“And then I knew I was one of Life’s fools,
Whom only death would treat as the equal
Of other men, making me feel like a man.”
— Edgar Lee Masters, ”56. Homer Clapp,” Spoon River Anthology
1925-1949, poster by Evert Möllenkamp.
via Vintage Safety - 50 Watts: ‘Fifty years of workplace safety posters courtesy of Geheugenvannederland.nl (Memory of the Netherlands)’
“Everywhere these days more and more people knock their heads against the fact that the future of our planet and what it will offer or deny to its inhabitants, is being decided by boards of men who control more money than all the governments in the world, who never stand for election, and whose sole criterion for every decision they take is whether or not it increases or is prone to increase Profit.” — John Berger
[video]
Warren was not a looker.
“Bang the Drum Slowly” is the ultimate baseball movie — and, despite what a plot summary might suggest, I think it’s more about baseball than death. It takes place during the last season on this Earth of one Bruce Pearson, an earnest but dumb catcher from Georgia who learns, in the movie’s first scene, that he is suffering from an incurable disease. The movie is about that season and about his friendship with Henry Wiggen, a pitcher, who undertakes to see that Bruce at least lives his last months with some dignity, some joy, and a few good games.
On the surface, then, the movie seems a little like “Brian’s Song”. But it’s not: It’s mostly about baseball and the daily life of a major league club on the road. The fact of Bruce’s approaching death adds a poignancy to the season, but “Bang the Drum Slowly” doesn’t brood about death and it isn’t morbid. In its mixture of fatalism, roughness, tenderness, and bleak humor, indeed, it seems to know more about the ways we handle death than a movie like “Love Story” ever guessed.- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times (August 26, 1973)
Read the rest: “Review: Bang the Drum Slowly”
_______________________
Related: “Roger Ebert at the Baseball Movies” by Larry Granillo (Baseball Prospectus)
A Classic Creation from Jon Bois -
The back of the card
- @jonbois
A Classic Creation from Jon Bois -
- @jonbois
Now, I will write a short poem in the voice of my 8 year old self:
Ode to Super Jock
My Super Jock is red
And when I smack his little head
He kicks the ball for miles and miles
From the living room onto the kitchen tiles
Super Jock
Su
Per
Jock
THE END
“There’s always another chance. That’s the good thing about baseball. We go out there and play every day. It’s a long season.”
— Nick Markakis (via mightyflynn)
Long live Markakis!
via @BananaKarenina
Dear Jim,
Please paint me a guinea pig version of Burt Reynolds on a sun lounger being served drinks by Hulk Hogan wearing only the top half of a tuxedo.
Thanks,
littlecthulhu
[video]
