captainsblog | LOOK! Not Up in the Sky! It's a Quarterback! It's Dozens of Planes!

So, yeah. About late Saturday and Sunday....

We started watching, or rather in this case finishing, a film earlier than we usually do. The night before, we'd begun watching delToro's adaptation of Pinocchio, a major departure from the way Disney did it both originally and in the live-action, Zemeckis-directed update of it from the Mouse. No Honest John, Pleasure Island or ‎Mangiafuoco in this one. (The making-of following the film is also wonderful, and explains, among other things, that the animators did create a Mangiafuoco puppet before delToro changed direction; he just winds up as a background character in one scene.) It's set in Facsist Italy times, which must make their current right-wing PM Missolini really happy, and it definitely takes a darker turn than the original did. For Whoniversers to note, Two different Doctors were attached (not by strings) to this production. War Doctor John Hurt was originally cast to voice Gepetto, but he sadly passed away during the film's long stay in Development Hell. So David Bradley, the brilliant portrayer of the original Doctor in several Twelve-era episodes and a wonderful 50th anniversary special, lent his voice instead.

That, and an air-fryer roasted chicken, were done by 8. Eleanor chose to read after that; I settled in with the fourth Slow Horses episode down here, as I waited for the promised Snow Bowl to begin in Orchard Park. The Miami team stayed downtown at the Hyatt, and were serenaded in the piano bar with songs of how cold and disgusting it was going to be the next night. I added the promise from the spokesperson from the team's original Super Bowl era, special teams almost Hall-of-Famer Steve Tasker:

Alas, I was too tired from the day, the week, hell the year, to stay up for all of it. I checked in on the game and the outdoors right around halftime. Here, it was deer-

- while in OP, the frozen Fish were making a game of it. I heard the first half end with our superhuman Josh Allen given 10 seconds or so to make one last throw for a touchdown before giving up with time still on the clock and taking a gimme 3-point field goal. He wasted all of those seconds on one last play, but he threw successfully to his man and the 7 points went on the board. (His coach said later, "He's lucky he threw a touchdown pass. If he hadn't...I probably would have let the air out of his tires.") I was long asleep before the deer, the Fish and the Superman of a QB were finished outside. During a midnight pee break, I saw we'd won by three points. The details came later.

Among them:

* That night was the first time in history that the Bills, Sabres and Bandits (lacrosse) all won on the same night- and each won by three!

* The win clinched a playoff spot for the Bills for the fourth straight year and the fifth out of the six the tire-deflating coach has been here. The Fish still remain in contention for both playoffs and the division title, but it would take incredible luck (good for them, bad for us) to overtake a three-game deficit with only three remaining for each.

* And the win, this time, did come on a field goal, kicked into wind and the snow that finally arrived late in the game- but Supe tied the score on the previous possession by running in for a two-point conversion himself. Or rather, flying in, as one does:

Only thing stopping this guy is Kryptonite:)

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After spending time Sunday morning breaking in the new vacuum cleaner and reading all the tales of the previous night's onfield activities, I decided to take a trip to an even Greater Whiter North. As I think I mentioned, through this just-passed weekend, our local Broadway roadhouse hosted Come From Away, adapted from actual events in and around Gander, Newfoundland in the wake of 9/11. Home to North America's once-largest commercial airfield from back when trans-Atlantic flights needed to stop for fueling, it was pressed into emergency service when the entire US airspace was shut down after the attacks. Dozens of planes and 7,000 passengers and crew deplaned in this remote but loving little corner of Canada, and the musical- with Great Big Seer Bob Hallett credited as its "Newfoundland Music Consultant"-

-Yes b'y, that's him:), is one I've wanted to see for years. Never did when it was on Broadway in the Before Times, or when I was down the street from it in Toronto on my North from the Fourth excursion in 2018.

It was sold oot back then, but at least I got to see the marquee....

as I did again, yesterday-

- when it might be chillier.

First was getting past the marquee this time, and as with most of my adventures, that was always the hardest part.

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I'd been scoping tickets to this thing for months. Until November, you couldn't get them at all unless you were a Shea's Buffalo season subscriber. When they first went up, Ticketmonster was doing their usual no scalpers, please, but we'll raise the prices anyway shit and even a single seat was north of the $100 border even before adding their garbage fees. But I knew, from The Who and some other ventures, that last minute options often get you much better deals. And yesterday morning on SchmubHub, there was a pair. Up high, to be sure, and beyond Eleanor's ability to climb and sit, but $28 per seat. $39 each with the garbage added in.

WOW! How much would just one be? Um, not those. Had to be sold together. Cheapest singleton broke 100 with the fees. So I bought those two for under 80 bucks total, posted on Der Medias that anyone could go with for F-R-E-E-FREE!,....

and then discovered I didn't actually have the tickets yet. For unlike previous buys, where they showed up instantly on my phone, I had to wait for the seller to actually take my money and send the link to them. THAT took a stressful hour. When it arrived, even, the fun wasn't over, because as noted, Shea's does the actual paperless processing through Ticketmonster. Which I do have from back to seeing Hamilton, but.... I couldn’t login until almost the last minute to leave the house because apparently their app on my phone somehow got linked to their Australian site. Where it’s tomorrow and I missed the show or something, and besides they didn't know who I was, crikey!. Fortunately, I worked around it just in time, and got to go up those magical stairs:

(I have no idea who "Mignon" is in that painting. I'm just glad I didn't get there too fi-let;)

The seats were shared in the end with just my coat, because my post was too late and then I was too late to even give the extra seat away to anybody at the box office. And they were cheap seats but, thank you, cheap seat center:

And I was much closer to the ornate ceiling, that almost got added in the 70s to Buffalo's sad history of demolishing its historical treasures, from Frank Lloyd Wright in the 50s to grain elevators today. This, thankfully, survived:

And then, right on time, it was (no) curtain, and,....

Welcome to the Rock.

I knew the story of the musical and some of the history of how it came about, but I wasn’t ready for how well they told it, showed it, and especially sang it. The cast, a true ensemble, did only one curtain call, all together, but the small band behind them also came out for that curtain call, and continued playing the traditional Newfoundland roots music after the actors left and acknowledged them.

The show features plenty of cross-border references that probably didn’t play as well in Peoria (to Timmy's and Zambonis), but also there's also plenty of sadness about the underlying events on 9/11 that have been known everywhere in the world these last 21 years. Two hours and change without an intermission, but worth every moment and every frustrating effort that went into getting there. If you've got the Apple+ TV there, eh, the whole show can be streamed, and I think that in time, I, or maybe both of us, will come from away once again and see it.

Maybe once the Bills' season is over. You know, in March:)