Culture – Page 15 – Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3

Time for Relegation in American Sports

There’s never an end to winter for Chicago Sports fans.

Being a sports fan in Chicago can be as tough as enduring a Chicago winter. Sure, there are moments when you feel like your teams can compete with the rest of their respective leagues, but there are also times when Haley’s Comet comes around. Snow and ice eventually melt, but the cold, hard reality of lovably losing lingers on.

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Chicago fans are not alone. There are other franchises in most professional sports that have also adopted losing and poor competitiveness as a business model. “Wait ‘till next year” is a plea full of promise, but mostly without a pay off.

Unless you’re making bank by being in the game. Given the ever growing revenue these franchises make from media, gambling, and given the enormous salaries these players make it should be at the least embarrassing. Tack on the ever-increasing costs of tickets to an actual game, the obviously approaching move to stream every game for some sort payment, and the ridiculous extortion that rips off taxpayers when owners demand a new stadium, it’s not just embarrassing, it feels like a straight up fleecing of the flock. Al Capone had nothing on this crowd.

Let’s take the Chicago franchises as examples.

The Chicago Cubs keep looking like they might actually find a way to contend but don’t seem to know how to spend the money to compete effectively. Nor do they know how to manage and play the game of baseball when it comes to pitching and making out a lineup. If you add up the losses from the once revered World Series year hero Kyle Hendricks alone this year, the Cubs might actually still be in contention for a Wild Card spot. Yesterday’s heroes don’t win today’s games. Toss in the losses tacked on to their record from not actually having a real closer and you’re also talking a different story.

Here’s the thing, there’s not too many Chicago Cubs fans who didn’t see every one of those losses coming once the lineups were announced and Hendricks was the starter. Sure, he won a few games, but there are other bad baseball teams with anemic lineups too. Those same fans also knew mostly what was coming when Hector Neris was trotted out to save a game.

Then there are the Chicago White Sox, you know the team that’s about to set the Major League Baseball record for the most losses in a season. Ever. As I write this they’ve tied the record and have six chances to forever dwell in that infamy. I doubt any other team will ever live down to that record. The owner, Jerry Reinsdorf, wants a new stadium. I’ve got news. No new stadium is going to fix the roster, the management, or Jerry, who also owns the Chicago Bulls, another amateur outfit picking the pockets of customers pretending to be a pro team still trying to live off Michael Jordan’s legacy.

I don’t follow hockey enough to comment on the Chicago Blackhawks, but I do know things haven’t looked great on the ice for enough time to earn a recent first round draft choice that might offer some hope. If he can survive the hype.

Speaking of hype, there are the Chicago Bears. If ever there was an example of the dangers of overhyping this year and this team is it. You’d think the Bears were a new Crypto or AI scheme or a new iPhone. But they are just a bad meme stock. Sure, every team needs to give their fans hope, hoping to sell tickets. But this year’s overhype was overripe.

The Bears may have landed a couple of good players with all of the draft capital they banked after pretending to be a pro team for so long, but they sure haven’t figured out that in professional football you need an O-line to compete.

Like with the Cubs, every fan can see the faults on the field. It doesn’t do a team any good to spend money on great skill players if you don’t provide them the coaching and the offensive line to let them use those skills. Known as the graveyard of quarterbacks and receivers I’m surprised the owners don’t open their own grave digging business as anxious as they are to break ground on a new stadium. The Bears do have what looks like a stout defense this season, but you have to play both sides of the ball. Perhaps the Bears might do better not fielding an offense.

All is not lost for Chicago sports fans. Chicago’s women’s sports teams at least play like it matters, even if they don’t get the attention or the rewards they deserve.

But that’s the thing. The rewards in the male sports world in Chicago and elsewhere are reaching levels that are beyond the scope of most to comprehend. The salaries, the media revenues, the gambling gazillions, and all the concession and parking prices just continue to spiral even for a less than mediocre team.

Perhaps we should demand a relegation system in American sports. If a team and its ownership can’t cut it, then it gets demoted to an also-ran division and a smaller cut of the pie. Field a winning team and you can move back up to play with the big boys and feast at the adult table. The Open League model is a cruel business model, but it’s less cruel than continually playing a shell game on your paying customers.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.

Sunday Morning Reading

Summer begins to fade into fall with this week’s Sunday Morning Reading.

It’s Labor Day weekend here in the states, which means a three-day weekend, yielding more than a little extra time for some Sunday Morning Reading during the last lake visit of the season. Kick back and enjoy.

I’m a Shakespeare geek so my senses perked up when one of my favorite writers, Natasha MH. revealed her reasons for not appreciating the bard in Much Ado About Nothing, Something, and Everything. Excellent read and I know she’s not alone. But then lots of folks are wrong about lots of things.

Jeff Jarvis tells us How Murdoch Makes a Meme (and how the rest of the media helps it spread). No real secrets here. Jarvis is correct about Rupert Murdoch’s malign influence. The single most destructive human on the planet during his lifetime of muckracking.

Preetika Rana takes a look at how the political moment is ruffling the feathers in the halls and salons of big tech in Clash of the Tech Titans: Silicon Valley Fractures Over Harris vs. Trump.

Ted Chiang explores Why A.I. Isn’t Going To Make Art. I agree with the thesis, but I’ll add that it’s going to screw up a lot while trying.

Why are software glitches and problems called bugs? Check out Matthew Wills’ The Bug in the Computer Bug Story.

Private Equity continues to gobble up everything it can get its teeth into. Apparently Private Equity Is Coming for Youth Sports according to Ira Boudway.

And to close out this week as summer begins to fade into fall, Mike Tanier gives us The Amusement Park Falls Cold and Dark.

If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. You can also find me on social networks under my own name.

Winning Night for The Lehman Trilogy

A winning team takes home awards for The Lehman Trilogy.

It was a big night for Playhouse on the Square and our production of The Lehman Trilogy in Memphis. Nominated for seven Ostrander Awards, an annual award celebrating excellence in theatre, we won four: Set Design, Leading Actor, Overall Production, and I was honored with an award as Director. POTS also took home a number of awards for other productions as well.

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We had a more than one blast getting the gang back together over the weekend before, during and after the awards event. Lots of reminiscing. Lots of fun. Lots of “we have to do this again” conversations. And we do.

On the big night, I can’t beign to describe how much joy I felt watching John Maness, Michael Gravois and Kevar Maffitt win the award for Leading Actor as a trio. These three gentlemen tackled a unique challenge and did indeed blend into one and it would have been impossible to single out one from another. It was a terrific way to acknowledge this unique collaboration.

All in all it was a great night for celebrating that rare achievement when you create an amazing piece of theatre and an amazing bond in one of those rare experiences that don’t come around that often and is more than just another show.

Bravos and Kudos to all!

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.

Sunday Morning Reading

Fiction, fears, dreams, and Chicago Corruption dot this Sunday Morning’s reading.

Good Sunday morning. I’m in Memphis for a few days to participate and celebrate in The Ostrander Awards in which my recent production of The Lehman Trilogy was nominated for seven awards, so this will be an abbreviated version of Sunday Morning Reading.

Designer (3). There was lots of joy at the Democratic Conventon in Chicago nominating Kamala Harris as candidate for the presidency. There was also lots of joy (and some disappointment from the media) that this year’s convention didn’t turn into 1968 all over again. Nevertheless, Chicago is still Chicago. Rick Kogan gives us a terrific look at some of Chicago’s colorful and sordid history of corruption in Boodlers, Bandits, and Notorious Politicians. Fun read.

No One’s Ready For This by Sarah Jeong takes a look at the question we’re all going to be asking more frequently in the age of AI: “What the hell is a photo these days anyway? That question has been around for awhile, but in the wake of Google’s release of its Reimagine Tool for the Pixel 9’s Magic Editor, that question might be asked with a bit more urgency in the near future. Or not.

Joan Westenberg tells us Why We Need Fiction.

David Todd McCarty wanders into our dreams or rather how we might be able to realize them by overcoming our fear of failure in The Magic of Failure And The Perils Of The Very Good.

Sunday Morning Reading

From James Joyce to finger painting, some Apple spoiling, some Peter Falk, some politics and what will the LLMs spit out next?

“Every life is many days, day after day.” But Sundays are for reading. Here’s a mix of politics, tech, and culture into what I hope is a tasty smorgasbord of good writing and good reading. Also some good fun. Enjoy this edition of Sunday Morning Reading.

There aren’t many areas of interest I follow that don’t seem to be fraught with tension and turmoil these days. Apple, its technology and business practices, is certainly one of those. One of the best recent pieces I’ve read on how the tides of popular and populist opinion may be shifting against the folks in Cupertino is one written by Matt Birchler. Check out Is This The Slow Decline of Apple’s “Cult”?

This is a terrific read and a terrific piece of theatre and entertainment history. Wayne Lawson’s When Peter Falk Was My Roommate, and Theater Ruled NYC is a trip down a memory lane most of us probably never were aware of.

Joan Westenberg takes a look look at The Bruised Egos of the Intellectual Narcissists that want to populate our thoughts. Joan also takes a good look at Truth Social, Twitter and the Loneliest Reich.

David Todd McCarty thinks we should rekindle some of what we lost as we pass through the years and recommends borrowing a four-year-old to help us see the world through their eyes in Finger Painting Through Life.

On the politics front, Marc Elias is doing the work for us all in his legal efforts to secure voting rights and the all important counting and certifying of the vote. Best piece of political news I’ve heard this week is that Elias has joined the Harris campaign’s legal team. Check out The Fight To Certify Elections Has Already Begun. We can’t say we haven’t been warned.

Perhaps you remember when the Nord Stream Pipeline exploded earlier in the war between Russia and Ukraine. Bojan Pancevski gives us one helluva story in A Drunken Evening, A Rented Yacht: The Real Story of the Nord Stream Pipeline Sabotage.

It’s easy to think this tempest of a political moment we’re in is something that’s suddenly sprung upon us. Aaron Timms reminds us that it’s been brewing for awhile in The Decade That Mangled The American Right.

Artificial Intelligence may be losing some of its luster as its purveyors continue to lust after our data. For those who enjoy seeing this play out, Aaron Drapkin gives us AI Gone Wrong: A List of AI Errors, Mistakes and Failures. I wonder how the LLMs will incorporate Drapkin’s work and spit it back out.

If you don’t recognize the quote that begins this week’s Sunday Morning Reading, perhaps Natasha MH gives us a clue in her piece Reading James Joyce Ulysses Will Be Fun, They Said. Tackling Joyce may or may not be worse than a trip to the dentist, but you can risk being “embalmed in spice of words.”

A Few Memories About Aging: Croquet, Neckties, Lessons Learned and Unlearned

All of sudden an old, yet seemingly very capable man, was old, yet seemingly incapable.

I wrote a little something about aging and my memories of how I came to understand, or not, what that concept means. This was spurred on by all we’ve lived through since Joe Biden’s debate performance, but it’s not so much about politics as it is about my grandfather, croquet, baseball and neckties.

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You can read Croquet, Neckties, Lessons Learned and Unlearned all on the Medium publication, Ellemeno.

Thanks to David Todd McCarty and NatashaMH for giving me the space.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.

Nick Offerman Sings Proud To Be A Kamala Man in Hysterical Parody

Nick Offerman sings Proud To Be A Kamala Man as only Nick can.

My old buddy and iconoclastic actor Nick Offerman took to the Comics for Kamala gathering online last night and unveiled his parody rendition of Proud to Be an American, rechristened as Proud To Be A Kamala Man.

Nick and I tackled Robert Schenkkan’s opus The Kentucky Cycle years ago before his career took off like lighting in a bottle as Ron Swanson in Parks and Recreation. One late night (there were many) over a pool table, Nick described the two-part 6 and 1/2 hour production as not a play, but a way of life. There are stories.

But back to the video, here’s a taste of the lyrics:

“I’m proud to be a Kamala man, who has quit the GOP, because I can’t just abide by a man who’s tried for 34 felonies. And I’ll proudly stand up and face the facts that the men that I once cheered are a bunch of wingnut white nationalists … Well, those guys are fucking weird.”

Sung from the perspective of a MAGAt who’s changed his stripes the rest is just as fun, with a few exceptions for scansion issues. Check it out yourself.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.

Sunday Morning Reading

Toddling around with toddlers, politics, the Overton Window and dash of satire.

We’re in the dog days of summer and the dogged days of an election cycle that keeps getting weirder by the day. Today’s Sunday Morning Reading will have it’s share of politics, a look through the Overton Window, and close out with some satire. Enjoy!

Speaking of weird, David Todd McCarty tells us What We Mean When We Say Weird.

Not weird at all, but a warning to be well heeded. Marc Elias tells us that The Fight To Certify the Election Has Already Begun. Pay attention to this folks, becuase the fight isn’t over with the election.

The concept of Christianity has taken a hit that it might not recover from. Some are trying to fight back. Eliza Griswold gives us The Christian Case Against Trump.

Joan Westenberg gives us an explainer of the ever shifting Overton Window. If you don’t know what that is check out The Overton Window: An Explainer. Heck, check it out regardless.

Natasha MH finds some guidance from a toddler in The Teetotaler and the Toddler.There’s always magic and redemption in watching the young ones discover the world. One day we’ll learn not to screw that up.

Brilliant and Dispassionate. Jim Bauman takes a look at who intelligence benefits and who it hurts.

Michaela Zee highlights an interview with Vince Vaughn who says R-Rated Comedies Aren’t Made Anymore Because the ‘People In Charge Don’t Want to Get Fired:’ They ‘Overthink It.’ I’m not sure it’s overthinking as much as thinking more about making money, rather than thinking about telling a story.

And to close things out this week, Garret Epps posits a satirical spin on the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. Fitting, since we seem to have turned current day debates into a parody. Check out The Lost Lincoln-Douglas Debate at the Trump Saloon.

If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.You can also find me on social networks under my own name.

The Marsh Family takes on J.D. Vance in Parody Song

This is just too good not to share. Using Abba’s Dancing Queen as the tune, The Marsh Family does a terrific parody song that hits all the notes we know so far about the MAGAt candidate for Vice President J.D. Vance.

The lyrics are just too damn clever. Bravo! Well done. Share this around, watch from your couch and enjoy the laughs.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.

The Lehman Trilogy Diaries: Showered with Nominations In Awards Season

Great recognition for a wonderful team of theatre artists for a special production.

Well this is exciting news. Our production of The Lehman Trilogy at Playhouse on the Square in Memphis was nominated in seven categories for The Ostrander Awards. As always any recognition is more than appreciated, but when you have a special production with a special team it is even more special.

Nominated from our team include:

Iza Bateman for Props

J. David Galloway for Scenic Design

Rachel Lauren for Lighting Design

Joshua Crawford for Sound Design

Myself for Direction

Myself and our Stage Manager Emma White for Production

And in a terrific nod to the three amazing actors who carried the load, John Maness, Michael Gravois and Kevar Maffitt were nominated not as an ensemble but together as one Leading Actor in a play. That may not make much sense if you don’t know the show, but these three amazing talents literally became inseparable as one in creating the hundreds of characters that fill this challenging piece of theatre. I can’t think of a finer way to honor the incredible performances they gave and the amazing work it took to get there.

Kudos to all involved as well as all of the other nominees. Thanks to the Ostrander folks for the recognition and thanks to the great folks at Playhouse on the Square for the opportunity for us to tell this amazing story. We’ll find out if we won anything on August 26th.

Photo above by Sean Moore.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.