Blog Archives

Pysch!

And suddenly it is warm in New York, at least for a minute.

Skirts, skirts, where are all the ice cream skirts?

Look what I found in the BX this morning…

Pauline Kael on “Dog Day Afternoon” (from “When The Lights Go Down”):

In “Dog Day Afternoon,” we don’t want any explanation of how it is that Sonny (Al Pacino) lives in both heterosexual and homosexual marriages. We accept the idea because we dont really believe in patterns of behavior anymore–only in behavior. Sonny, who is trapped in the middle of robbing a bank, with a crowd gathering in the street outside, is a working-class man who got into this mess by trying to raise money for Leon (Chris Sarandon) to have a sex-change operation, ye the audience doesn’t laugh. The most touching element in the film is Sonny’s inability to handle all the responsibilities he has assumed. Though he is half-crazed by his situation, he is trying to do the right thing by everybody–his wife and children, the suicidal Leon, the hostages in the bank. In the sequence in which Sonny dictates his will, we can see that inside this ludicrous bungling robber there’s a complicatedly unhappy man, operating out of a sense of noblesse oblige.

The structure of “Dog Day Afternoon” loosens in the last three-quarters of an hour, but that was the part I particularly cared for. This picture is one of the most satisfying of all the movies starring New York City because the director, Sidney Lumet, and the screenwriter, Frank Pierson, having established that Sonny’s grandstanding gets the street crowd on his side against the cops, and that even the tellers are on his side, let us move into the dark, confused areas of Sonny’s frustrations and don’t explain everything to us. They trust us to feel without our being told how to feel. They prepare us for a confrontation scene between Sonny and Leon, and it never comes, but even that is all right, because of the way that Pacino and Sarandon handle their contact by telephone; Sonny’s anxiety and Leon’s distress are so pure that there’s no appeal for sympathy–no star kitsch to separate us from the nakedness of the feelings on the screen.

How about a little Talking Heads to get us going today?

Chocolate Thunder vs Texas Heat. Yanks and Sox at Fenway Park on Sunday Night Baseball.

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Photo Credit: Harvey Frommer.com]

With the Yanks and Sox playing tonight, today gives cooking and cleaning and hanging around, reading the paper, watching some NBA, checking out the Mets, and loungin’ with the Mrs and the pussy cats.

[Photo Credit: Nina Server via This Isn’t Happiness]

Sidney Lumet made some great movies and some decent ones and a bunch of clunkers. But he almost always got good performances from his actors. “Q&A” was a New York corrupt cop story, a Lumet specialty. It wasn’t a great movie but it featured a lot of solid performances–Armand Assante was never better–especially from the supporting cast, another Lumet trademark.

But it was Nick Nolte’s movie.

Man, when he’s on, Nolte is great.

Beautiful day at Fenway Park. The game was no gem, it moved at a characteristically glacial pace, but in the end the Yanks ran away from the Red Sox and won, 9-4. Russell Martin hit two dingers, Curtis Granderson hit a bomb against a left hander and Robinson Cano also hit a long homer. Eric Chavez had three hits, including two doubles off the Green Monster and Alex Rodriguez had a couple of hits too.

Ivan Nova did not pitch well, didn’t even make it through five innings (Carlos Silva signed a minor league deal in the middle of the game; who is next–Rudy May?). The game was close for a minute at 5-4 but David Robertson got out of trouble and then the Yanks pulled away. Joba Chamberlain tossed a nice 1-2-3 inning and Soriano and Rivera weren’t needed (even though Rivera warmed up in the ninth just in case).

A nice win on a pretty day.

Ahhhh.

Yanks look to rebound today.

Git ’em boys, c’mon now!

Sidney Lumet, one of the great directors to come out of television in the 1950s, has died. He was 86. A New York legend, he was the man behind the camera for classics like “12 Angry Men,” “Long Day’s Journey Into Night,” “Serpico,” “Dog Day Afternoon,” “Network” and “The Verdict.”

Bow down.

Home opener for the Red Sox today at Fenway Park. Over at the Bible, Cliff has the series preview. The Sox are 0-6. But they are facing Phil Hughes and they could break out in a royal way this afternoon. I’m not hopeful that Hughes can hold them off. Shame on me for my lack of faith, I know.

No matter, I’ll be root-root-rooting for the Bombers. So never mind the skepticism and…

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

Gene Kelly and Sugar Ray Robinson tap it out:

A.J. Burnett, the man with the golden arm, makes his second start of the year this afternoon.

Grandy gets the day off:

1. Jeter SS
2. Swisher RF
3. Texeira 1B
4. Rodriguez 3B
5. Cano 2B
6. Posada DH
7. Jones LF
8. Martin C
9. Gardner CF

Never mind the preamble, Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Photo Credit: Enduring Wanderlust]

Dem Bones…

The New York Times on oven braised pork ribs.

Yes, please.

[Photo Credit: Michael McElroy]