Matt of All Trades blog, like the title suggests, is by a Vermont author and offers offbeat musings on pop culture, media, journalism, humor, weirdness, stupid people, smart people, my life as a journalist, landscaper, photographer, married gay man, dog lover and weather geek and more. It's run by me, Matt Sutkoski, a native Vermonter living in St. Albans, Vt.
A smelly sewage problem developed in Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles
during an exhibition game this week.
Baseball games are called for all sorts of reasons: Rain, lightning, hail. Even snow!
But this is a new one. Sewage forced the premature end of an exhibition game at Dodgers Stadium last week.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the sewage mishap killed the exhibition game between the Dodgers and Angels in the fifth inning on Tuesday.
The LA Times says the Dodgers have not exactly said what was spilled, but we do know it was brown and smelly and didn't seem to want to stop gurgling out.
I totally feel sorry for the groundskeepers who had to try to contain the icky brown flood.
Dodgers Pitcher Ross Stripling had this little editorial comment about the situation.
"Crappy way to end the spring.... Get it?"
Unfortunately, yeah, we get it.
We're told the problem has been fixed and we can get on with Major League Baseball season in Los Angeles.
The video in this post has been kicking around for a couple days but I just can't resist it.
A woman at an art gallery in Los Angeles thought it would be a wonderful idea to take a selfie against a backdrop of expensive art sitting atop a series of pedestals.
You know what happens next. She screws it up and the pedestals fall like dominoes. She caused $200,000 in damage to the artwork.
It's her fault, of course, but in hindsight, with all that expensive art, the gallery probably should have stabilized the pedestals better so they wouldn't fall over so easily.
As is always the case with this type of story, especially when the camera angle is lined up so perfectly, it's possible this was all a stunt.
Glenn Close in the current Broadway run of "Sunset Boulevard"
I was in New York City this week to see some shows and be tourists.
My husband Jeff and I were lucky enough to score very good seats to see Glenn Close in the revival of "Sunset Boulevard."(We were very lucky to time this right because "Sunset Boulevard" is there for only a limited 16-week run.)
We loved it, of course, and Glenn Close was absolutely terrific. I resisted the temptation to say out loud those famous lines from the play as Close spoke them.
"I am big. It's the pictures that got small."
"Alright, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my closeup."
During Sunset Boulevard scene changes and transitions, the show at the Palace Theater had a translucent screen that showed 1940s-era black and white flim clips of Hollywood and the glamorous actors who inhabited it. ("Sunset Boulevard," for those who don't know, takes place in 1940s Hollywood.)
Quite a world, back then.
Imagine my delight when I got home yesterday, opened up the BoingBoing web site, and found, with perfect timing, a video showing side by side view of the same drive through Los Angeles in the 1940s and today.
It's pretty fascinating to see how much things have changed.
Watch the video, which comes to us courtesy of the New Yorker:
It was a slow speed chase through some unseasonable rain in L.A. The two guys in the car did do some donuts on a wet overpass halfway through the chase, just for fun.
This being L.A., a TMZ Tour Busdriver appeared to try and stop the chase by cutting in front of the Mustang on one freeway, but the guys in the car got away.
The color commenntary from is strange, too, as the reporters debate whether the car is a BMW or a Mustang.
Then they tell us this is like Ferris Bueller's Day Off, speculate hows they would stop the chase with their own cars, comment on the alleged lackadaisical incompetence of the cops chasing the Mustang, and, because the chase is so weird and slow, tell us that this is the future car chase under Bernie Sanders.
(By the way, the cops said they were deliberately slow on this because they didnt want to endanger people by flying down the streets and freeways at top speed.)
The television footage is mysteriously interrupted by a brief soundless clip of a backstage interview atAmerican Idol, but we quickly get back to the crisis in question here.
The chase ends when the Mustang parks in the neighborhood, the driver casually gets out and makes a phone call. He and the other guy in the car take selfies and greet friends. People in the neighborhood come out, whip out their cell phones and take pictures.
Seven minutes later, the cops arrive to make an anticlimatic arrest.
The Los Angeles Times identified the driver in the chase as Herschel Reynolds, 20 and his passenger was Isaiah Young, 19. Both face numerous charges, including some related to an alleged burglary that touched off the chase.
Reynolds was apparently trained as a tactical driver for the U.S. Marines, but was "prematurely discharged" under murky circumstances, though it is clear the Marines weren't happy with Reynolds, says the L.A. Times.
I'm glad I don't live in L.A. The weirdness is too much, even or me.
Here's the video clips with the commentary from television anchors and reporters:
Pianist Jean Yves Thibaudet is undeterred as
the Los Angeles Philharmonic plays flawlessly
through a recent earthquake. Photo by Michael
Robinson Chavez/Los Angeles Times.
The earthquake was quite a jolt, even for jaded Angelos who are used to quakes.
The Philharmonic released a video, an audio recording, really with graphics explaining what happened, as the quake hit.
You can hear the jolt, the rumbling, the alarm among the audience as the quake hit.
And, the band played on. They continued to sound great.
The concert venue was the Walt Disney Concert Hall, which was built only about a decade ago, adhering to construction standards what would make the building withstand earthquakes bigger than that 5.1 wobbler.
But still, it had to be scary for the audience, some of whom ran for the exits.
The audio/video is fascinating. Watch and/or listen:
