Long ago, in a galaxy far away, there was a certain member of these leagues (who shall remain nameless) that was dealing with a certain fascination with one Ms. Drew Barrymore. For those of you who remember and have tried to forget, I apologize. For those of you who were never exposed to it, I envy you.
But at one time, in the far reaches of this league manager’s mind, it was conjured up that Drew Barrymore started a rock band. This band was called Drew Barrymore and the Slapshots, if I recall. The band released a collection of songs on various formats (my preference being the special edition double LP vinyl) filled with hockey themed songs of suggestive double entendres and innuendo. Needless to say, the record/CD/8 track/cassette/MP3/digital whatever sold millions and was a huge hit.
Now, being the ambitious, creative, intriguing, and mesmerizing person that she is, Ms. Barrymore decided that just doing that hockey album was not enough. Even though she loves hockey and cannot wait for it to start again and is thinking about doing a countdown to when the hockey drafts might start, she wanted to do a quick side project and put together a new band to do a record about baseball. The name of this band, you ask? Drew Barrymore and the Ball Boys.
Here are the details of this stunning new release:
TRACKLISITING:
Squeeze Play Foul Territory Sweet Spot Bottom of the Ninth Blowing the Save Bushleaguer Getting to First Base Outside My Strike Zone No Hitting (On Me Tonight) One Night Home Stand Juiced
Of course, given the explicit content, Walmart is refusing to carry this. So you will need to search elsewhere for your must-have copy.
I had the good fortune to attend Interactive Screen 1.0 Beautiful Lives produced by the Banff New Media Institute. In my work at Leadership Development, we make use of arts- and nature-based aesthetic encounters to inform the practice of developing leaders. My attendance in the Interactive Screen sessions was intended to help see how work being done in new media might inform the practice of developing leaders.
Here is the Statement of Intent from the event. I'll be going through many of the individual contributors over the coming weeks until I eventually catch up with where I'm at and my visit to the Aichi Triennale in September of 2010.
At last year’s Interactive Screen, Adam Zaretsky, parading up and down the conference hall, showered the audience with seeds he was carrying in his pockets, claiming they were mutagens. He promised that we would come out of his presentation with an intimate knowledge of the hopes and sorrows of mutants. Experiment confirmed that these were really sesame seeds. As placebos, they were potent stimulants for thought. Zaretsky’s circuitous monologue demonstrated, with curious wit, that aspirations for the good life are widely divergent and often largely incompatible. Beauty, it seems, lies not only in the eyes of the beholder, but also in his pockets.
Although the desires of mutants are not necessarily convergent with the motives of mutagen providers, their interests certainly intersect. The point where this happens, avowedly hard to locate, is one of many where the social contract is being rewritten. Zaretsky’s demonstration subtly raised the suspicion that most of us, although our agendas vastly differ, live our lives aesthetically. That is, we make our lives according to stated or unstated principles which lead us to value certain behaviours, and certain people, above others. The old drama of us and them, with its mechanics of good and bad, its moral confusions and revelatory actions, makes a tragic comeback. Aesthetics, in this purview, is not so much about the morally-loaded ideal of beauty, but about shaping states of being. These intuitions are at the heart of Beautiful Lives.
Interactive Screen 1.0 Beautiful Lives delves into the contradictions inherent, in this technosocial era, to our beautiful lives, relating them to the pursuits of new media, with their claims for community and democracy, their attempts at sustainability and transparency, and their striving after usefulness, meaning and sometimes, even, beauty.
Daniel Canty, Curator Jean Macpherson, Program Manager, Film and Media
The week continues to encourage reflection and has deepened my suspicion that the creative products of new media represent unique opportunities to have conversations about things that matter in the modern age. Leadership, in my mind, is about creating spaces for critical conversations to happen and about crafting plausible narratives to move us forward. I saw again and again how new media artists struggles with the same questions that leaders do - questions of change, transparency, multiplicity, agency and beauty. It has taken over a month for me to begin to sort out the brilliant and sometimes disturbing messages I heard during my week with the BNMI and I look forward to using this blog as way to create a journal of my reflections on my experiences here and elsewhere.
I was fortunate to see Ken Chapman speak yesterday at the Kinnear Centre for Creativity and Innovation at the Banff Centre. He spoke persuasively of the need for engagement, agency, and the need to use power FOR something rather than OVER someone. I saw artists struggling with the challenges of conceptualizing the beautiful life and the same conversation repeats itself in government, in not-for-profits, in communities and in companies across Alberta and the country. I am also seeking a set of values that are not embedded in the traditions of self but reflect the interconnected and communal nature of our culture. Clearly I'm not alone.
Having your computer crash isn't the only reason to ask the Commish to fix your lineup. For example, maybe you are planning a vacation. Or maybe you're an old man who can no longer see your monitor. Or maybe something even more unfortunate.
Some of you may have received this message already, but it appears that our buddy, Franconia Wombats, is about to be incarcerated. [Don't drop the soap]
Those of you in the Dynasty League might remember some biotch who preferred whining and nagging, to following baseball. You know, like every other woman on the planet. [Kicked to the curb]
If you're like me, and your assless chaps are still at the cleaners, here's hoping that they are open on Sundays. If they aren't, that's gay. [Not that there's anything wrong with that]
Whether you are old enough to remember the original A-Team or the original Hawaii 5-0, logic dictates that you are old enough to recall when rappers borrowed liberally from those iconic programs, sucka. For our younger readers, those were TV shows in the 80's, fool, that made Lost look as unpopular as the new Isles GM's old show, Unhappily Ever After. How's that for an awkward segue into Fowl Play's non-fantasy-sports-related leisure activities. [Hurley, we've got to go back to the island]
Years ago, while living on Spray Avenue, my typical neighbor spent his time discussing the relative merits of Beer™ brand beer, local hero Ryan Smyth, and the Waldhaus Pub. Certainly nothing even remotely cerebral, like Golden Carp's version of Banff. [How to feel dumb as dirt, in ten easy seconds]
Finally, in order to justify using her name as a tag to drive up traffic, here's Samantha Micelli on high school in Minnesota, making Ottawa nerds feel comfortable around hotties, and her brother's uncanny ability to predict the obvious:
[Disclaimer: While some of the movies here are just plain bad (Full Throttle), most are okay to good, and in a few cases, very good. Disregarding the quality of the films themselves, all of these contain what I feel are some of Drew Barrymore’s finest moments on screen, for one reason or another.]
I should also mention, for legal purposes, that I am not a Barrymore stalker. I am happily married with 2 young sons, and am not going to leave my wife to pursue Drew Barrymore all around the globe in hopes of a chance meeting that turns into a blissful and glitzy Hollywood lifestyle for both of us (instead of just her). However, if Drew Barrymore showed up on my doorstep and asked me to do that, then all bets are off.
Although I was able to narrow down these selections enough to choose the number one performance (Charlie’s Angels), I could not bring myself to rank the other nine films, so once again I present to you The Top Ten List of Drew Barrymore films and/or movie moments, in chronological order:
Bad Girls (1994)co-starring Madeleine Stowe, Mary Stuart Masterson, Andie MacDowell - Set in Colorado during the Wild West era, the plot follows four former prostitutes on the run following a justifiable homicide and a prison escape, who later encounter difficulties involving bank robbery and Pinkerton detectives. Makes me wish I was born 100 years earlier and living in Colorado.
Scream (1996)co-starring Neve Campbell, Skeet Ulrich, Courteney Cox, Rose McGowan, David Arquette - Drew's part only lasts a few minutes in the opening scene, but a shocking and stunning end. Poor Drew.
The Wedding Singer (1998)co-starring Adam Sandler - Since the last List contained so many Roger Ebert reviews, I thought I'd toss in some Leonard Klady for a little Variety: "Barrymore also covers new ground as a light comic actress, making the most of the opportunity to play a vulnerable and appealing character."
Never Been Kissed (1999)co-starring David Arquette - Hey, whaddya know? Friend of the blog, Roger Ebert, showed up after all and had this to say: "Never Been Kissed is not deep or sophisticated, but it's funny and big-hearted and it wins us over. The credit goes to Barrymore. In this movie and Ever After (and in The Wedding Singer, where I liked her a lot more than the movie), she emerges as a real star. An actor whose personality and charisma are the real subject of the story. Never Been Kissed ends in a scene that, in any other movie, I would have hooted at. Without revealing it, I'll identify it as the five-minute wait. This scene is so contrived and artificial, it could be subtitled Shameless Audience Manipulation. But you know what? Because the wait involved Barrymore, I actually cared. Yes, I did."
Charlie’s Angels (2000)co-starring Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu, Bill Murray, Crispin Glover, Matt LeBlanc - Good, all around wholesome entertainment. The best Barrymore scene has got to be when the Angels are at the race track and she’s got to distract the driver while Lucy Liu breaks into the trunk. Although a clip with the actual dialogue from the film would probably better illustrate the point, this clip is fine by me:
50 First Dates (2004)co-starring Adam Sandler - Ebert reminds us that Adam Sandler's career arc is mimicking Bill Murray's, from slapstick clown to leading man: "The movie doesn't have the complexity and depth of Groundhog Day (which I recently saw described as 'the most spiritual film of our time'), but as entertainment it's ingratiating and lovable."
Music and Lyrics (2007)co-starring Hugh Grant - Ebert's partner (now former?), Richard Roeper, said this: "It’s more fun than a Spandau Ballet/Tears for Fears concert circa 1985, and I mean that in a good way."
Whip It (2009)directed by Drew Barrymoreco-starring Ellen Page – Drew Barrymore as a tough and rugged Rollergirl? Believe it.
Yes, I know she was in E.T. also, and that it was her first major role and everyone remembers that movie. I was going to include E.T. (1982) in this list, but given the nature of the list and the fact that Drew Barrymore was only 7 at the time, it just seemed too wrong and too creepy to include it with the others. It would have been out of place, and is therefore excluded.
