Week in Review: As I alluded to last week, life on the road seems a bit harder for MLB teams. I definitely think the outlaw of ‘greenies’ has much to do with that. The Crew won two out of three against Atlanta, lost two out of three in Minnesota and lost last night to an Arizona team who came back from a tough road trip. That makes for a 3-4 road trip so far. Not bad, but not good. Considering that Friday night’s game was very winnable it seems that we can expect a struggle to finish every road trip at .500. Keeping pace with the Cubs is nice, but the Brewers will have to make a move in the standings eventually.

What Opposing Telecasts Tell Me: Arizona supports the troops and Minnesota loves Kent Hrbek Outdoors. I missed the Atlanta telecasts but man…Chipper Jones is aging terribly despite being able to hit almost .400 on one leg.

Good Week: JJ Hardy is on a tear right now while he’s in the middle of a 12-game-hitting streak. This would be great news but the big hitters behind him aren’t pulling their weight.

Scufflers: Going back to last Monday, Prince Fielder is 2 for 27 with only 1 RBIs. That’s not the best way to go about improving arbitration dollars (arbys). The over-analyzers at BF.Net are up in arms, but let’s just call it one rough week during a long season. The lack of production is usually covered by Ryan Braun, but his contribution of 3 RBI’s and no HR’s during the same span doesn’t exactly help things either. If the 3 and 4 spots don’t produce, it’s tough to win games.

The Week Ahead: Three more against the D-backs before finally heading home to beat up on the bottom feeding Pirates. A four game set against Colorado follows. My realistic prediction is that they split the Arizona series and sweep the pirates for a 5-2 week.

…and finally.

Sox and Cubs fans unite to beat up a guy who refused to return money that fell out of a woman’s purse. The video perpetuates the negative characterization of Sox fans, but I’d like to say the guy’s issues extend beyond that of his sports allegiance.

I’ve recently taken a liking to films produced in the 1970’s. Regardless of genre, I enjoy how the films capture a version of America that I only saw in family photo albums while growing up. Back then movies were smarter because of their subtlety and life looked grittier. A slick Hollywood produced movie meant the stars carried the films with their performances and CGI wasn’t a crutch.

An unintended consequence of watching these films is that I’m learning about America’s attitudes and views on recent history. The nation seemed to be settling down after the social revolutions of the 60’s but because of the Vietnam War, stagflation, and energy crisis, the mood is usually bleak and a darkness hovers in the air.

So I guess my long winded point of this post is that I’ll keep watching these moves and if the mood strikes, I’ll write about them here.

I’ll discuss Cabaret first. The Oscar winning film from 1972 revolves around a roaring 20’s-esque cabaret in Germany and features an intensely annoying Liza Minnelli and a staid Michael York. The two contemplate maturity while the rest of Germany gradually succumbs to Nazi rule.

As the movie progresses, Michael York’s character, Brian, becomes disgusted with Germany while the Liza’s self-absorbed Sally refuses to change a thing about herself and remains oblivious. Interspersed between their scenes are musical numbers used to reinforce certain points as well as scenes where Germans eventually accept that their ruling party has all the answers (whether by force or propaganda). In a scene I found interesting, a group of people are discussing what the ruling party plans to do and they argue with Brian on the premises that because the newspapers say there is a Jewish conspiracy, then it must be true. Hrm. That sounds eerily familiar.

As a whole the film was effective in balancing pizazz and romance against the more subtle message that Germans were more than willing to buy into the ruling party’s message. Sound of Music this was not. Despite the fact I won’t watch another Liza Minnelli film as long as I can help it, Cabaret was a very entertaining film.