The Weekender | February 7th - 9th

The Weekender

The Weekender is your guide and open thread for the weekend, presented by the fine folks at Viva The Matadors. Things to quote, read, look, watch, and listen to for the weekend. Let's do this.

The oral histories of Bull Durham and White Men Can't Jump, as well as historical places from a bird's eye view. Combining things we love: GoPro's and waves. And we end with The Shins.

Quote

Whatever you do, please don’t quote "the quote" from Bull Durham. You know what I’m talking about and you’ve probably memorized it, but don’t post it here.

Crash Davis in Bull Durham (via imdb):

Your shower shoes have fungus on them. You'll never make it to the bigs with fungus on your shower shoes. Think classy, you'll be classy. If you win 20 in the show, you can let the fungus grow back and the press'll think you're colorful. Until you win 20 in the show, however, it means you are a slob.

Crash Davis in Bull Durham (via imdb):

Yeah, I was in the show. I was in the show for 21 days once - the 21 greatest days of my life. You know, you never handle your luggage in the show, somebody else carries your bags. It was great. You hit white balls for batting practice, the ballparks are like cathedrals, the hotels all have room service, and the women all have long legs and brains.

Read

I love these oral histories and a few months ago I stumbled on both of these, not really realizing that the same guy directed both movies, Ron Shelton, who also directed Tin Cup. In any event, I just loved the Bull Durham oral history because it is what set the tone for a lot of these actors’ careers, Kevin Costner, Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon. And the White Men Can’t Jump oral history was neat from my perspective because it really did deal with stereotypes, race and relationships and things that hadn’t really been dealt with before in a less than serious manner.

Worshipping At The Church Of Baseball: The cast and crew of Bull Durham try to wrap their minds around how, 24 years ago, a minor league baseball movie became such a major league Hollywood hit (via SI):

SHELTON: I've done a few sports movies now, and I think that what makes the good ones work is detail, authenticity and to make it from the player's point of view, not the fan's. The player sees a different game from the fan. If you love sports, most of the good stuff occurs between the plays, not the plays themselves.

COSTNER: Ron totally got that world and understood that Crash's time in the minors wasn't about winning the big game. It was about not making it to the bigs. It was about the willingness to go hit a home run in obscurity. It was about falling in love. It was about not letting go of the game. He did the same thing with Tin Cup [which Costner also starred in]. He gets the poetry of sports.

You Either Smoke or You Get Smoked: An oral history of White Men Can't Jump (via Grantland):

Woody Harrelson (Billy Hoyle): I had gone six years without being able to get a movie. I was almost in the place in my mind like, Well, Woody Boyd is a terrific role. So it was incredible to get that opportunity. I got lucky to get cast because I think if Keanu had been playing since he was a kid, he would have gotten the part.

Shelton: In those days, you got to test different actors and have them go in together. Now, you kind of have to go in blind. I put Woody and a couple of people he was up against — whose names I won’t mention — each in a room with Wesley, and Wesley blew the other guys off the map. Woody didn’t try to out-Wesley Wesley. He just countered. I was convinced immediately that it was a perfect piece of casting, and it was.

Look

This is from VTM'er rindworld and it is titled "How Our World Would Look If You Were A Bird":

Most of the pictures are of places or things that most of us could easily identify right away. The images illustrate just how much a change in perspective can alter. It’s also worth noting that a few of these sites, like the Pyramids of Giza and the hotels in Dubai, were designed with an aerial perspective in mind. The designs of certain Dubai hotels can only be appreciated fully from above, and some theorize that the Pyramids of Giza were meant to be aligned with the stars in Orion’s Belt.

Watch

I am totally aware of the GoPro falling from space video, but I thought it would be fun to take a trip to Hawaii and check out some waves via GoPro and drone. Now SARR needs a drone in addition to a GoPro.

Listen

I never know what this says about me when I tell you all that I initially liked the band The Shins way back when they were on the soundtrack for Garden State. I’ve continued to listen and they’re probably a bit mellow, but I find myself listening while I’m working.