patriot League champions led most of the first half despite shooting just 38 percent from the field.
Lehigh grabbed the lead for good at the 8:21 mark of the second half when Mackey McKnight made a 3-pointer.
The Mountain Hawks' momentum continued to build as the game went on and they started to pull away in the final three minutes.
McCollum hit a 3-pointer off a screen from Gabe Knutson and John Adams followed with a breakaway dunk to push the lead to 61-54 with two minutes to go.
Duke would get as close as three twice in the final 30 seconds, including when Quinn Cook hit a 3-pointer with 1.2 seconds left.
Duke fouled McCollum on the inbounds pass and he made up for two earlier misses from the line by hitting both shots to seal a shocking victory that sent the Greensboro Coliseum crowd into a frenzy.

One of my old drinking friends from South Carolina is not a happy camper tonight.

He is a UNC Asheville grad, and his Dad's cousins or something similar played for Duke a few decades ago.

It's because of him I jumped on the Duke bandwagon several years ago.

The real story behind HBO's cancellation of 'Luck'

Published March 17, 2012

HBO has run out of -- and out on -- "Luck."

On Wednesday, the pay cable network, along with executive producers David Milch and Michael Mann, announced an abrupt end to the Dustin Hoffman-starring drama, following news that three horses had died during production.

Whether it was the threat of continued negative press, or that no one could guarantee another horse would not perish during the run of the series, the surprising and quick decision to pull the plug has caused many in the media to theorize as to why.

When a third horse died Tuesday during filming for the second episode of the second season, HBO quickly announced that all use of horses on the show would be suspended indefinitely. (Two other horses died last year during the filming of the first season.)

But within the next 24 hours, after an investigation into further safety precautions had taken place, HBO and producers decided to kill the show outright, saying that they couldn't prevent further fatalities.

So why end things altogether?

California Horse Racing Board Equine Medical Director Dr. Rick Arthur, who worked with the production when it filmed at the Santa Anita race track, told TVGuide.com on Thursday that horse fatalities are not uncommon at the race track. "Accidents do happen," Arthur said. "It's not as outrageous as it's been played to be. Any of these accidents are not unique circumstances."

The third horse died, not while filming, but as she was being walked back to her stall. She reared, fell over backwards, struck her head on the ground, and the determination was made to euthanize her.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, however, has long been opposed to the series. After HBO canceled the series, the organization sent out its own release, claiming "Luck" used "old, unfit and drugged horses."

Asked about PETA's claims, a rep for the network sent the following response: "The drugs that have been referenced by PETA were administered post-injury to calm the horse and to allow the attending veterinarian to properly examine the injury."

HBO, which worked closely with the American Humane Association and the CHRB, also insisted that no drugs were administered prior to filming of racing sequences for any purposes. PETA's Vice President of Laboratory Investigation Kathy Guillermo told TVGuide.com on Thursday that the necropsy report cited additional drugs in the horses' systems that shouldn't have been there, and has called upon law enforcement to investigate the deaths.

Is HBO's horse-racing series Luck a big gamble?

There may also have been future problems with shooting at Santa Anita, Luck's primary filming location.

Frank Stronach, chairman of the Stronach Group, which owns Santa Anita, said Wednesday he had wanted to end the relationship with the show. "I'm just disappointed because it puts sort of an ugly face on the whole point of horse racing," he told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. "We're not going to participate if horse racing is shown in such a bad way."

Stronach had planned to meet with the producers, Santa Anita Director of Special Projects Pete Siberell told TVGuide.com. "[Stronach's] people in Toronto wanted me to set up a meeting with Michael Mann and David Milch to talk about the show. That was [Tuesday], when all this hit. We were going to have a meeting to talk about it because he was concerned about the direction the show was going."

A spokeswoman for HBO replied: "We have no knowledge of any such conversation."

Some industry watchers have said that the show's lukewarm ratings may have also been a factor to its quick demise. The show premiered to 1.1 million viewers in January, but fell by almost 50 percent a month later. However, HBO renewed the show for a second season early on, and has stuck by series with even smaller audiences, including its Laura Dern/Mike White comedy "Enlightened."

I'm a lifelong and deep thoroughbred horse racing fan. I've never seen an episode of "Luck," Dustin Hoffman and all.

I've never been much of a fiction guy. Real life has been interesting enough for me.

From the comments of Hillbilly and Seagull, I believe "Luck" was likely good work.

They lost my interest though with the teasers about the "dark underbelly".....implied fixes.....of racing.


There of course are fixes. I leisurely watched the 2nd race at The Meadowlands this afternoon and am personally inclined to believe the fix was in. I didn't wager on it. I never wager on harness racing any more, and haven't for about two decades.

Real life is that a horse meets it's maker in one out of every thoroughbred 500 starts.

Pretty good percentage for life, in my beliefs.

Horses love to run and compete with each other. I know this as a fact. Watch yearlings run together in a pasture and they each are out to prove their mettle against their peers.

Watch a horse toss his jockey out of the gate, and the horse never quits running with the pack and having fun trying to get to the front.

Watch raw horses in the stretch, and the jockey has to work hard to keep them looking forward and moving in full stride. Their natural tendency is to look around and back to see who might be gaining on them.

Maybe thoroughbred horses should hear a little bit of Satchel Paige philosophy.

The second season of "Luck" has been canceled citing the death of 3 horses during filming.

Too bad. I enjoyed the show.

Got to admit the camera shots close ups while racing made me wonder how they got those shots and how dangerous it must have been for the horses.