Dick Allen's Famous Chili Dog Game

Today is the 53rd anniversary Dick Allen's Chili Dog Home Run.  

This is also the first year we can watch this video without wondering when Dick will finally make it into the Hall of Fame. 

This video pays tribute to a day famous in White Sox lore.  

 

Breakfast Serials: Marty Television Presentation 1953 Part 1

On April 11th 1955, The Film Marty premiered. It would go on to be nominated for 8 Academy Awards and win 4 Best Film. Best Director: Delbert Mann, Best Actor: Ernest Borgnine and Best Screenplay: Paddy Chayefsky.  

Chayefsky's screenplay was adapted from a television play  he wrote which was performed live in The Philco Television Hour in 1953.  Each Tuesday in June at 6:30 A.M. central I will be posting a section from the television program with some fun facts at the end.  Since I am showing these in serialized fashion, and showing them in the a.m., I am calling them Breakfast Serials.

Marty 1953 Part I

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Fun Fact:  Esther Minciotti, Joe Mantell, and Augusta Ciolli  who played The respective parts of Marty's Mom ,best friend, and Aunt  all reprised these roles in the 1955 film.  Mantell was nominated for best supporting actor Oscar but did not win.   

Join us next week for another installment of Marty.  

12 New Movies: Saturday Night 2024

George Carlin circa 1975 
The year he hosted the first episode of Saturday Night Live

By Little David Records - eBay, Public Do
main, Linkhref="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12827989">Link

  As with all the 12 New Movie reviews , I will attempt to do the following: 

1. Rate each movie on a 1 (worst movie ever) to 5 (best movie I have seen) scale.
2.  Provide a 2-3 sentence summary of the movie. 
3.  I will share 1 theme from the movie.  
4. Write one thing I liked about the movie and 1 thing I disliked about the movie. 
5. State who I think would make the best audience for this movie. 

Saturday Night (2024) Rating 3 1/2 stars out of 5 

 Summary: It is 1975 and in a few  hours the first episode of Saturday Night Live is going to premiere, or will it?   Loren Michaels must battle with censors, sponsors, affiliates, actors, writers, and network executives among others to try to revolutionize the variety show. 

Theme: You can't recognize something you've never seen before.

 Likes: Excellent ensemble casting throughout.  The director and the casting director do an excellent job and as do the actors themselves in doing what Variety "taking Icons and making them human

Dislikes:  I liked the frenetic pace of the movie and the fact that it seemed to really capture the inten.

sity of the last few hours before the show started.  There were times when the intensity was so much it became difficult to watch.  My wife actually had to stop watching because the she thought the intensity was raising her blood pressure.  

 A Good Audience for this Film: Fans of the work of Ivan Reitman, will love this homage to SNL by Ivan's son Jason.  Fans of Saturday Night Live and people who like behind the scenes back stage origin stories should enjoy this movie.  

2025 New To Me Film Update

 I have watched and reviewed 4 films:

Films released from 2009 to 2024                      Watched 1 Remaining 1 

Films released from 1994 to 2008                      Watched 1 Remaining 1 

Films released from 1979 to 1993                      Watched 0 Remaining 2 

Films released from 1964 to 1978                      Watched 1 Remaining 1 

Films released from 1949 to 1963                      Watched 0 Remaining 2 

Films released before 1934 and up to 1948       Watched 1 Remaining 1 

Poetry Friday: Life In A Hall of Mirrors

 It's Poetry Friday time and since this is my first Friday since school ended, I thought I might celebrate the start of my ntwith sharing a poem here.

I wrote this poem 32 years ago when I was in my late 20's.  I came across it today when going through boxes stored in our Garage Attic or the Grattic as we like to call it.

I recited this poem publicly  some 30 years ago.  It went over like a lead balloon like all the poems I recited that night.  I tool one of them out of mothballs and posted it here on Poetry Friday 3 years back. It was well received so I thought I'd share this one as well.

Life In A Hall of Mirrors

Distant music of the Ice Cream Truck

Wafts sweetly through the streets

Children Stop Their Playing

Pavlovian dogs pull allowance out of pockets

Catching A glimpse of the truck

They pursue their pied piper

The Truck stops; The smiling driver is cheered by the crows

The children happily exchange their money

For sticks wrapped in paper

An old man watches them pretend to eat ice cream

And tells of the old days

When The Ice Cream Man sold Ice Cream

(And it cost less too!)

The children say they like pretending better

The Ice Cream Man drives off

Wondering what to leave off next

The stick or the wrapper

Karen Edmisten is hosting Poetry Friday this week.  Click here to get there. 

UKRAINE | ALLEN LEVI

Rock Musicians keep dreaming until Jesus Rocks their world.

Introduction: Vladimir Lebedev is one of my favorite people in the world.  I have thought this about him almost since I met him in Khabarovsk, Russia in December of 1992. Vladimir has has worn many hats in the time I've known him. chauffeur, itinerant musician, soldier, interpreter, pastor, international student, father, husband, missionary but with every hat he's always tried to adorn himself with humility, wisdom, grace, and a desire to show God to others.

To that end, I was delighted, but not surprised, when Vladimir  shared some thoughts on musicians using their platforms on his Facebook page earlier this week.  I am sharing them here with links to some of the songs that he referenced. I'll add some of my thoughts about his musical musings at the end.

Rock musicians keep dreaming. Good intentions. Strong lyrics. Terrific music. Is there a solution to the world’s evils? Can humanity come together to live in peace? Can we stop hypocrisy and greed in the governments to bring wars to an end? Can we finally start caring for one another instead of looking for reasons to separate and hate? 

 Long ago, John Lennon with his “Imagine.” Freddy Mercury of Queen with his “Show must go on.” Ozzy (Osbourne) with his “Dreamer.” Russian rockers of various types Zemlyane, Kruiz, and Aria with their “songs for peace.” And more recently Udo Dirkschneider with his soul-shattering “One Heart, One Soul.”

This indeed is a passionate call for common sense, for something every human soul feels deep within.  But where is it really taking us? Is there something missing in this search? Is it not crying out into a void? It is impossible to, in the words of Bono from U2, "find what we are looking for" without turning to our Creator and Savior who revealed himself to humanity in the person of Jesus the Christ. He has everything that our whole beings are craving for.

Maybe Blacky Lawless of WASP is right when he sings:

Jesus, I need you now

Show me, I'm lost somehow ...

Is there no hope for me?

Oh, somewhere you'll show for me?

Ooh, Lord remember me, take me up tonight

(Golgotha, 2015)

Imagine by John Lennon

The Show Must Go On - Queen (Lyrics Video)

Dreamer by Ozzy Osbourne

[Verse 1] Gazing through the window at the world outside Wondering will mother earth survive Hoping that mankind will stop abusing her sometime After all, there's only just the two of us And here we are still fighting for our lives Watching all of history repeat itself time after time [Chorus] I'm just a dreamer I dream my life away I'm just a dreamer Who dreams of better days [Verse 2] I watch the sun go down like everyone of us I'm hoping that the dawn will bring a sign A better place for those who will come after us this time [Chorus] I'm just a dreamer I dream my life away, oh yeah I'm just a dreamer Who dreams of better days This indeed is a passionate call for common sense, for something every human soul feels deep within. But where is it really taking us? Is there something missing in this search? Is it not crying out into a void? It is impossible to “find what we are looking for” (in the words of Bono of U2) without turning to our Creator and Savior who revealed himself to humanity in the person of Jesus the Christ. He has everything that our whole beings are craving for. Maybe Blacky Lawless of WASP is right when he sings: Jesus, I need you now Show me, I'm lost somehow . . . Is there no hope for me? Oh, somewhere you'll show for me? Oh, I'm holding on, believing there's a reason I can find Ooh, Lord remember me, take me up tonight (Golgotha, 2015) Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - Sing 2

Zemlyane: The Grass Besides Our Home

English Lyrics

Earth in the viewport,

 Earth in the viewport,

 Earth in the viewport that I see…

 

 Like a son missing his mother,

 Like a son missing his mother, 

We miss our Earth - we have but one… \

But the stars nevertheless, 

But the stars nevertheless,

 Draw closer, though they’re still as cold as ever… 

 And like at the hour of eclipse, 

And like at the hour of eclipse, 

We wait for light and see our earthly dreams… 

 And we dream not of thunder at the cosmodrome, 

Not of the ice-cold blue of the sky -

 But we dream of grass - the grass beside our house 

Green, green grass… — 

 And we fly our orbits,

 Unbeaten paths - 

 Lifetimes like meteors in the vastness…

 Courage and risk were justified, 

For the music of space 

Floats into our matter-of-fact talk… 

 In some opaque haze 

Earth in the viewport - 

An early evening-time twilight… 

 But the son misses his mother 

But the son misses his mother - 

The mother waits for her son, as the earth awaits her children…

 And we dream not of thunder at the cosmodrome, 

Not of the ice-cold blue of the sky - 

But we dream of grass - the grass beside our house 

Green, green grass…

 

Dave's Thoughts: I really appreciated Vladimir's take on this,  I think it's especially important to note that trying to fix a  broken world is a universal pursuit. It is not just an American past time. In the 1970's there were many popular songs that I would call searching songs.  Songs like Desperado by the Eagles and Dust In the Wind by Kansas.  In the late 70's early 80's the years of my spiritual formation many people would use these songs in the same way Paul used the statues on Mar's Hill, as a way to pointing to the truth of Jesus. Vladimir is essentially doing similar work in his comments here.