A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

© 1994, 2010 The Baseball Film Project, PBS Distribution Inning 8: A Whole New Ballgame (1960-1970 Directed by: Ken Burns Written by: Ken Burns & Geoffrey C. Ward The 1960s are a turbulent decade for America. There are race riots, anti-war protests, hippies, Woodstock. It is also a turbulent decade for baseball, as one by one the "sacred" institutions fail. It starts with Bill Mazeroski bringing down the mighty Yankees with one dramatic home run, the first ever to end a World Series.  Then, in 1961, Roger Maris pursues Babe Ruth's "untouchable" record. In 1962, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants are replaced by the New York Mets, who compile the worst single-season record of the century.  On Tuesday, September 27, 1994, the 300 member stations of the Public Broadcasting Service aired Inning 8: A Whole New Ballgame (1960-1970) , the penultimate (at the time) episode of Ken Burns' documentary miniseries Baseball.  ...

American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race  delves into the origins of Project Apollo and President John F. Kennedy's determination to land a man on the Moon before 1970. © 2019 HarperCollins Hello again and welcome to another installment of A Certain Point of View. It's a sunny autumn morning in my corner of the Sunshine State, with temperatures in the high 70s and no rain in the immediate forecast, although it is expected that it will be hot later today. Per the Weather app on my PC, today's high is estimated to reach 86℉ later this afternoon. Well, it looks like you're going to have to wait a little while longer for a new review; I went to sleep sometime after 2 AM, and even though I got close to six hours of sleep, I'm feeling a bit worn out now. So I think I'll take the rest of the day off from writing and relax with a good book or watch a few episodes of 24's Season Five on DVD. Looking forward to reading (and reviewing) Harr...

© 1994 The Baseball Project/PBS/Elektra Nonesuch In our sun-down perambulations of late, through the outer parts of Brooklyn, we have observed several parties of youngsters playing ‘base,’ a certain game of ball…. Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our close rooms…. The game of ball is glorious. - Walt Whitman, 1846 On September 6, 1994 - at the height of that year's season-ending Major League Baseball players' strike - Elektra Nonesuch released Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns: Original Soundtrack, a 31-track album featuring music and selected audio clips from Ken Burns' nine-part documentary about America's national pastime. Featuring performances by Count Basie and His Orchestra, Carly Simon, Dr. John, Natalie Cole, Lester Young (with Count Basie), Les Brown, the Big League Orchestra, Jacqueline Schwab, Betty Bonney, Harvey Hindemeyer, Duke Ellington, Mabel Scott, Branford Marsalis, and many more,  Baseball: A Film by Ken Bur...

© 1995, 2003 Capitol Records Hi, there, Constant Reader. Normally, you would be reading a product review or a topical essay based on one of my Quora answers, or even a personal reminiscence from the Land of Ago. But today is the 18th day of July (not a happy day for me, since Mom was in her deathbed in our Miami home four years ago and I am still trying to come to terms with that and many other changes in my life), so I think I'll just put together a list of Posts to Come and then take a break from writing for the rest of the day. I'm not sure when, exactly, I will get around to writing and posting any of the following reviews, but this is what is on my to-do list as of today: The Beatles Anthology DVD box set John Adams HBO Miniseries The Family, by Ed Sanders Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns - Inning Eight: A Whole New Game ©2010 PBS Distribution And, of course, I'll probably write about the 50th Anniversary of the Moon landing, the foibles of th...

Inning 7: The Capital of Baseball (1950-1960) Written by: Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns Directed by: Ken Burns The Americans are on the move. Moving to the suburbs. Moving across the country. They are, it seems, restless, Of course, if you're a baseball fan in New York, you don't want to move. You're in baseball heaven.  Year after year, the Yankees are on top of the American League. Year after year, the Giants and the Dodgers fight for the National League crown. Starting in 1949, there is a New York team in the World Series for 10 straight years. And in six of those years, both teams are from New York.  On September 26, 1994, the 300 member stations of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) broadcast The Capital of Baseball (1950-1960), the seventh episode (or "inning") of Ken Burns'  nine-part documentary that chronicled America's national pastime from its beginnings in the 1840s to the early 1990s. Co-written by Burns with historian (and ...

Photo Credit: Pixabay Well, hello there! It's been a while since I've written a non-review post. There are several reasons for this, the biggest being that I no longer write as much about my personal life as I used to. Not that there isn't anything new or interesting going on; au contraire, my friends. My life has changed radically in the eight years since I started A Certain Point of View, and maybe someday I'll revisit those changes here or in another venue. Right now, though, I'll just focus on creating the kind of content you've been seeing here for the past few years - namely, reviews and reflections about movies, books, music, TV shows, and the occasional computer game, as well as a soupcon of political commentary should the mood strike me. I was going to write a review of The Capital of Baseball (1950-1960), the seventh episode of Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns, but my heart is not in it. It would entail rewatching the episode, which I ordin...

© 2010 Alfred A. Knopf On September 21, 2010, New York-based Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of publishing giant Penguin Random House,  released Baseball: An Illustrated History, the updated edition of a 1994 book co-written by historian Geoffrey C. Ward and documentarian Ken Burns as a literary companion to Burns' nine-part documentary series Baseball . The new edition was published to coincide with the fall broadcast of   Baseball: The Tenth Inning: A Film by Ken Burns & Lynn Novick, the first of several planned sequels to Burns' second entry in the American Trilogy, which began with 1990's  The Civil War and concluded with 2001's Jazz. As a result, the 2010 edition includes a new chapter by author Kevin Baker ( America: The History of Us,   Sometimes You See It Coming, the City of Fire trilogy). Baseball: An Illustrated History follows the format of other companion volumes written either by Ward alone ( The West: An Illustrated History ) or with hi...

Inning 6: The National Pastime  (1940-1950) Written by: Geoffrey C. Ward & Ken Burns In Europe, in the Pacific, on the homefront, both African-Americans and whites fight to make the world safe for democracy. When the war ends, Major League Baseball becomes, in fact, what it has always claimed to be: the national pastime. But, at the beginning of the decade, Jackie Robinson's debut is still some years away. Meanwhile, Joe DiMaggio sets a consecutive game-hitting streak that still stands. Ted Williams becomes the last man to hit .400. The once-lowly Brooklyn Dodgers win their first pennant. And World War II takes so much talent from the majors that the St. Louis Browns win a pennant.  24 years ago, fans of Major League Baseball in the U.S. and elsewhere were in a funk. For much of the late summer and early fall, a strike had frozen the 1994 baseball season as the players' union and MLB team owners grappled over - what else - salary caps and revenue sharing. After a...

On September 15, 1996, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) aired The People,  the first of eight episodes of director Stephen Ives' The West, a documentary about the United States' westward expansion and its effects on the history and culture of various peoples, including Americans, Native Americans, Spanish, French, Mexicans, and African Americans. Written by Geoffrey C. Ward and Dayton Duncan, The West  was executive produced by Ken Burns and produced under the aegis of Burns' Florentine Films and Ives' own Insignia Films production company. The West was narrated by actor Peter Coyote, who would later provide narration for later documentaries by Ken Burns, including The National Parks: America's Best Idea, Prohibition, and The Vietnam War.  Presented by Ken Burns and directed by Stephen Ives, this 12-hour film chronicles the epic saga of America's most vast and turbulent region, beginning before European settlement and continuing into the 20th Century. ...

Inning 5: Shadow Ball (1930-1940) Written by: Geoffrey C. Ward & Ken Burns Throughout America, and even on the baseball diamonds in New York's Central Park, thousands of homeless people build shantytowns called "Hoovervilles." More than ever, America needs heroes. And even as it struggles to make it through the Depression, baseball provides them.  But the heroes do not come only from the Major Leagues. The Negro Leagues bring baseball to towns the Major Leagues ignore...to people the Major Leagues spurn. To delight the fans, they develop an elaborate warm-up routine in pantomime; throwing and hitting an invisible ball so convincingly spectators can't believe it's not real. It's called "shadow ball." In the fall of 1994, Major League Baseball was crippled by a players' strike that prematurely ended that year's season at the midway point and led to the cancellation of the '94 World Series. Millions of fans of the national pa...