News from Hollywood, and it isn't good

 

 

More runaway production: American Idol is leaving L.A. for Atlanta, Georgia. According to the linked article, The Masked Singer had previously left California for New Jersey. 

 

First the Oscars left broadcast TV for YouTube, now the Emmys are negotiating to air on Amazon streaming. Most recently, the broadcast networks have taken turns airing the ceremony, but in addition to less and less public interest in Hollywood awards shows, according to the article the networks interest has also waned "given that the number of awards that they win continue to dwindle..." which is understandable. The days of broadcast TV dominating the Emmys is long gone. The awards are now dominated by cable networks like HBO or streaming networks like Amazon and Netflix. Why promote your competition? It also probably didn't help that viewership was down 10% from last year.

 

Robert DeNiro in negotiations to play Tommy Lasorda. Having grown up as a Dodgers fan during Lasorda's time with the team (from third base coach to legendary manager) I have mixed feelings about this. Lasorda was a truly larger than life character and it would be great to see a well-done biopic. The concern is always whether or not the actor will be doing an impression of the real-life person, or if he will be able to make you feel like you're watching the real person, the suspension of disbelief. Helen Mirren did it with Queen Elizabeth and word is that Anthony Ippolito absolutely disappears into Sylvester Stallone in the upcoming I Play Rocky. Also, the project is titled Tommy & Me, and I wonder who the "Me" is who is telling Lasorda's story. Time will tell if this works or not.

 

And then there's the increasingly real possibility that Paramount may actually go with the nuclear option and leave L.A. I'm not even sure how to process it if this happens, but the idiots running our city and state have made the place so economically uninhabitable for business (not to mention standard of living) that it could happen. Our politicians are just stupid enough to drive away a historic Hollywood studio.

Daaaaamn, Dodgers!

Wait, I thought the Dodgers were supposed to be an invincible machine, especially once they snagged Shohei. It did get them a World Series last season. This season?

 

LOL the look on Ohtani's face. He's used to dominating, not being dominated.

 

The Cubbies absolutely destroyed the Dodgers yesterday, and they did it at Dodger Stadium. I can't remember ever seeing an MLB score like this. It was the worst home loss in franchise history. I wonder how many fans stuck it out until the bitter end. My guess is that the living nightmare that is the Dodger Stadium parking lot was a lot easier to get out of than usual by the end of this fiasco.

What's really crazy is that it was a perfectly close 2-0 game through six innings. Then Chicago proceeded to crank out 14 runs in three innings. Look at this boxscore:

 

The Dodgers started the season with a scorching 8-0 record, but since then only won three of the next eight games. As of this morning they are in third place in the NL West behind the Padres and Giants. Don't feel too bad for them, though. There's still a lot of season left.

RIP Fernando Valenzuela

There was a time when I was a huge Dodgers fan. I'd been raised a Dodgers fan by my father and grandmother. I haven't really cared about baseball for years (decades) and I don't give a rat's ass about the Dodgers making it into the World Series this week. But there was a time, many Dodgers lineups ago, when I bled Dodger blue and that included the Fernandomania era.

So God damn, this one hurts: Fernando Valenzuela dies at 63.

What I remember about Fernandomania was that as I was stuck commuting in traffic on L.A. freeways after yet another day at yet another crappy office job, the bright spot in my day was listening to the Dodgers games on the radio on the way home. The commute was made bearable when Vin Scully would announce, "It's time for Dodger baseball!" And I remember that Fernando would pitch himself into ridiculous holes and then proceed to pitch his way right out of them, while I sweated his flirting with disaster in my car in traffic. It's an old memory, but one I've never forgotten and will never forget.

Credit

Recently I'd seen something online about Valenzuela being ill, but couldn't find any news about it, so I figured he'd be okay. The announcement of his passing popped up on Facebook tonight and I wasn't expecting that at all. Just horrible news for Angelenos, Dodgers fans or not. Valenzuela was a huge part of life in L.A. in the 1980's and now another part of that awesome decade is gone.

His presence on the Dodgers along with his amazing accomplishments on the mound were huge for the Mexican-American community in Los Angeles, but as someone who is about as lily white as they come, I can assure you it wasn't just that community that loved him. He was universally loved by Los Angeles and will be universally mourned and missed. 

RIP #34 and condolences to your family and friends from a fan from a long time ago.

You Know Who works in mysterious ways

An oldie but goodie from icanhazcheeseburger

From The Babylon Bee: 

 

 From the article:

 

Ya think? Do check out the whole article at the link. In the meantime, here's what happened:

The Dodgers won the NL West with a record of 100 wins and 62 losses for a .617 winning percentage. Only the Atlanta Braves (104) and the Baltimore Orioles (101) won more games. And the differential of runs scored versus allowed was dominating: +207. Only Atlanta (+231) was better.

 

On the other hand, the Arizona Diamondbacks were a distant second to the Dodgers with a record of 84-78 for an anemic .519 "winning" percentage, which means they won barely more than half of their games. But it was good enough for a Wild Card spot in the playoffs.

I don't follow baseball that closely to have seen the predictions about this matchup, but I would bet most if not all heavily favored the Dodgers. And I'll bet no one thought there was a snowball's chance in Hell (see what I did there) of the Dodgers being swept by a clearly inferior team.

And yet yesterday, the Diamondbacks swept the Dodgers 3 games to 0 in the playoffs, eliminating them in the most humiliating way possible. The Boys in Blue go home in shame, while the DBacks will be taking on either Atlanta or Philly.

God's punishment? Who knows? But the Dodgers just took a trip to playoff Hell. Have a nice off-season, blasphemers. And oh, to be a fly on the wall at a Catholic church this weekend.

Storm of the Century

So Hurricane Hilary, the first tropical storm to hit Los Angeles since 1939, has come and gone. In my part of town, the result was almost non-stop rain, heavy at times, for a period of about twenty-four hours. I didn't notice particularly high winds, although it was breezy at times but that's not unusual for us. I've seen higher winds just out shopping on a nice day. And by lunchtime Monday everything was bright and sunny again, the previous day's doom and gloom an old memory.

Unfortunately, not all areas were as lucky as mine. Palm Springs got hit hard. In fact, most of the really serious issues seem to be centered mostly in the desert area, although it turned out that cancelling their Sunday game in advance was a good move by the Dodgers, whose parking lot is an unorganized living hell after games on a good day. Overall, California got a lot of much-needed rain with no loss of life.

But because the most-hyped weather in years just wasn't enough, we also got an earthquake! I was laying on my bed reading and felt a soft jolt. For a second I thought Sophie had jumped onto the bed, but when I didn't see her I thought, "Was that an earthquake?" I got up and felt a couple seconds of swaying, which confirmed my suspicion. Other than that, that was it. It was very minor where I lived. The quake turned out to be a 5.1 centered in Ojai, in Ventura County. And (in addition to some social media "What's next, Sharknado? jokes) apparently it created a new word:

Leave it to The Babylon Bee to get into the act:

 

And now, back to our regularly scheduled August weather.

August Words of Wisdom

I try to call the play as quickly as I possibly can and then shut up and let the crowd roar because, to me, the crowd is the most wonderful thing in the whole world when it's making noise. --Vin Scully

 

I have a deeply hidden and inarticulate desire for something beyond the daily life. --Virginia Woolf

 

Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion. --Aristotle 

 

A good character is the only guarantee of everlasting, carefree happiness. --Seneca 

If you want to be beautiful, make beautiful choices. --Epictetus

Your calm mind is the ultimate weapon against your challenges. --Bryant McGill

 

I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity. --Albert Einstein

 

Most people fail, not because of lack of desire, but because of lack of commitment. --Vince Lombardi

Many may mock you for following the old ways, but if they are not going on the same journey, their words are meaningless. --Ryan Landry

 

I don't want to suffer, so excuse me if I excuse myself from situations that suck all of my energy. --Sylvester McNutt

Sometimes it takes courage just to stay alive in this world. --Seneca

 

Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me. --Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

I like to be a free spirit. Some don't like that, but that's the way I am. --Diana, Princess of Wales

Image from the Los Angeles Dodgers on Facebook

Another great one gone - RIP Vin Scully

Vin Scully, long-time voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers, died yesterday at the age of 94. It was a life well-lived, but also a tough loss for Los Angeles, where Scully was a legend and part of the soundtrack of so many Angeleno childhoods and lives, including mine. It's been years since I've watched a Dodgers game, but I can still hear Scully's voice in my head announcing, "It's time for Dodger baseball!"

Part of Scully's appeal was that in addition to being one of the very best at what he did, he was also a class act. I have literally never heard a negative word about him. A devout Catholic, he credited his faith and his work in surviving the premature deaths of his first wife and his eldest son. His second wife, to whom he was married for 48 years, passed away last year. 94 years is a good, long life, but the world is a poorer place without Vin in it.

This article on mlb.com has some great vids of some of Scully's many finest moments in the broadcast booth.

"You and I have been friends for a long time, but I know in my heart that I've always needed you more than you've ever needed me, and I'll miss our time together more than I can say. But you know what? There will be a new day and eventually a new year. And when the upcoming winter gives way to spring, rest assured, once again it will be "time for Dodger baseball." So this is Vin Scully wishing you a very pleasant good afternoon, wherever you may be." (Vin Scully's signoff after his final game.)