BCB After Dark: Never Can Say Goodbye

Welcome back to BCB After Dark: the swingin’ spot for night owls, early-risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. I’m glad you could join us on this warm evening. We’ve reserved a great table for you near the front. We’re planning a mellow night tonight and we hope you can chill out with us. Please bring your own beverage.

BCB After Dark is the place for you to talk baseball, music, movies, or anything else you need to get off your chest, as long as it is within the rules of the site. The late-nighters are encouraged to get the party started, but everyone else is invited to join in as you wake up the next morning and into the afternoon.

The Cubs were off tonight. They play a four-game series in San Francisco starting on Thursday. The Cubs have won six in a row. The Giants have lost seven in a row. Normally I’d say that spells an evil omen for the Cubs and they’re looking at getting swept. But the Giants have, of course, picked this series against the Cubs to retire Will Clark’s number 22 jersey. So basically, the Giants are tampering with the juju spirits again and are asking to get their clock cleaned.

Last night I asked you if you thought Justin Steele or Keegan Thompson would have the better career with the Cubs. Although some of you mentioned that it’s a really close call, by an overwhelming margin of 72 percent to 28 percent, you went with the right-hander Thompson. But I think we all expect that they will turn into the Glavine and Smoltz of the 2020s. Or at least we’re hoping that happens even if we don’t actually expect that at all.

Here’s the part where I write about jazz and movies. You’re free to skip ahead to the baseball question at the end. You won’t hurt my feelings.

Guitarist Grant Green is one of those artists who were far more famous after they died than they were while they were alive. When he was alive, he was overshadowed by more famous jazz guitarists, such as Wes Montgomery and George Benson, and then he died all too young at the age of 43 in 1979. But since then, more and more people have been discovering his music. Not only is he today considered one of the godfathers of both acid jazz and soul jazz, but he’s someone who gets sampled by hip-hop artists with regularity.

Here’s Green playing the Jackson 5’s “Never Can Say Goodbye” on his 1971 album Visions.

Sorry I don’t really have much movie stuff to talk about tonight as family obligations has kept me tied up. But I did write about two films on Monday that featured Ida Lupino on both sides of the camera. And yesterday reader Angel Hurt brought up the 2020 film The Vast of Night in the comments, which I had watched when it came out on Amazon Prime in 2020. I haven’t re-watched it lately, but the film is a moody, atmospheric tribute to the science-fiction films of the 1950s, as well as TV shows like The Twilight Zone. It’s a low-budget independent film, but it really gets a lot out of what it has and it doesn’t resort to the cheesy BEMs (bug-eyed monsters) that were common in those films. A lot of the horror is described rather than shown, which is certainly a factor of the budget but also allows you do the special effects yourself in your head.

If you’re a fan of those older sci-fi films or TV shows like The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits, The Vast of Night is right up your alley. I’d certainly add my recommendation to that of Angel Hurt’s.

And if any of you would like to recommend something you’ve seen lately, do so here. Especially if it’s something that’s not a big Hollywood blockbuster.

Welcome back to all of you that skip the jazz and movies.

It’s a very sad time around Wrigleyville these days because we’re at the trade deadline again and it looks like two beloved Cubs players, Willson Contreras and Ian Happ, are going to be leaving, just like Javy Báez, Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo did last year.

Whether it’s the right move or not, it still hurts. I don’t think many of you would trade Pete Crow-Armstrong for Báez at the moment, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t miss El Mago. And seeing him wearing an old English “D” still hurts.

Or maybe it doesn’t. Today’s question is regardless of whether you think trading them is the right move or not, which Cubs fan favorite’s departure hurts you the most? This may be an unfair question because I’m including Contreras and Happ and the wounds there are still being inflicted. I think we’re all resigned to them being traded, but I don’t think many of us have worked through their feelings yet on those two. The wounds on Bryant, Báez, Rizzo and Schwarber have had more time to heal.

But I need a question for today and this is what I came up with. So tell us, which Cubs fan-favorite was the one that was the toughest for you to deal with emotionally? Which one has hit you in the heart the hardest?

And yes, I know that Contreras and Happ are still on the team as I write this. But they may not be by the time you read this. And it doesn’t look very likely that they’ll still be with the Cubs by the time I write the next After Dark on Monday night/Tuesday morning.

Thank you so much for stopping by. Please tell your friends about us, or bring them along next time. Please get home safely. Tip your waitstaff. And join us again next week with another performance of BCB After Dark.