The Seventh Cross, Sox, Swayman, Sapphire and Steel, AI, saves or lack thereof, Smiths, Paul Lewis

Monday 4/22/24

Watched The Seventh Cross, a Fred Zinnemann film from 1944 with Spencer Tracy who plays a man escaped from a German concentration camp along with six others and is helped by his friends and non-Nazi Germans to reach safety, thus restoring his faith in humanity. Tracy is one of those actors whose pictures I generally don't care for, but I like Hume Cronyn very much and he has a nice role in this film.

The Red Sox beat the Pirates again, despite their weak-hitting line-up. The starting pitching has been pretty good throughout this early part of the season. Yesterday was a "bullpen game" and they only surrendered the one run. Pittsburgh has really been struggling, but you play teams when you play them and you have to make the most of their slumps.

Hard to figure the Bruins won't stick with Jeremy Swayman net tonight against the Leafs. That sure would be strange if they sat him after his performance in Game 1.

Saw the park ranger with whom I'm friendly yesterday and he said that the Monument may start opening at 11 in a couple weeks.

Moved on to the third serial of Sapphire and Steel. They're in a (then) contemporary apartment building this time. One thing the second serial had going for it was its setting of the abandoned railway station. The first serial took place in an old house. I think that works better with this series--having these characters in older settings, which are both haunted and homey or, if not homey, romantic in a dark and faded way.

I see new indications of the takeover of AI every day. You go on Facebook now and it's AI this, AI that everywhere. You're prompted to ask something of AI, have it do something for you, rely on it, which ultimately means have it replace you. And no one is bothered by another part of the process of the death of the human.

Winnipeg beat the Avalanche in the first game of their series last night 7-6. The Avalanche doubled the Jets' shot total, but Alexandar Georgiev had a .696 save percentage. You don't see that kind of thing very often.

Listened to the Smiths' Strangeways, Here We Come and Paul Lewis's recording of Brahms' first piano concerto with the Swedish Radio Symphony and Ballades, Op. 10.