Monday, November 21, 2011



Marvin Gaye: Star-Spangled Banner

Marvin singing the national anthem at the 1983 NBA all-star game.

This one goes out to NBA legend Earl Monroe on his 67th birthday. And here's Woody Allen on "the Pearl" in 1977:

It’s amazing, because the audience’s “high” originates inside Monroe and seems to emerge over his exterior. He creates a sense of danger in the arena and yet has enough wit in his style to bring off funny ideas when he wants to. He has, as an athlete-performer, what few actors possess. Marlon Brando is one such actor. The audience never knows what will happen next and the potential for a sudden great thrill is always present. If we think of an actor like George C. Scott, for instance, we feel he is consistently first rate, but he cannot move a crowd the way Brando does. There is something indescribable in Brando that pins an audience on the edge of its seats at all times. Perhaps because we sense a possible peak experience at any given moment, and when it occurs, the performance transcends mere acting and soars into the sublime. On a basketball court, Monroe does this to spectators.

Read the whole thing here

6 comments:

emmett said...

Great piece. Especially poignant in light of this year's NBA non-season.

Thanks for the post, Sherry.

BobDobolina said...

I missed the chance to say this on the fifth anniversary post, so I just wanted to say it here: you all are doing the Lord's work in the best and most Blues Brothers sense of that term. I mean, I've been coming here on and off for a while, and every time I visit, every goddamned thing on the front page of this blog is fascinating. That doesn't happen often. Keep up the great work.

emmett said...

Wow, thanks Bob! We're flattered.

"Ad maiorem divi gloriam", am I right?

Let's Find H-Man A Wife said...

Loved Earl the Pearl when I was a kid. I can still remember coach Gene Shue screaming, we beat the Knicks in the Garden. Magic in Baltimore was the Sports Illustrated cover with Earl spinning a basketball.

Sheridan said...

Isn't it Dei gloriam? It's all I can recall from my Jesuitical Latin, with the notable exception of "semper ubi, sub ubi".

Earl predates me by a bit. As a kid Isaiah Thomas was my guy.

SD

emmett said...

Semper Ubi, Sub Ubi: a custom more honored in the breach than the observance. :)

And thanks for correcting my cod Latin, Sheridan. Friends don't let friends misspell Latin epigrams.