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Swiss stuff should run like stolen artwork.
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Author Archives: Iowa Life
The kick heard ’round the state
The man of the hour: Cole Netten
Iowa State kicker Cole Netten won the game Saturday against Iowa by a clutch kick with 2 seconds left to defeat Iowa 20 – 17. He couldn’t have done it though without help from the $4.5 Million Dollar Man, Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz.
Ferentz, in one of the great strateegerizing moments in the annuls of football history, called a timeout moments before as Netten’s first kick sailed wide. Try # 2 ! Good! Thanks Ferentz, ISU couldn’t have done it without you!
What a difference in crisis management
What a difference of competence in a crisis. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver dealt with the Donald Sterling affair in swift and decisive fashion. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is stumbling around like a rookie trying to deal with Ray Rice. He’s making the same mistake as the Nixon administration, it’s not the crime that is going to take you out, it’s the cover-up. Anyone can govern when the going is easy, you get paid the big bucks to handle the tough job. He fumbled.
The Pappajohn Sculpture Park!
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In the Heat of the Night
Talk about your quality programming. Did I watch this show 25 years ago when it was first run? Noooo …. I generally “discover” an artist, movie or show long after it’s prime. Heat of the Night so clearly stands in contrast to today’s programming. KDMI Channel 19 in central Iowa plays 4 episodes straight on Sunday evening. One of tonight’s episodes, ‘Hello in There’, was a prime example of why it was such good TV.
Chief Gillespie (Carroll O’Connor) goes out to question the deceased’s grandfather Winston Tyler (played by Whitman Mayo, ‘Grady’ from Sanford and Son). They took nearly 5 minutes for a very nice scene with the Chief and Tyler. A couple of old actors who really knew their craft, and a director who was willing to spend a little time to impart something modern shows know little about- humanity.
As Mayo’s character is talking to O’Connor, you can see the emotions slowly come across his face as he turns away. The director does these nice tight close-up’s, and has the actors go slow and low-key, and ends up doing ‘more with less’.
In a way I would think this was O’Connor’s crown jewel of his career. The acting, scripts and production were so outstanding. At first I was going to say that All in the Family was more socially consequential, and it would have to be for the most part I suppose. But Heat was so immensely important for it’s exemplary diversity in casting. Few shows before or since did what it did to have women and minorities portrayed in healthy and realistic ways. Carroll O’Connor broke new ground in both his series.
The thing that set Heat apart was that the characters were the story, not the crime (it was ostensibly a police show after all). In today’s hyper sophisticated and technical crime shows, it is all about the wow! The forensic side of the crime. That’s great if you are a criminal justice major, not so much for a viewer.
That’s a lot of it I think. It wasn’t so much about how gruesome a crime the writers could come up with. It wasn’t about how good the hero was at shooting or fighting. It was about the storytelling and the human drama.
Carroll O’Connor was good and brought good people with him and made good people better. Shoot, the series had 30 directors. These are the directors that did more than 10 shows each: Harry Harris, Russ Mayberry, Vincent McEveety and Winrich Kolbe. So whatever it was that made this show great, it worked.
The other thing a viewer noticed aside from close-ups, was the audio. (And from a ‘gunners’ perspective, I loved the way they had the criminal and the good guy go to the rifle so often as the weapon of choice. The rifle in reality is so much more powerful a weapon than the handgun. Except for when the Chief was shooting of course, he was ‘one shot’ Bill! I suppose for the modern pretty boy, it’s much more ‘sexy’ to have them dancing around with a pistol.) They don’t make TV like that no more.
The 4 (point 5) Million Dollar Man
The excitement is palpable. One week until the start of the college football season. In Iowa, a good amount of the season involves waiting to see how bad the Hawkeyes choke. We know what the Cyclones will do. They will try way hard and play light years above their potential, and end up 6 – 6.
The Hawkeyes provide the real entertainment though. Not because of how good they will be, but how bad. The Hawks have several great tendencies that have always helped them to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Phil Steele’s 2014 strength of schedule rankings has the Hawks with the 70th weakest schedule in the nation. You’d think 9 – 3, my money is on 4 – 8. The opener next Saturday against the UNI Panthers should be a real indicator. I would just die if the win went to UNI. My guess is the UNI coach doesn’t make one million a year, let alone 4.
After watching the Hawks for 30 years, this is what I always see them do. During the first series of the year, it will look like their feet are in molasses, they have to be the slowest starting team in the history of college football. Every year. The running game will be spotty. The quarterback will complete just 3 passes over 10 yards (in the air), everything else will be for 5, 6 and 8 yards. On third and 8 he will throw for 7. On passes over the middle, the passes will be kicking dirt in front of the receiver. All other passes will be against the sideline just out of reach. The receiver chosen will be the one with 3 defenders around him. The tight ends will be wide open and completely ignored. The defense will have the other team at 3rd and 26, and give up the first down. 2 students will die from alcohol related deaths. AD Gary Barta will extend Ferentz’s contract to 2030.
The Manhattan Short Film Festival is coming!
The Manhattan Short Film Festival is coming to Des Moines September 26, 28 and October 2 at the Des Moines Art Center. They take all their entries (this year 589) and boil them down to ten finalists. Then you get to fill out a ballot and vote for the winner that day. About a week later you can go to their website and see if your tastes conform to those of everyone else around the world who voted! Another thing that separates them from other festivals (the festival comes to you) is that you can purchase a DVD of past films.
My only disagreement with the whole deal is all you get to see are the ten finalists. Using this year as an example, that is 579 shorts you don’t get to see. If Obi-Wan chose correctly, all well and good. But otherwise, there are a lot of shorts you’ll never see. And in past years amongst the ten finalists were some very mediocre films.
The Best of Times
The suicide of Robin Williams leaves you scratching your head again. Money, fame, talent. What was missing? Empty? Where was the support network? No one saw it coming? Wikipedia says he was Episcopalian. Good for him. He should be okay. My favorite movie of his was The Best of Times. Robin was very normal in that one. Very human.
America: Imagine the World Without Her
Hmm… kind of good, kind of lame. Dinesh D’Souza for anyone unfamiliar with him, is a Republican. That doesn’t make him a bad person, but it does make for a fairly bad film. It would have helped with the power of the message if it had been completely honest instead of just having a Republican perspective.
It focused a lot on the subversive intent of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and their tutelage under Saul Alinsky and William Ayers, but for heaven’s sake, there is a lot more wrong with America than just that bunch. It’s really not a Democrat/Republican thing at all, but D’Souza paints it that way. The Knight on a white charger will be a Republican in D’Souza’s world.
Dinesh does a wonderful job rebutting American history as it is taught now condemning white America. Bolstering our actions as it relates to native Americans, African Americans, Latin Americans and our supposed theft from other countries worldwide. It’s a lot to cram into a couple of hours, but it is invaluable to the generic Republican who is woefully ignorant on these topics (and also for independents like me).
Precious little time was spent on the title’s premise, “Imagine a world without her” (America). That had some potential. The viewer going in felt that the film was going to explore what the world would have been like with America losing the revolutionary war. He went as far as having George Washington being killed on the battlefield, but then he left you hanging. Instead it degenerated into a “Republican good, Democrat bad” show. And while it is true that Democrats have put America in a horrible position, nearly as equally complicit are Republicans. Dinesh also focuses on the Executive Branch and gives the Legislative Branch a pass. Congress is way too guilty for that.
What does give me great respect for Dinesh is the vitriol that comes his way from the Left. As I did a little research on the background of the film and D’Souza, it became clear that liberals truly do revile the man. That right there makes him a peach of a fellow. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Million Dollar Arm
What a nice surprise Million Dollar Arm was. The true story of sports agent J.B. Bernstein who discovers two pitching prospects in Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel, baseball novices from India. This Disney film was best during the India filming and when it focused on the three Indian actors, Suraj Sharma, Madhur Mittal and Pitobash Tripathy. Those three have so much to offer. Bill Paxton as the USC pitching coach was nice also. A bit slow at times, a bit ponderous, but worth seeing.
Iowa life 