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Erika (17788 KP) created a video about The Lonely Island Presents: The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience (2019) in Movies
May 23, 2019
Books Editor (673 KP) created a video about A Kind of Freedom: A Novel in Books
Sep 15, 2017
Kreayshawn recommended Pimp in Books (curated)
Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2072 KP) rated Brush With Death (An Art Lover's Mystery, #3) in Books
Mar 9, 2018
Faux finisher Annie Kincaid is restoring some old paintings in a chapel in Oakland when she runs into grave robbers in the cemetery outside. Meanwhile, she also hearing rumors that a reproduction inside might be the real thing. As always this was a fun romp with likeable characters. I could turn the pages fast enough.
Read my full review at <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/2013/05/book-review-brush-with-death-by-hailey.html">Carstairs Considers</a>.
Read my full review at <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/2013/05/book-review-brush-with-death-by-hailey.html">Carstairs Considers</a>.
Gareth von Kallenbach (968 KP) rated Moneyball (2011) in Movies
Aug 7, 2019
Baseball economics has long a source of serious debate amongst fans, players, and teams. The contentious issues of how to divide the revenue in an equitable manner led to the cancellation of the playoffs and World Series in 1994 and is still largely unresolved today. While smaller market teams are given funds from a luxury tax imposed on larger payroll teams, it still fails to provide an even competitive playing field when large market teams, such as the New York Yankees, can field teams with a $225 million-plus payroll while the smaller market teams have to make do with budgets often under $40 million.
Naturally, this has put many teams at a competitive disadvantage and most feel that they have no chance to win long-term, even as they develop cheap homegrown talent in their minor-league systems. They lose said talent to the larger market clubs once players become eligible for free agency. It is against this backdrop that the new film “Moneyball” starring Brad Pitt is set.
The film was based on the book of the same name which tells the story and philosophy of Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane. Beane was a highly recruited baseball player at a high school who turned down a scholarship to Stanford for his shot at the major leagues. Unfortunately for Beane, his career was a major disappointment punctuated with numerous stops between the pros and the minor leagues which resulted in a very mediocre and forgettable career.
Beane got himself a job as a scout and in time worked his way to being the general manager of the Oakland A’s. As the film opens, Oakland has just lost a deciding Game 5 the New York Yankees, whose payroll at the time was almost $120 million greater than Oaklands. Adding further insult to injury, Oakland is unable to re-sign its three biggest stars as they accept large contracts with the Yankees, Red Sox, and other large market teams.
Unable to get any additional funds from his owner, Beane travels to Cleveland in an attempt to find affordable talent via trades. Beane is categorically rebuffed and told that he couldn’t afford many of the players that he’s asking about and that the ones he can afford are not be available to him.
Beane notices a young man, Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) during the negotiations, whose quiet input was heeded by the Indians, even though this is Peter’s first job since graduating from Yale with an economics degree. Beane gets Peter to confide in him about his beliefs that the traditional baseball method for evaluating talent is all wrong and that there is a better way to do it.
Intrigued, Beane hires Brand to be his assistant general manager and the two set out to rebuild the Oakland A’s on a budget. Needless to say this does not sit well with many of the talent scouts or manager Art Howe (a very believable Phillip Seymour Hoffman), who sees the recruiting of washed-up has-beens and never-weres by Beane as misguided and ridiculous.
But Beane and Brand are determined, and using statistical formula that looks at such things as on-base percentages and runs scored as opposed to batting average, home runs, and RBIs, the A’s quickly put together an unlikely team. It doesn’t immediately play out well for the hopeful general manager because Howe is unwilling to play many of the new players that have been brought on. Oakland quickly sinks to the bottom of the league, and many begin to question the sanity of Bean’s approach, to the point that even his young daughter worries that his days as a general manager are numbered.
The film does a good job at showing the inner workings of baseball and Pitt does an amazing job showing the complex nature of Beane. He is a single father dealing with the failure of his playing career, and his inability to get Oakland to be a consistant winner. He puts everything he has into this so-called outrageous scheme and is willing to see it through no matter the cost. Chris Pratt does great supporting work as Scott Hatteberg, one of Beane’s reclamation projects as does Stephen Bisop as aging major-league slugger David Justice.
The film stays very true to historical events and shows the characters as they are, flaws and all. While a true story, Peter Brand, is a fictional charcter based on Paul DePodesta who introduced Beane to the analytical principles of sabermetrics. The movie remains a very interesting character study as well as an examination of the delicate relationships between players, front offices, and ownership where wins and dollars are paramount even when many teams are struggling to make do with less.
That being said the film was a very enjoyable and realistic look at the inner workings of baseball that should not be missed.
Naturally, this has put many teams at a competitive disadvantage and most feel that they have no chance to win long-term, even as they develop cheap homegrown talent in their minor-league systems. They lose said talent to the larger market clubs once players become eligible for free agency. It is against this backdrop that the new film “Moneyball” starring Brad Pitt is set.
The film was based on the book of the same name which tells the story and philosophy of Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane. Beane was a highly recruited baseball player at a high school who turned down a scholarship to Stanford for his shot at the major leagues. Unfortunately for Beane, his career was a major disappointment punctuated with numerous stops between the pros and the minor leagues which resulted in a very mediocre and forgettable career.
Beane got himself a job as a scout and in time worked his way to being the general manager of the Oakland A’s. As the film opens, Oakland has just lost a deciding Game 5 the New York Yankees, whose payroll at the time was almost $120 million greater than Oaklands. Adding further insult to injury, Oakland is unable to re-sign its three biggest stars as they accept large contracts with the Yankees, Red Sox, and other large market teams.
Unable to get any additional funds from his owner, Beane travels to Cleveland in an attempt to find affordable talent via trades. Beane is categorically rebuffed and told that he couldn’t afford many of the players that he’s asking about and that the ones he can afford are not be available to him.
Beane notices a young man, Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) during the negotiations, whose quiet input was heeded by the Indians, even though this is Peter’s first job since graduating from Yale with an economics degree. Beane gets Peter to confide in him about his beliefs that the traditional baseball method for evaluating talent is all wrong and that there is a better way to do it.
Intrigued, Beane hires Brand to be his assistant general manager and the two set out to rebuild the Oakland A’s on a budget. Needless to say this does not sit well with many of the talent scouts or manager Art Howe (a very believable Phillip Seymour Hoffman), who sees the recruiting of washed-up has-beens and never-weres by Beane as misguided and ridiculous.
But Beane and Brand are determined, and using statistical formula that looks at such things as on-base percentages and runs scored as opposed to batting average, home runs, and RBIs, the A’s quickly put together an unlikely team. It doesn’t immediately play out well for the hopeful general manager because Howe is unwilling to play many of the new players that have been brought on. Oakland quickly sinks to the bottom of the league, and many begin to question the sanity of Bean’s approach, to the point that even his young daughter worries that his days as a general manager are numbered.
The film does a good job at showing the inner workings of baseball and Pitt does an amazing job showing the complex nature of Beane. He is a single father dealing with the failure of his playing career, and his inability to get Oakland to be a consistant winner. He puts everything he has into this so-called outrageous scheme and is willing to see it through no matter the cost. Chris Pratt does great supporting work as Scott Hatteberg, one of Beane’s reclamation projects as does Stephen Bisop as aging major-league slugger David Justice.
The film stays very true to historical events and shows the characters as they are, flaws and all. While a true story, Peter Brand, is a fictional charcter based on Paul DePodesta who introduced Beane to the analytical principles of sabermetrics. The movie remains a very interesting character study as well as an examination of the delicate relationships between players, front offices, and ownership where wins and dollars are paramount even when many teams are struggling to make do with less.
That being said the film was a very enjoyable and realistic look at the inner workings of baseball that should not be missed.
ClareR (5577 KP) rated There There in Books
Mar 2, 2019
A fascinating insight
This novel is written to show us the reader that Native Americans don't all follow the stereotype that we have grown up with. Certainly, there are Native Americans on reservations, but they also live in cities and have lives that are more familiar to non-Native Americans.
This book is set in Oakland in the lead up to a pow wow. It's told from multiple points of view, tells of different lives, and the modern struggles of Indians living in cities (poverty, drug and alcohol addiction and finding their identity).
This book was so well written - it was very in depth, but was easy to read, meaning that I read it far too quickly. I really enjoyed the windows in to these peoples lives. The dramatic finale of the book had my heart in my mouth throughout.
Well worthy of all the praise it's had, in my opinion.
This book is set in Oakland in the lead up to a pow wow. It's told from multiple points of view, tells of different lives, and the modern struggles of Indians living in cities (poverty, drug and alcohol addiction and finding their identity).
This book was so well written - it was very in depth, but was easy to read, meaning that I read it far too quickly. I really enjoyed the windows in to these peoples lives. The dramatic finale of the book had my heart in my mouth throughout.
Well worthy of all the praise it's had, in my opinion.
Erika (17788 KP) rated Blindspotting (2018) in Movies
Sep 2, 2018
I was lucky enough to catch a showing of this film before it left the Drafthouse. I hadn't really been sold by the trailers, but I was willing to give it a try.
This might be one of my favorite movies of this year. The movie follows two best friends, living in Oakland, which is being progressively gentrified (which reminds me of where I live). This film was written by the two leads, and was partially inspired by their own lives. Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal were both fantastic, and were foils of one another. Diggs' Collin is three days away from being released from probation after a stint in jail. Collin sees an officer shoot an unarmed guy, but can't report what he saw because he was late for his curfew.
The film was really effective, and you felt the sheer terror in some of the situations. I was actually exhausted after watching it, but in a good way.
This might be one of my favorite movies of this year. The movie follows two best friends, living in Oakland, which is being progressively gentrified (which reminds me of where I live). This film was written by the two leads, and was partially inspired by their own lives. Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal were both fantastic, and were foils of one another. Diggs' Collin is three days away from being released from probation after a stint in jail. Collin sees an officer shoot an unarmed guy, but can't report what he saw because he was late for his curfew.
The film was really effective, and you felt the sheer terror in some of the situations. I was actually exhausted after watching it, but in a good way.
Chino Moreno recommended Born to Mack by Too $Hort in Music (curated)
Colin Trevorrow recommended The Manchurian Candidate (1962) in Movies (curated)
