The Sheila Variations

oooooh! I think I can hear it --- a male and a female ---- this is going to drive me nuts!

no --- it's --- no it isn't nevermind! drat!

Your guess in the first comment is correct.

You'll get it - I'm sure that you, of all people,. have seen it. I base that on the little I know about you.

ah - ha! I've got it ---- BULL DURHAM ---- I was thinking Kevin Costner and was going to say Tin Cup --- then it hit me --- I'm so excited - I've never guessed one of your quotes first before!

whoo-hoo!!!!!

I just love that moment. What other movie do you have people shouting the name William Blake one another and it's like foreplay??? What???

Better than Crash's "I believe" speech --- is when he concludes with: "I'm not interested in someone who's interested in him!"

Love it -
Actually drove to Durham one time to check it all out --- they filmed the movie in the Ladies League Park.

and Tim Robbins asking about the limpid jets of love from Whitman! hillarious

hahahahaha

"Annie, you can't breathe through your eyelids."

Dang, I knew it right away; must divorce self from life and hang out at Sheila's place full time!!!

jfh - hahahahahaha!!

Do you happen to know if the movie was based on a book - or was it an original screenplay?

I know there was a real life Crash Davis who set a record for most singles for the Bulls or something, not quite as dubious an achievement as movie Crash -

dave - wow, I did not know there was a real Crash Davis!

The movie was on last night (obviously - haha) and I got to revel in it once more.

"Honey, we all deserve to wear white."

I love when all the guys turn on the sprinklers in the middle of the night and whoop it up in the mud.

I think Susan Sarandon is unbelievable - can't picture anyone else in that part. She said when she first got the script (and she hadn't gotten the part yet) she read it all through and wanted to do it so badly that she actaully felt sick to her stomach. It was unpleasant for her - how much she wanted the role. Sarandon had to campaign HARD to get that part - which is amazing - because she's so perfect for it - but I loved her story about reading it and literally feeling sick to her stomach. That's a good sign that you really want something!

Tim Robbins is hysterical as the dim bulb - although he doesn't look like a pitcher to me. His pitching doesn't look right. Maybe that was the point?? Kevin Costner really seemed like a catcher to me - he looked like a real baseball player in the movie. I have a hard time with that, being a baseball fan - it's hard to watch actors play baseball players - they have to really be good to convince me that they are actually baseball players.

Ray Liotta in Field of Dreams, for instance, completely convinced me that he was a baseball player. Yup. Didn't doubt it for a second.

Barry Pepper and Thomas Jane in *61 as Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle - completely bought the two of them as baseball players. When they were at the plate, I really beleived that they were major leaguers.

I just watched Kevin Costner (playing another ex-ball player) in "Up Side of Anger". He did a great job in that too. Joan Allen is fabulously real and funny as the one with the anger. Spot-on depiction of Detroit too, even though it was filmed in London.

One of my all time favorite movies. I'm not a big Kostner fan, but I think he's wonderful, wonderful, WONDERFUL in this. There's really never a time when Sarandon isn't good, and I sort of feel the same way about Robbins. But this movie...so sweet, so funny, so odd, and such a good piece of writing. That's so rare in movies.

And while we're on the subject, Chrisanne and I rented Crash and saw it for the first time a couple of nights ago while she was in town. I honestly don't know what to say about it. It was so good, and so disturbing, and so brilliant, both she and I sat on the couch after the credits, and stared at the FBI warning as it came on again because niether of us could move. Chrisanne actually felt a little ill afterwrds. It was that good.

I need to post about it.

Unreal. An experience. I can't even really go into it yet.

alex - I just saw it too - last week. It completely blew me away - and yeah - I could barely think - let alone write - after I saw it.

Michael Pena ... even just thinking about him gives me goosebumps. I had never seen him before ... but my God.

Yes. Michael Pena. I'll bet Stevie knows him. I don't really know him either.

Can I also say: Sandra Bullock????

WHO KNEW?!

I mean, I love her, but I thought it was so brave of her to be in that thing for 10 seconds and to be able to convey what she conveys.

Didn't Cheadle get nominated for his role?

I know - I thought Bullock was fanTAStic.

Cheadle was nominated for Hotel Rwanda.

The director's commentary is awesome - if you haven't listened to it. Michael Pena doesn't have much experience - he was very "raw" - but the second he walked in and auditioned, they knew he was the guy. And apparently he took direction like a SPONGE. The direction they gave him for the scene where he tells his little girl about the cloak (when she's under the bed) is brilliant. He wasn't getting the scene. He was "talking down" to her. Treating her like a little kid. Director pulls him aside - murmurs, "Talk to her more like you'd talk to the guys down at the bar on the corner. You're telling them a tall tale ... and you want to be beleived."

Know that that was his piece of direction - and then watch him give that monologue about the invisible cloak again. Amazing - that is EXACTLY what he is doing. He's not "talking down" to her. he's trying to convince the guys at the pub on the corner that the invisible cloak is real.

I love actors.

Michael Pena was my fave in "Crash", too. And I think I may be the only baseball fan who is NOT a fan of "Bull Durham". I just don't care for it. One that I loved that you don't hear much about was "Eight Men Out."

Say it ain't so Belinda - didn't like Bull Durham? Actually 8Men was very good too. And from what I've been able to read and learn, very accurate to what really happened. Other than the part about Buck Weaver (John Cusack)hanging out in a used record shop trying to figure out relationships.

Sorry Red - about the Bosox - could another curse be lifted this year? If it keeps raining in LA - the Yankees might not make it and the ChiSox would three games away from the World Series.... hmmmmm

dave - no more curse. that's the best thing about what happened last year. they played tepid baseball the last couple of weeks - they didn't have the pitching they had last year ... they're just a team. yeah, it's a bummer - but somehow - having won last year, it was like a huge thunderstorm, clearing the tension in the air.

I wish they had won, of course ... but it doesn't have the feeling of shrieking agony that I felt in 2003. Or many other years before that, but particularly 2003.

actually, I don't mean to insentive to your own personal tradgedy with Boston, but I was thinking of the White Sox returning to the World Series...

I'd like to see the Cards and White Sox - and I think it will the be the Cards / Yankees - they just got too wet last night.

Oh. I see. I was never big on that curse stuff - but yes, perhaps another curse will be broken this year. I'm actually excited to see the Chisox go for it ...