Scattershooting into 2019
Heading into 2019, here are some random thoughts:
Read MorePosted by Nolan Dalla on Jan 2, 2019 in Blog, Essays | 1 comment
Emotional Rescue: Short Takes on Aretha, Catholicism, Casinos, Omarosa, and Other Topics
Today is Thursday, August 16th, 2018. The scattershooting begins….
Read MoreScattershooting while wondering whatever happened to….
Scattershooting, while wondering whatever happened to Danny Villanueva.
He was the placekicker for the Dallas Cowboys during the mid-1960s. A lot is made of African-Americans and civil rights advances during that era. But Villanueva broke down some serious racial barriers of his own. He became the first notable Mexican-American professional football player, and was the game’s only Latino during that era, either in the NFL or AFL. His final pro game was the famous “Ice Bowl,” when Green Bay defeated Dallas in the 1967 NFL Championship game, which was played in sub-zero temperatures. The photo above shows Villanueva kicking a field goal in that game.
What makes Villanueva such a compelling story this week?
Read on….
Read MoreScattershooting, while wondering whatever happened to….
….rock guitarist Brian May, formerly of Queen.
Some random musings:
— Wrapping up the final stop of the year with “Poker Night in America,” which was shot this previous week at the fabulous Seminole Hard Rock Casino, located just north of Miami. Prior to this event I would have thought it impossible to top our previous two stops, in Upstate New York and Pittsburgh, respectively. But four full days of filming here in the Sunshine State set the bar at a new high.
No doubt, the highlight of the week was the first (and only) ladies-only high-stakes cash game ever live-streamed, or televised. This novel idea was the brainchild of PNIA creator Todd Anderson. Honestly, I wasn’t sure how the action would turn out; but the 11 ladies who made history and played parts of the eight-hour session turned this into one of the most entertaining poker games of the entire year.
Read MoreScattershooting, while wondering whatever happened to….
….political revolutionary and Kurdish freedom fighter Abdullah Ocalan.
It’s been a sad week. We lost two extraordinary actors, one of them a movie legend and the other arguably the most versatile comedian of our time. However, losses in entertainment pale in comparison to the agony now exploding in Iraq and Syria, which have gone beyond the crisis stage. These tragic events where civilians have been targeted for what amounts to genocide have knocked the Palestine-Israel conflict off the front pages, at least temporarily. That’s not a good thing for the few among the two camps actively seeking solutions. I fear a ceasefire and uneasy truce will only create another explosion in the near future, which will cause even more misery later. The one positive thing about the fighting and newsworthiness of the conflict is the world is talking about the problem and there are now many interests who would like to see some kind of two-state solution.
Read MoreFacing the Firing Squad
