A Night at the Opera

It was only a few weeks ago that I went to the ballet and found myself pleasantly surprised. The lure of free tickets got me to try a night at the opera. I couldn’t imagine myself enjoying the opera. We went to see Madame Butterfly. I only lasted until the intermission. I told my wife I’d wait in the courtyard outside the seating area, but she joined me on our exit. Oh well, I did try. I’m just not an opera fan.

Review: Star Wars III

I promised a Star Wars review. Still pretty busy so here’s the short version:

Special Effects: Great
Acting: Not so great (perhaps it was the script)
Script: It was the script. Except for Hayden Christensen he can’t even use that excuse.

Should you see it?
Well, if you saw the other 5 you may as well go and see this one. It does connect (sometimes weakly) the story line between the two trilogys. If you have never seen a Star Wars film I’d wait for the DVD.

Grade: C

Where is the time?

I'm not sure why I can't post more here. I didn't want this to be just political rants. I do sent out cartoons, news info, etc. to a list of people who tend to be liberal and can't rely on corporate news. I do that many times a week, but can't seem to find the time to post here. I may have to just provide some of that info here. I did see the new Star Wars film and need to post a review soon. But...where is the time?

A Special May Night - 1996

A special May night in my life:

On October 16, 1995, Dwight Gooden was signed by the New York Yankees. His days of glory in New York City baseball pitching with the Mets were behind him. Drugs and alcohol had made the man they had called Doctor K" pay a price.

The 1996 season was more of the same for Gooden, failure. George Steinbrenner had claimed that the 31-year-old hurler could win 15 games. He wasStruggling to win one. Gooden was sent to the Yankee bullpen with an 0-3 record and an 11.48 ERA. "I've just got to keep working on my mechanics," the Doc said. "It's complete frustration more than anything else."A depleted Yankee pitching staff brought Gooden back to center stage. He was rushed into the rotation on April 27. There were six strong innings hurled against the Twins, a half dozen shutout innings over the White Sox. Then Gooden notched his first victory since June 19, 1994. It was a gem against the Tigers, the final 20 batters were retired in a row.

On Tuesday night, May 14, 1996, Dwight Gooden, his father in the hospital in Tampa slated for next day double bypass surgery, took the mound against Seattle.

I was scheduled to see a game with my fantasy baseball friends, one visiting from Seattle. As I left the house I told my wife, "I'll be home soon, Gooden's pitching." How wrong I was.

As the Mariners came to bat in the ninth inning, most of the 20,786 fans, hoarse from screaming inning after inning, were edgy, standing up. Gooden had thrown more than a hundred pitches and was going on grit now.The Mariners managed to get runners on first and second base. "It was Dwight's game all the way." said Joe Torre. A wild pitch to the dangerous Jay Buhner moved the runners to second and third with one out. Gooden reared back and fanned Buhner. Two out.Gooden's 135th pitch of the game was a swerving curve to Paul Sorrento, a high pop to Jeter - - no-hitter! Yankee Stadium rocked! Gooden was carried off the field on the shoulders of his Yankee teammates. "This is the greatest feeling of my life," he said. "I never thought I could do this, not in my wildest dreams. A year and a half ago I thought I had pitched my last game, so being able not only to make it back but to throw a no-hitter, that's been an incredible blessing for me."It was the eighth regular-season no-hitter by a Yankee hurler. For Dwight Gooden that performance ended a streak of 23 months without a major-league victory and saw him rebound from an 0-3 start to win 11 of next 13 decisions

Still remember it until this day.

Ballet

I never expected to be writing a ballet review, but a cousin of mine convinced me it was worth seeing. I’m a pretty open minded individual. (Some of my friends just did a spit take on that.) So on Friday night we went to the ballet. Actually the ballet came to us. We saw it at an outdoor theater. It was the Houston Ballet. The program was most impressive. And it wasn’t too much of a starched shirt thing. It consisted of three parts. The first part was a Texas oriented tribute to Patsy Cline music. The second was of all things danced to the music of the Rolling Stones. The third was Celtic music. Sort of a quiet Riverdance. The dancers were amazingly talented and extremely athletic. I really enjoyed all three. This was no dance recital ballet. I was about a week removed from seeing some great dancing in Movin’ Out. I’ve learned to appreciate yet another art form. There’s hope for me yet.