I guess this is Basketball Day. You may recall back during the NCAA tournament, I posted some videos of Julia-Louis Dreyfus on camera in the crowd cheering on her son Charlie Hall who's on the Northwestern basketball team. (Her alma mater, too as was as her husband Brad Hall.) Here she is on Jimmy Kimmel's show talking about all the national attention that that got. (At one point, she refers to something that's not clear -- it's that she proudly says her son Charlie was "a walk-on." That's someone who didn't get a scholarship to play at the school, but tried out on his own and made the team.) And a couple of bonus videos. This first is one I think I posted, but it puts the above interview in context. It's the television coverage of her and her husband cheering on their son. It's worth paying attention in the split-screen to Charlie who is #10, and late in the video gets a rebound in the lower-right corner. And finally, this is a very nice featurette on Charlie Hall and his family, and includes footage of some of the locker room videos the player did that are referred to in the Kimmel interview. And all of this may well get you to like Julia Lous-Dreyfus all the more... By the way, if you want to see one of CHarlie Hall's "locker room video interviews" in full, and it's pretty amusing, you can check it out here.
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This is the annual reprint of a column originally written on The Huffington Post in 2009. And this year is the 14th anniversary of the actual event itself, Some stories simply demand repeating. Or better put, demand not being forgotten. This is one of them. And so, once again, here 'tis. One additional word. happily Maurice Cheeks is still in the NBA. He's currently the assistant coach for the Oklahoma City Thunder, who are in the playoffs... April 25, 2009 Oh, Say Can You Sing? A National Anthem to Remember As I prepared to write about an act of uncommon decency by a professional athlete, I realized that calling it that was unfair, that it diminishes what happened, because this was simply an act of uncommon decency, period. That it happened on such a high level and under such a bright microscope might likely stir the heart more, but it's the act itself that is ultimately what stirs us to begin with. Who it was and when it took place simply moves it up the pedestal. Today is the sixth anniversary of Maurice Cheek's moment on the pedestal. There is in the American consciousness for notable performances of the National Anthem at sporting events. Jose Feliciano's evocative singing at the 1968 World Series in Detroit was the first to interpret the "Star Spangled Banner" before a national audience. Because 1968 was one of the most tumultuous years in U.S. history, many at the time were so outraged that it took his career years to recover. Today, the rendition not only seems tame, but one of the most tender and beautiful. (And among the least known. If you've never heard it, do yourself a favor and click here to listen.) Whitney Houston gets mentioned often for her rousing rendition at the 1991 Super Bowl, during the Gulf War. For many, Marvin Gaye's deeply soulful performance at the 1983 NBA All Star is the most memorable. But for sheer emotional joy, it's hard to top what happened on April 27, 2003, before Game 4 of the NBA playoffs between the Portland Trailblazers and Dallas Mavericks. Context only adds to the story. So, once again: This was the playoffs. This is what all professional athletes live for, what their year is about. The regular season is a prelude, an effort to get into the post-season and be in place to win the league championship, to become a part of your sport's history. Everything centers on this. As the start of each playoff game nears, as the roaring crowd is at its highest pitch, as players put on their proverbial "game faces" and the battle is moments from beginning, all external thoughts get filtered out, and focus is completely, solely on their task ahead. The National Anthem, for most athletes, must be one of those external influences. More than most of us, who hear the "Star Spangled Banner" largely on special occasions, professional athletes have heard the National Anthem played before every single competitive game they've played. Game after game repeatedly each season, and season after season, for decades. Relentlessly. As meaningful as the song is, it is also just part of the ritual for a professional athlete, focused on the game, geared up for the game, anxious to start the game. Silent, not singing, maybe not even hearing the music. Waiting for the National Anthem to be played, and finished, so that they can finally start what they're there for. It's likely as much background noise as it is patriotic uplift. And so it must have been as the Trailblazers and Mavericks prepared for their playoff game to start. Stepping out onto the court was Natalie Gilbert, a 13-year-old girl. Just another National Anthem, just another youngster who won a contest, just another two minutes the crowd wanted to get past for the game they were there to see, to start. And she started fine. A little hesitant, since it's a frightening occasion for a child, with a national audience, flashing lights and a military guard. But in her wavering voice, she was prepared. Except that a few lines in, the high pageantry of the moment got her, and something went very wrong. She totally, thoroughly forgot the words. A young 13-year-old child, standing in front of over 10,000 people, lost. Alone. And that's when Maurice Cheeks showed the kind of person he was. Maurice Cheeks had had a very good NBA career as a player. He played for 15 years and was selected to four All Star games. When he retired, he was the all-time leader in steals and fifth in assists. He averaged over 11 points a game. And then he later became a coach, the position he was currently in for the Portland Trailblazers. It was Cheeks who was responsible for his team, responsible for keeping them focused on the game, responsible for guiding them. But he saw a 13-year-old girl in trouble. And that's when Maurice Cheeks showed the kind of person he was. Immediately. Cheeks always had a reputation in the NBA as a good guy. But he was about to prove it on a national stage. And what happened next - not just with Maurice Cheeks, but eventually with all the jaded players whose minds had been previously-focused on their game, an entire stadium of basketball fans there to see basketball, even the opposing white-haired coach Don Nelson - is just enthralling. The moment is wonderful, but how it builds and surprises is even better. And at the end, this tiny girl looking up at the giant of a man - who stayed around, refusing to leave her side and return to his team - with her face awash with relief, a huge hug, and the clear words mouthed, "Thank you," is all you need to see to why it's hard to top what happened on April 25, 2003, before Game 4 of the NBA playoffs for sheer emotional joy. Six years ago today. Earlier today I mentioned that it was the wonderful screenwriter William Bowers (Support Your Local Sheriff, The Gunfighter, The Sheepman and many more) who played the lead Senator in Godfather Part II, questioning Michael Corleone. The video that exists of that is lousy, but here's the follow-up scene when he interrogates Frank Pantangole who recants his earlier testimony when Corleone files in Pantangole's brother from Italy to watch. It's such a wonderful, naturalistic performance by Bowers who I suspect most people have had no idea that he wasn't an actor at all. As I mentioned, I was invited to his how for dinner when I was a graduate screenwriting student at UCLA, and he and his wife were utterly charming and gracious. There is an expression you may have heard -- or not. A "Movie Moment." That's the sort of incredibly-unlikely coincidence that happens in real life which is the sort of thing tends to only occur in a movie. I just had a Movie Moment. It requires a bit of background.
While in Lisbon, we were heading over to a Portuguese barbecue that the organization set up for the journalists Friday night. On our way over on the chartered bus, I was talking with my friend Stewart Wolpin who beyond being an accomplished tech reporter and official historian for the and Consumer Electronics trade organization, is a highly-knowledgeable film historian (I believe he used to work for the American Movie Classics channel) and has even written a book on baseball -- so you can see why we get along. Stewart and I were talking about movies on the bus, and I brought up that the “actor” in Godfather Part II who plays the senator grilling Michael Corelone at the Senate hearing and mentioned that, wonderful and memorable as he is in the scene, he is not an actor at all, but a famous screenwriter, William Bowers, who Francis Ford Coppola knew from his days at a student at UCLA, and was sort of a gregarious mentor, and Coppola figured he'd be perfect for the scene, which he was. When I went to UCLA for graduate school in screenwriting, my professor Bill Froug thought I should meet Bowers, because he'd written several well-known comedy westerns, and I'd just written one for class. So, Bill Froug contacted William Bowers who set up a dinner for me at his house. He was a wonderful guy, very gracious. And two of his most famous films were, as I noted, comedy westerns,Support Your Local Gunfighter and The Sheepman which stars Glenn Ford. (Another famous film he wrote was the classic, The Gunfighter which starred Gregory Peck.) Surprisingly, even to himself, Stewart had never seen The Sheepman, but said he’d look for it when he got back from Portugal, which was yesterday. And...in today's Movie Moment – and there it is, on TMC, not only today, but in less than two hours as I write this. (It airs at 11:15 AM in Los Angeles, 2:15 PM in the East.) If you haven't seen it, and you like this sort of thing, set your VCR. And continuing Fun with Movies, immediately preceding The Sheepman -- on right now as I type -- and the day after returning from world travel -- is probably my all-time favorite movie, Around the World in 80 Days. At last I've returned.
The flight part of the journey back had its own twists and turns, beginning with the IFA group, that put on the event in Lisbon, thoughtfully providing busses to the airport. Oddly, the schedule had people arriving at the airport about 3-1/2 hours before their flights. (All the hotel personnel said you only needed two hours.) I suspect the extra time was not only based on the assumption that people would be unfamiliar with the facility, but also - and more to the point - IFA wanted to be absolutely sure that everybody got on their plane and not have to be held responsible for a screw-up if someone missed. I thought about taking a later bus than the one assigned for my group, but in the end I figured, "Oh, just go early. Even if it's less comfortable, you'll be there and settled." As it turned out, the Lisbon Airport was indeed a bit convoluted to get through, and there were hiccups along the way. Yet even with that, I still got to my gate about 2 hours and 15 minutes early… One thing that Americans are so fortune about, and I suspect many if not most take for granted is how so much of the world speaks English. It was pronounced in Lisbon, and it's not just a case of speaking the language with you, but the whole American culture is pronounced with businesses, billboards and signs in English. Not just American companies, but just in general. In large part, my guess is that this isn't just a matter of catering to Americans or only the culture, but since English is the international language, it opens the city (and other cities around the world) to people from everywhere. That's why it was so surprising where the one place where you would have expected English to be so prominent would be at the airport, a focused location where travelers from around the world come and go - and oddly it was one of the least English-friendly places I came across. Further, there were no Traveler's Aid booths that I could see, and few airline booths had customer service reps out front. Making all this more of a challenge was that, because we arrived at the airport so early, my flight wasn't even on the board yet, so I had no idea what gate to head towards. And I couldn't find the American Airlines booth. Finally, out of desperation, I went to the Moldavia Airlines desk to ask if they knew where the American booth was, since it was supposed to be next door, but that was deserted. In fact, it turned out that that was for American Airlines - but they don't show up until two hours (or three hours, someone else told me) before the first flight! Swell, that didn't do me a whole lot of good. A tad bewildered, I decided to risk it and head towards the security gates. I had checked-in online the day before and had my QR Code all ready to scan and let me pass. Initially, I went to the wrong area, but they pointed me where to go. And I scanned - and was denied. The security guard checked the QR Code and its information and said that it wasn't what I needed, but had to go to American Airlines and get a booking pass. I asked what in the world was this QR Code I had been sent when I checked in - and to this moment I still have no explanation. The problem was that I had to go to the American Airlines booth - and they had no one there. I was sent elsewhere, couldn't find it. And tracked down a rep for another airline (one I'd never heard of, but he was very considerate) who told me where to go for American. Unfortunately, it was the same booth with no one there. At this point, I caught a break. I saw one of the journalists from our IFA group, Judie Stanford, who's founder and Editor-in-Chief of the excellent Gear Diary tech site, and a dynamo. I was comforted to know that although she is a major traveler, a member of an American Airline's Executive Platinum Club because she travels so much, even she was bewildered by the airport. But she pointed me in the direction where she had been able to find the American Airlines booth. I headed off…and couldn't find it. But I thought she might have been directing me to the self-help kiosks (it turns out she wasn't, the location for American was more convoluted than I presumed), and so I tried there. Fortunately, there was an airport employee helping out…and it worked! O huzzah! I got my boarding pass and then headed off. O joy. And the good thing, too, is that even though the departure gate number still wasn't yet listed, it was on the boarding pass, so I now knew where to go, as well. I went back to that security gate, my boarding pass worked, and I made it through! Scanner security was easy to find, and quick to get through. And then onto passport control - this could take a long time, I heard from others, but I made it through in three minutes (same as when I arrived). The airport isn't especially well-laid out - shocking, I know - through reasonably nice and easy (at this point!) to get to my gate, after a very long walk…which takes you directly through the Duty Free shopping area, there's no way to walk around it. (Oddly, at the very end of this shopping area was a store for Tumi luggage. It's a good company, but a strange place to sell luggage. You have to figure that since you're only a short walk to your gate then, most people don't really have a great need for luggage.) And so I made it to my gate. And the thing is, as I noted above, but now you know the details, even with all that confusion, bewilderment and mis-directions…I still got to the gate and sat down 2 hours and 15 minutes early! But that ended up working out okay. Because about 15 minutes later, to both our surprises, Judie Stanford showed up. "I should have figured you were on the same flight, when you asked about American!" she said. So, I had someone to talk with to pass the time. And then when they started boarding, she - being an Executive Gold Club member - had a priority boarding pass and told me to join her. When we got to the pass-through gate, she just said, "He's with me," and we both boarded early. Once again, o huzzah. (I will note too that, as wildly-experienced a traveler as Judie is, even she said she got a bit bewildered by the Lisbon airport...) The first leg of the flight heading out from Los Angeles to Philadelphia landed safely and reasonably on time, which is all I demand of a trip, though the bonuses were mediocre. Like the American flight over from L.A. to Philly, it was an old plane with no Entertainment Center, no music channels, and they even showed the same movie (!). The flight attendant said, "It's an old plane, so they figure why upgrade it since they'll eventually be getting a new plane for the route." (Actually, in comparison, this plane was better than the international one on the way over. That one, and the service, was like a budget airline in a comedy sketch, including when the flight attendant dropped the wrapped roll on the floor…and then put it back on the food tray! Yes, it was wrapped it was still touching the rest of the tray and would be picked up. Fortunately, I not only saw it, but it was for the seat next to me, so I told the fellow, and he carefully removed it off his tray.) (There was a young girl in the seat next to me, and she was distraught upon discovering there was no Entertainment Center, no TV channels, no choice of movies and no music - and she hadn't recharged her phone beforehand because she assumed there would be, and that had all her games, books and music. And an 8-hour flight ahead. However, I had with me a bunch of chargers, including one meant to charge a laptop so it had a huge amount of power, which I offered to her. She was overjoyed.) That left only going through customs in Philadelphia, changing terminals and making my way through the airport before my flight left. I made sure I had plenty of time, but was still concerned, especially if the flight was late. Well...it came in a half-hour early, and getting through the customs and the airport was so FAST that I had time to go to yet another terminal to see about catching an earlier flight back. I made it in time, but it was full. Some perspective: it usually takes 30-45 minutes to get through Customs in Los Angeles. Here, I was off the plane, got to Passport Control, went through Customs, made my way to the other terminal and then gate...in 23 minutes! (Getting through Customs only took eight minutes. I was joking with the Customs official about how the line was too short, and he was giving me options for making it longer...) I ended up having about three hours at the Philadelphia airport. It doesn't have much charm or sense of design, but it seemed well-laid out, well-marked and pretty easy to get around which was very good. As I'd written early about the way over to Portugal, the American plane from L.A. to Philadelphia was excellent. And the one flying back from Philly to Los Angeles was a new, very nice plane, as well -- though with some issues I'll write about later. Ultimately, as I said what makes a flight a good one is if it lands safely and reasonably on time. This did both -- in fact, it got in 25 minutes early. And so now I'm back. And having held off gong to bed until 11 PM and gotten up around 6:45 in the morning, I'm fairly close to caught up on the time...I hope. Well, I made it back. Though not all the way, just yet.
Our flight got in to Philadelphia a half-hour early, and getting through Customs was SO bizarrely fast that I almost was able to get an earlier flight to Los Angeles. In fact, I made it to the gate for it, but they were full. So, I'm back at my normal gate, the flight leaves at 6:05 PM Philly time. (It's 3:45 now.) I get into L.A. at 9:15. How fast was Customs? In Los Angeles, it generally takes me about 30-45 minutes to get through Customs. Here, I made it in…seven minutes! From getting off the airplane, making it to Customs, getting to the next terminal and arriving at my gate took a bizarre 23 minutes! When all is said and done, it should be just about 21-1/2 hours of travel from leaving the hotel in Lisbon to opening the door back home. (The actual travel from Lisbon to Los Angeles is a more manageable 17 hours – slightly more manageable.) I was saved going through customs at the end because the transfer of planes was in Philadelphia, so that at least shortened things. I’d left enough time there for dealing with customs, getting to another terminal and then to the gate, though I was still wary about it, not knowing the airport (or if the plane would arrive late). As it happened, we seemed to have left Lisbon early which is weird, by about 15 minutes. Perhaps everyone was checked in – which seems unlikely – but there you have it. And then got into Philly even earlier. I’ll have more to write about the adventurous flight tomorrow. I’m a bit beat at the moment, though I travel pretty well going west, so hopefully I’ll be back on Los Angeles time by then. If not, soon. I expect the elves taking care of the homestead to shout an exuberant "Whoopdee-do" when I get in... |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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