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And as a baseball bonus, we return you to maestro Riccardo Muti, from 2012 when he threw out the first pitch at a Cubs game. I find it adorable that Muti seems to love the Cubs, particularly since he's from Italy and didn't grow up on baseball or perhaps ever played it at all. But we know now that he's a lefty. Not the same form on the mound (or front thereof) as on the podium, but he did get it to the plate. By the way, listen closely in the background as he walks to the mount. The P.A. is playing Beethoven's 5th Symphony.
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To help celebrate the day, we'll start the year as is our tradition -- with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Riccardo Muti (in a Cubs jersey) playing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” I think it was done in honor of the Cubs 2016 World Series, their first in 108 years, since the video was posted on November 6, 2016. And the musicians are in street clothes, but many are wearing Cubs paraphernalia or blue. It's a wonderful and fun arrangement, too, not trying to overwhelm such a small, charming song with orchestral bombast, but arranged with an almost old-timey feel. And Muti seems to be having a good time with it all. In order to honor the start of the baseball season which begins this week, the guest contestant on this ‘Not My Job’ segment of the NPR quiz show Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me! is Jason Benetti, the new play-by-play announcer for NBC Sunday Night Baseball. He has a fun (and often very funny) interview with host Peter Sagal, discussing his start in broadcasting when he announced his high school marching band competitions. And later moving up to the national electricians championship and the hurdles he faced with doing ad-libs for it. Finally making it to the Major Leagues with the Chicago White Sox and then Detroit Tigers. This is the full Wait, Wait… broadcast, but you can jump directly to the “Not My Job” segment, it starts a bit after the 21:00 mark. O huzzah! On Sunday, the Northwestern women's field hockey team won the National Championship, beating #1-seeded Princeton 2-1. This was no fluke. Northwestern was the defending NCAA champion, and has been to the NCAA finals five straight years!!! And has now won three of those times. The beloved Northwestern was losing 1-0 with only 10 minutes left in the 60-minute game. They got the tying goal, and then won the championship about a minute into the second overtime period. This is the game-winning goal.  And here are the champs.  It's actually been a tremendous year for Northwestern women's athletics. Earlier in the year, they also won the NCAA championship in golf. And finished second in lacrosse -- another sport they've been dominating lately. (This is not hyperbole. In the past 20 years, they've won the National Championship eight times! Including five years in a row at one point. And won most recently two years ago, in 2023.) And not to leave NU men's athletics out, the football team won on Saturday, for the sixth victory of the year, which makes them eligible for a bowl game. But this is about the Northwestern women's field hockey. Winning the NCAA National Championship for the second year in a row. Here are the championship game's highlights in 4-1/2 minutes. If you don't want to watch the whole thing (and I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't...), then those who jump to the 3:50 mark will see the winning goal. And celebration! To repeat -- o huzzah! On Friday, the beloved Northwestern football team was in town to play USC. Going to the L.A. Memorial Coliseum to see a USC game is always a lousy experience. (Too many reasons to go into, but near the top is that their band plays the school's ponderous, pretentious Roman Marching Theme throughout the entire game, and Really Loudly which is pretty much their brand. Volumen super qualitas. Volume Over Quality.) But that's not the point here. What I learned after the fact is that I was there for history! Northwestern was defeated 38-17, and it was the school's 716th football loss – the most ever by any team in college football history! Now, mind you, it is, of course, conceivable that they could have that record reversed as soon as this year if the team whose record they beat loses more games than NU the rest of the year. But that improbable, since that other team is Indiana, which has 715 loses, is currently ranked the #2 best team in the country… I should note that this record does not come as a total shock. That's because Northwestern currently holds the FBS Division 1 record for "longest losing streak" of 34 consecutive loses, which occurred from 1979 to 1982. And note, as well, that my dad -- who loved football, especially college football, and also taught in the Medical School at Northwestern -- has season tickets for Northwestern football for 51 years. Including during this 34 games losing streak. That's the definition of a true football fan. Two of my favorite sports quotes from from the team's coach during that losing streak, Rick Venturi (who had played at Northwestern, and also in the pros). The first quote is --- "The only difference between me and Custer is that Custer didn't have to look at game films on Monday." And the other quote came after the game when Northwestern finally won. They had had a solid lead during the game, and played very defensively at that point -- and little by little their opponents chipped away at the lead...and were driving for a game-winning touchdown when the clock ran out. And so, Northwestern won, breaking the losing streak. After the game, coach Venturi was asked if he thinks he used the right strategy at the end. His reply was: "You have to understand -- I never had a lead before." In fairness, Northwestern football has been pretty respectable in more recent years. They are 5-4 this season. Their head coach was named Big Ten Coach of the Year two years ago. And they even went to the Rose Bowl in 1996. (And yes, I was there, with my Mom and Dad who flew out for it.) But history is no small thing. And happily, it's what the present has built upon. Go! U Northwestern! Break right through that line. With our colors flying, We will cheer you all the time. U! Rah! Rah! Go! U Northwestern! Fight for victory. Spread far the fame of our fair name. Go! Northwestern Go! Go! Northwestern Go! Hit 'em hard! Hit 'em low! Go, Northwestern Go! Go! U Northwestern! Break right through that line. With our colors flying, We will cheer you all the time. U! Rah! Rah! Go! U Northwestern! Fight for victory. Spread far the fame of our fair name. On the surface, this will seem an uncommon piece to post in the morning, seemingly just about entertainment, the kind of thing I usually post in the late afternoon. And on the surface it is. But that's not why I'm posting it now. In the current Northwestern alumni magazine, they had a story about a recent production there of “Man of La Mancha” -- and included a link to a 15-minute “making of” video about it. The video is extremely well-done, and much of it is very interesting (although it’s something one can jump through parts). However, what’s most interesting -- and the reason I'm posting it in the morning, usually what's been my "political slot" -- is that they re-focused the framing story. Normally, I don’t care much for doing that, but they came up with an extremely interesting concept. There's a reason for telling this, so bear with me. If you haven't seen "Man of La Mancha" (or not seen it in years), the story of Don Quixote is told with a bookending tale around it. The musical actually begins in a Spanish prison in 1597 when Miguel de Cervantes has been arrested an thrown into the infamous Seville prison (loosely inspired by real life, when Cervantes was a tax collector and had put the money he collected into a bank -- which went bankrupt, and the money was lost). The other rough prisoners already in prison when this newcomer arrives charge him with being a fool and a dreamer, and begin to ransack his possessions. And among all that is the manuscript of Don Quixote that Cervantes has been writing. The prisoners go to burn this silly waste of time. But Cervantes begs them not to and instead demands a trial, saying he can't be convicted as a fool without a chance to prove his innocence. And his defense is putting on an amusement, which is the tale of Don Quixote. What Northwestern did is change the setting of this "framing" story. And instead of it taking place in the Seville prison of 1597, it occurs in a modern day ICE detention center on the U.S.-Mexican border, and all those prisoners are immigrants who have been arrested, awaiting deportation to countries unknown. Whether this changed bookending works in full, I don’t know. (It very well may.) But I can tell from the video that it at least does work, and movingly, in part. (I will add as a side note that Trump has frozen $787 million in research funds from Northwestern. And just a couple weeks ago, in order to hopefully take pressure off the university as a target, the school's president resigned. None of that had anything to do with theater department adapting the framing story, that's just coincidence -- work on the show had begun months before any of that happened, and the focus of the changes is, instead, on the ICE arrests and deportations. But it adds perspective to what ended up on stage. Because the funding was frozen on April 8. And the first performance of this production took place just two weeks later, on April 25.) The whole video is interesting on how a college enterprise puts together a musical. And all the more so because the Northwestern theater department is high-end and renowned. It's not unreasonable to skim past some detailed parts, if the minutiae of theater is not your highest interest. But the video is very well-produced. However -- if you don’t want to watch the whole thing or even most of it, at the very least jump to the 13:00 mark for the last three minutes, where they show the final scene. That's the point of this. Trust me. But so that you know what's going in the final scene -- After telling the story of Don Quixote -- where, in the end, this dreamer of a noble world who has chased a fantasy, dies, but not before those who thought him crazy are transformed by his life -- the story returns to the "present day" of the prison. And the inmates (who had played the roles during the story) are themselves profoundly moved by the story about the efforts of one man trying to fight for justice and goodness against all reasonable odds. They return the manuscript to Cervantes, as the prison guards arrive to take him and his manservant with their trunk of possessions to their trial -- and the prisoners serenade him off (with impressively soaring voices here) to his destiny, with a reprise, as you might imagine, of the show's most memorable song. Starting at 13:00, watch the final scene to the very end of the video. This is why I'm posting it here. I hope some other schools and community theaters use this adaptation, at least for the time being. |
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. 
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