you can watch it online<\/a> if you can\u2019t make it to the show.<\/p>\nInternational Jazz Day was Herbie Hancock\u2019s idea when he was a UNESCO Ambassador and was adopted by that organization in 2011. Here\u2019s Hancock in a 2018 International Jazz Day concert in Osaka, Japan. Also in this All-Star show was Kenny Garrett (alto sax), Marcus Miller (electric bass), John Scofield (guitar), Roy Hargrove (trumpet), Terri Lyn Carrington (drums), Josh Johnson (alto sax), Courtney Pine (tenor sax), Steve Turre (trombone), Mike Cottone (trumpet), Takuya Kuroda (trumpet), Sheila E. (percussion) and Pete Escovedo (percussion).<\/p>\n
This is \u201cHang Up Your Hang Ups.\u201d<\/p>\n
Generally I only tell you about the films that I\u2019ve watched that I liked, but the only film I\u2019ve watched in the past few days is Wife vs. Secretary (1935), a romantic comedy directed by Clarence Brown with an all-star cast of Clark Gable, Jean Harlow and Myrna Loy. It also has a pre-star James Stewart in one of his first big supporting roles. It\u2019s a typical mid-century (or so) story of a wife (Loy) who gets jealous of the secretary (Harlow) of her workaholic husband (Gable). Unfortunately, despite the powerhouse cast, the film is very light on the \u201ccomedy\u201d part of a rom-com. Maybe the jokes just don\u2019t translate after ninety years, because I didn\u2019t get it.<\/p>\n
Gable plays Van \u201cJake\u201d Stanhope, a magazine executive who is madly in love with his wife Linda (Loy). He also is married to his work, which puts him in constant contact with his super-competent secretary \u201cWhitey.\u201d (Harlow) Jake comes up with a plan to expand his magazine\u2019s reach by acquiring another publication, which means he is spending all of his time at the office to complete the merger. It\u2019s also top secret, so no one can know his plans other than Whitey, who has to help him.<\/p>\n
Linda is initially quite understanding and trusting of her husband, knowing that he deeply loves her. Whitey\u2019s fianc\u00e9 Dave (Stewart) isn\u2019t so understanding when she gets called into the office at all hours and he wants her to quit her job after they get married. But Whitey actually loves her job and is super good at it and doesn\u2019t want to quit it to marry Dave. Obviously she\u2019s someone whom 40 years later would be an executive herself and not a secretary.<\/p>\n
Anyways, all the gossipy other executive wives tell Linda that they\u2019d never let their husbands spend so much time with a secretary that looks like Jean Harlow. That plants a seed in her head. And while Jake deeply loves Linda and thinks of Whitey as more of a business partner, a series of coincidences and random comments makes Linda start to doubt her husband\u2019s fidelity. Meanwhile, Whitey isn\u2019t quite sure who really has her heart, Jake or Dave, even though Jake has made no indication that he sees her as anything other than a secretary.<\/p>\n
So it\u2019s a basic misunderstanding plot with a double love triangle, although Stewart\u2019s Dave really isn\u2019t in the film enough to be more than a minor diversion. (He does get the last words, however!) The problem is that none of these misunderstandings are actually funny. They are just very ordinary basic things associated with the business deal and Jake\u2019s complete inability to get anything done without Whitey\u2019s help. All four of those actors have made very good comedies elsewhere, but none of them get to show that talent here. Jake is just clueless about his wife\u2019s suspicions. Whitey isn\u2019t sure if she\u2019s not falling in love with Jake, but she\u2019s a good girl and would never be \u201cthe other woman.\u201d Linda just goes from trusting, loving wife to a helpless, green-eyed woman.<\/p>\n
There were a few things about the film I liked. For one, Loy is allowed to play a very sexual wife, at least early in the film. This is a break from the stereotype of the dowdy wife versus the hot secretary. Conversely, Harlow plays Whitey as very professional and is dressed most of the time in proper business attire for women of the 1930s. (She does have a few sexy evening gowns when the situation calls for it.) Harlow is very much trying to shed her \u201cblonde bombshell\u201d image in this film, playing a capable businesswoman who doesn\u2019t flaunt her obvious attractiveness. You can almost see her trying to have Katharine Hepburn\u2019s career here as she aged had she not tragically died of kidney failure two years later.<\/p>\n
The other thing I loved was the gorgeous Art Deco apartment that Jake and Linda lived in. In fact, most of the sets were in the best style of the era with a classy sophistication. The costuming was also a nice touch, with the wife Loy wearing a lot of attractive, stylish and sexy outfits and the secretary Harlow dressing down most of the time in some smart business attire. Gable also wore some fine menswear, although I couldn\u2019t tell if he wore an undershirt. (Heh.)<\/p>\n
Overall, the purpose of a comedy is to be funny and despite the stellar cast, Wife vs. Secretary just isn\u2019t funny. Great looking, but not dramatic enough to be a good drama and not funny enough to be a good comedy.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the original trailer for Wife vs. Secretary. At least you get to see the great clothes here.<\/p>\n
Welcome back to everyone who skips the music and movies.<\/p>\n
The Cubs have finished the first month and change of the season with a record of 19-12, just half a game behind the surprising Reds. They\u2019ve weathered a whole mess of injuries, especially to the pitching staff, and are still in prime position to win the division. They\u2019re tied for second in the league in runs scored and home runs. They\u2019re third in batting average and they lead the league on on-base percentage.<\/p>\n
The Cubs\u2019 pitching isn\u2019t quite as good, with an ERA of 4.01. That\u2019s seventh in the league, which puts them right in the middle of the pack. But that\u2019s still not bad considering the number of injuries they\u2019ve had. Probably good enough if the offense continues to produce like it has.<\/p>\n
So what grade do you give the Cubs after one month (and change) of the season?<\/p>\n
And by \u201cApril,\u201d I mean the few games in March too.<\/p>\n
Thanks for stopping by tonight. We\u2019ve enjoyed having you all week. Please get home safely. We want to have you stop by again. Please recycle any cans and bottles. Tip your waitstaff. And join us again next week for more BCB After Dark.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome back to BCB After Dark: the bopping-est bar for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":686475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2399],"tags":[5,4938,138,24,81725,4245,161,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-686474","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-cubs","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-bcb-after-dark","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-cubs","12":"tag-chicago-cubs-discussion","13":"tag-chicagocubs","14":"tag-cubs","15":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116492159093800274","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=686474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/686475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}