The Nose Knows

Out of Our Hands

2008-12-03T00:01:00.002-05:00

Yes... I'm actually posting. Don't get too excited... this will probably be pretty lame. In fact, it's a response to a chain message...

Here we go.

Instructions:

1. Put your music on shuffle
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. You must write that song name down no matter how silly it sounds.

1. If someone says "Is this okay" you say?

Pride (by U2)

2. What would best describes your personality?

Burning Down the House (Bonnie Raitt - cover of the Talking Heads song) (apparently I'm a pyromaniac).

3. What do you like in a guy/girl?

Foxy Lady (Jimi Hendrix) (damn right!)

4. How do you feel today?

The District Sleeps Alone (Postal Service)

5. What is your life's purpose?

Veronica (Elvis Costello) (This one might disappoint Debby)

6. What is your motto?

Aurora (Foo Fighters)

7. What do your friends think of you?

Thinking About You (Norah Jones)

8. What do you think about very often?

I Had a King (Herbie Hancock)

9. What is 2 + 2?

Sweet Home Chicago (Eric Clapton)

10. What do you think of your best friend?

Theme From Rawhide (Blues Brothers)

11. What do you think of the person you like?

Baltimore (Lyle Lovett)

12. What is your "life story"?

The Thick Skin of Defiance (Dropkick Murphys) (That would actually be an awesome name for an autobiography).

13. What do you want to be when you grow up?

The Old Landmark (James Brown)

14. What do you think when you see the person you like?

Just What I Needed (The Cars) (Awww... how sweet)

15. What do your parents think of you?

OK Alone (Gabriel Mann)

16. What will you dance to at your wedding?

Well, I'm already married, but lets see if this gets it right.... MAIN TITLE THEME FROM STAR WARS! Completely wrong, but that would have been so awesome...

17. What will they play at your funeral?

Learn to Fly (Foo Fighters)

18. What is your hobby/interest?

Korean Parents (Randy Newman) (Boy, would that be an odd hobby).

19. What is your biggest secret?

Have it All (Foo Fighters) (Not a secret, everyone knows I have it all).

20. What do you think of your friends?

Let Your Loss Be Your Lesson (Robert Plant and Alison Krauss)

21. What's the worst thing that could happen?

Californication (Red Hot Chili Peppers) (I could think of much worse things)

22. How will you die?

Money, Money, Money (Abba) (Interesting...)

23. What is the one thing you regret?

Champagne Supernova (Oasis)

24. What makes you laugh?

Colorado (Chevy Chase)

25. What makes you cry?

Streets of Philadelphia (Bruce Springsteen) (I might have cried there after the Phillies won the World Series)

26. Will you ever get married?

Again, I'm already married, but lets see... The Sky is Crying (Stevie Ray Vaughan)

27. What scares you the most?

Doctor My Eyes (Jackson Browne)

28. Does anyone like you?

Dance To The Music (Sly and the Family Stone)

29. If you could go back in time what would you change?

Laugh and Be Happy (Randy Newman)

30. What hurts right now?

Send Her My Love (Journey)

31. This wasn't on before, but my wife wants me to add it... What turns you on?

Running on Empty (Jackson Browne)

32. What will you post this as?

Out of Our Hands (Sheryl Crow)

Quick Thoughts on Fifteen Baseball Stadiums

2008-07-28T20:27:00.003-04:00

So I went to Shea Stadium yesterday, and saw my beloved Cardinals lose 9 to 1. But in watching this horrific game, I did accomplish a sort-of milestone... I have now been to fifteen major league baseball stadiums. Here are quick thoughts, in chronological order of when I went to each stadium.

Busch Stadium (the old one) in St. Louis - Well, obviously this is my favorite stadium of all time. I am no means objective... this is the stadium I grew up with, and the one where I saw what ESPN says is the 16th greatest home run in major league baseball history. And yes, the best fans in baseball. But beyond that, I really do think it was a great stadium, the best of the hybrid baseball-football stadiums. Not that that's saying much.

Wrigley Field in Chicago - Another stadium that I can't judge on pure objective grounds... I mean, it's Wrigley Field. Yes, I'm required by as a Cards fan to law to laugh and make fun of Cubs fans. But going to Wrigley is really to feel like a part of history. The ivy on the wall... back in the day, Harry Carey singing Take Me Out to the Ballgame. And it's integrated in the neighborhood where it sits like no other stadium, anywhere. On objective levels, once you get inside, the stadium has piss poor sightlines and isn't very fan friendly. It's sort of never lived up to expectations. Sort of like some baseball team that plays there.

Comiskey Park (the new one) in Chicago (and yes, I still call it Comiskey) - I don't think this one is as bad as people say it is... sure it missed the boat on the newer stadium philosophy, but it actually does have a little bit of style. As the best postgame fireworks show I've seen. Just wish I would have made it to the old Comiskey.

Milwaukee County Stadium - Wow. This stadium was just what you'd expect from Milwaukee. A big, ugly, metal circle with a baseball field in the middle. Seriously, it looked like the bottom third of a giant beer can, probably Pabst. Worst stadium I've ever been to. But somehow, very representative of Milwaukee. Unlike...

Miller Park in Milwaukee - This was one of the first post-Camden Yards stadium, and they tried to do the same thing but put their own twist on it. Unfortunately, it didn't quite work, and this is probably the worst of the Camden-inspired stadiums. And I don't get retractable domes.

Camden Yards in Baltimore - A great model that has been relentlessly copied... Unfortunately, that means it's not that distinct anymore. But boy, I bet it was great in the beginning. They should get a major league team to play there. The stadium deserves more than a Triple-A team.

PNC Park in Pittsburgh - The BEST of the Camden inspired parks. If I were able to be objective, I'd maybe say this is my favorite stadium, period. Also home to a Triple-A team.

Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia - I went to this stadium specifically to see the hideous Phillies fans boo Scott Rolen after the trade to the Cardinals. It was like an anthropological journey to see Phillies fans in their natural habitat. God, I hate Phillies fans. I don't even really remember the stadium itself.

Yankee Stadium in New York - Fucking Yankees. I saw Roger Clemens get his 300th win against my beloved Cardinals. Fucking hooray. The stadium is pretty good, actually, and of course a big part of history. But if I heard the phrase "26 time world champion New York Yankees" one more time while I was there, I probably would have killed someone.

Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia - Not very interesting for a new stadium. And still full of Phillies fans. I was at two Cubs games, and they were berating CUBS FANS while I was there, and I STILL found them annoying. God, I still hate Phillies fans.

RFK Stadium in Washington DC - Oddly enough, the stadium I've actually been to the most times. Well, I guess it's not that odd seeing as Washington is the only city I've actually lived in with a team. And you know what? RFK wasn't that bad. I have lots of good memories in the place.

Angel Stadium in Los Angeles of Anaheim of Orange County of California of United States of America on North America of the Americas of the Western Hemisphere of Earth - I went on a whim when driving from LA to San Diego. Nice stadium, if a little too Disney/Rally Monkey inspired.

Busch Stadium (the new one) in St. Louis - Not bad... I miss the old Busch though, and this is probably the closest ripoff of all the Camden clones I've been to. I've only been once so far... and Pujols hit 3 home runs that day. I hope he repeats next time I go.

Nationals Park in Washington DC - I really think this is the first new stadium to kind of break the Camden mold... and I like it quite a bit. Lots of good times will be had there.

Shea Stadium in New York - Shithole. As boring as stadiums get. Will not be missed, probably even by most Mets fans. But hey, at least I get to check it off the list.

About that New Yorker cover....

2008-07-14T23:35:00.006-04:00

So this is the cover of the latest New Yorker....

And as you may have heard by now, it has the Obama campaign and alot of their faithful up in a tizzy. Sure. Maybe YOU understand that it's satire. But you're not some redneck in Podunk, Missouri, who's bound to look at this and say... "What? I was going to vote for Obama, but now that I see he's a Bin Laden loving Muslim terrorist who burns the flag and has a Black Panther for a wife, NO WAY!" And that will DOOM the Obama campaign! Doom it, I tell ya! There's no way Obama can survive this cartoon!

Here's what Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton has to say....

"The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama's right-wing critics have tried to create... But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree."

Now, you may have seen that quote if you've been reading the newspapers or blogs or whatever for the last couple days... But here comes a Nose Knows Exclusive! I have further quotes from Burton about a variety of other satirical works!

On The Colbert Report...

"Colbert has repeatedly shown images of Barack in a turbin, questioned his patriotism, and made countless other accusations... now I know the show is satire, but will Joe-Nascar-Six-Pack know the difference?"

On The Onion....

"The Onion has recently reported 'Obama, Clinton, McCain Join Forces To Form Nightmare Ticket.' This is untrue. Don't believe it! Some hick in Alabama just decided not to vote for Obama because they're all running together now. See what you did, Onion?"

On South Park...

"Well, after a tough primary campaign, I feel the need to defend Hillary from the evil accusations of South Park. Last year, they implied that Hillary had a nuclear weapon hidden in her vagina. I know this to be untrue, and I demand an apology."

On Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal"....

"In his satirical book, Swift proposes that poor people sell their babies so that rich people can eat them. Now look. I know it's a joke. But just yesterday, a poor soul from Pennsylvania came up to me with his two year old saying he'd make an excellent hamburger. What hath Swift wrought?"

Let's all pray for the end of satire.

Rock-afire Explosion Documentary

2008-07-08T23:34:00.002-04:00

Do you remember Rock-afire Explosion? The animatronic band from Showbiz Pizza/Chuck-E-Cheese?

Well, they've made a documentary about the band...

And the guy who managed to get the band and program it to play an Usher song.

I have to admit this documentary looks awesome.

Married!

2008-07-01T22:44:00.002-04:00

For those who were wondering, since I haven't posted in over a month, if I successfully got married and got back and forth to Italy and all that... I did! And the first month of marriage has been great!

That's all for now. Just wanted to check in. And for a little entertainment, here's my favorite clip of the late, great, George Carlin.

Off to California on Thursday....

2008-05-27T22:37:00.003-04:00

To get married, and then take off to Italy for my honeymoon. So it'll be a few weeks before I post again. In the meantime, enjoy this very revealing video of John McCain.

Image of Virgin Mary in a....

2008-05-21T23:35:00.004-04:00

For no specific reason, I thought it would be interesting to google the phrase "image of Virgin Mary in a." I was surprised that I only got five exact hits for that phrase, two linking to the same place. Here you go.

Image of Virgin Mary in a....

lemon

natural rock

puff of smoke

golden nugget

If I google just "Virgin Mary in a," I get lots of links to this grilled cheese sandwich that sold for $28,000 on Ebay and this tree stump. Among other finds, a chimney, a watermelon, a palm tree branch, and a grease stain.

Over a month!

2008-05-11T22:29:00.004-04:00

Wow, when I announced my blog semi-retirement, I apparently meant it. This is my first post in over a month.

So, um, I guess I should blog. For the sake of posting something, here are the opening credits of various Marvel Comics cartoons from the sixties. Spider-Man is obviously the most classic, but Iron Man (great movie, by the way) is probably the funniest. Here they are.

Spider-Man

Iron Man

Hulk

Captain America

Mighty Thor

The Nose Knows Blog Index

2008-04-08T22:11:00.005-04:00

Recently, Time Magazine Created its "first annual blog index." They're picking their top 25 blogs, and promise to repeat it annually.

So I thought I'd create my own "blog index." A few rules...

There will be only ten, not twenty five. And they will be ranked one through ten, based on how I feel today.

Mine isn't an annual list. I can change it next week, or in five years. Who knows?

If you know me and you have a blog, don't feel offended. I'm ruling out blogs of people I know. This will be a list of more popular, more widely known blogs.

Also, I'm ruling out "catch-all" blogs that have a million links a day about nothing specific. Thus, no Fark, no Metafilter, no Boing Boing, no Slashdot.

And no Cardinals blogs, because those don't interest anyone except a narrow group of people.

So... Here we go.

1. Freakonomics

I've blogged about the book recently, and since I read it and started following the blog, it has become my very favorite blog. Almost every entry is thought provoking, and there are very few "filler" posts. And I promise this is the only economics blog on my list.

2. Daily Kos

What can I say? This is probably the first blog I ever read regularly, and I still read several posts there almost every day. It's my one stop shop for all my left wing propaganda.

3. Huffington Post

I was a late adapter to Huffington Post. It wasn't until recently that I came to the opinion that this is the second best left wing blog out there. The entries are of mixed quality, but the good stuff is good enough that it's worth searching out.

4. Fire Joe Morgan

Don't worry, this blog is much more than just a plea to fire one ESPN announcer. It's an all out assault on bad, lazy, and flat out idiotic sports journalism and analysis. As you can imagine, there's no shortage of material to make fun of, and it's all done by a writer for The Office who once played Dwight's brother.

5. Garfield Minus Garfield

As I've written before, Garfield sucks. But it turns out that if you take Garfield out of the comic strip, it's hilarious. Just a lonely guy with serious mental issues.

6. Indexed

Great observations about life, illustrated through charts and diagrams on index cards. Nothing more, nothing less.

7. Stuff White People Like

Honestly, this blog is a depressing look at people like me. But I find it hilarious. It's losing a little of its original luster, but it's on my list for now.

8. Regret the Error

A collection of actual corrections that ran in newspapers, magazines, etc.
It's amazing what these supposedly great publications get wrong.

9. Raising Kaine

Another left wing political blog, this one a local one from my former home of Virginia. It's the model all local political blogs should follow. I wish Maryland had one this good (of course it would help if Maryland had Democratic elected officials as dynamic as the ones Virginia has).

10. Slog

Another local blog... this one from Seattle, where I've never been. I only found this blog because one of its contributors is Dan Savage. Again, lots of my left wing propaganda (detecting a theme here?), but plenty of other interesting posts, and very little of it is Seattle specific.

Your Brain On Cubs

2008-03-27T20:58:00.005-04:00

Quick plug for a book I haven't read yet. My old roommate and the Best Man in my wedding, Dan Gordon, edited a book called "Your Brain On Cubs."

The book was written by several neuroscientists and covers a variety of topics related to the brain and baseball, including what happens in the brain of Cubs fans that causes them to root for their team through so much agony.

I like to think I partially inspired this book. You see, I'm a diehard Cardinals fan and he's a diehard Cubs fan. Our teams, of course, are bitter rivals. I was his roommate in 2003, and I was with him during the Steve Bartman incident and the subsequent collapse of the team as they were moments away from their first World Series in almost 60 years. I was also his roommate in 2006, when the Cardinals won the World Series with a team that went barely .500 in the regular season. He needed to examine his own misery in comparison with my joy. I haven't read the book yet, but it's a book I'd certainly be interested in even if I didn't know Dan. It's a great premise for a book and I'm sure a good read.

Annual Preseason Baseball Picks

2008-03-26T19:20:00.005-04:00

Welcome to The Nose Knows Baseball: 2008 Preview (disclaimer: these predictions are completely inaccurate)

I've done this for three years now. I predicted the Cards to win in 2006. It worked. I predicted them again in 2007. Not so much.

I will not be predicting the Cardinals to win it all this year. At some point, being a homer just gets ridiculous. It was ridiculous of me to predict them either year (even if it worked in one of them). But now they seem to be an even worse team. Baseball Prospectus, which makes much more scientific projections than I do, predicts a 72-90 record this year. They were right about the White Sox demise that caught so many by surprise last year and made people like this look foolish.

So onto my predictions.

AL East: Red Sox. This is the year they officially become more hated than the Yankees.
AL Central: Tigers. They should rebound this year, especially with Miguel Cabrera at the plate.
AL West: Angels. Nothing more to say.
AL Wild Card: Indians. So yes.....

That leaves the Yankees out.

AL Champs: Tigers. I think their offseason moves put them over the edge.
AL Cy Young: C.C. Sabathia.
AL MVP: Alex Rodriguez. And Yankees fans will STILL hate him.

NL East: Mets. They just got the best pitcher in the game in Johan Santana, and should bounce back from last year.
NL Central: Cubs. As hard as it is for a Cards fan to make this prediction, they're clearly the best team in the division.
NL West: Diamondbacks. Dan Haren was another nice offseason pickup.
NL Wild Card: Brewers. I've predicted them to win the Wild Card 3 years straight. Is this finally the year?

NL Champs: Mets.
NL Cy Young: Johan Santana.
NL MVP: David Wright. A Mets hat trick. Will it be enough for the World Series?

Nope.

Your 2008 World Champion Detroit Tigers.

Gang Leader For A Day

2008-03-24T22:39:00.003-04:00

Following up on my last post,I mentioned that Sudhir Venkatesh, the sociologist who lived among gang members at the Robert Taylor homes in Chicago and was written about in Freakonomics, has his own book, Gang Leader For A Day.

I havent read the book yet. I plan on reading it soon. Now comes word that the book has been optioned for a movie, which will be directed by Hustle and Flow's Craig Brewer. That seems like a great fit for me. This is a story that could be told with the energy Brewer brought to Hustle and Flow and made into a fantastic film.

So who to play Venkatesh? Not that many huge Indian actors in Hollywood, which makes Kal Penn and obvious choice. While he's best none for being Kumar, I think he has potential to be a pretty good actor. But I think an even better choice might be Lost's Naveen Andrews (I had to check Wikipedia on this one... yes, his parents are from India. He's not Iraqi like his character on Lost). A third option is Sendhil Ramamurthy from Heroes. He could be ok but I'd prefer Penn or Andrews. And of course I'm sure there are many more Indian actors to choose from... Those are just the only 3 mainstream Indian actors I can think of.

Things I've Seen/Heard/Read/Done Lately

2008-03-17T22:47:00.002-04:00

This is kind of a catch-up post on things I've seen, heard said, or done lately.

Thing I've Seen - Gone Baby Gone -

Not bad at all. Very solid first directorial effort by Ben Affleck. He should stay behind the camera, where apparently his best skills might be.

Thing I've Heard - Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me -

Ok, I'm really late to the game on this one. But I just started listening to the weekly NPR show on podcast, and it's one of the funniest things around. Good guests who end up being surprisingly entertaining. Plus regulars like Mo Rocca, Paula Poundstone, and Tom Bodett, who apparently, in addition to being the guy who will "leave the light on for you" at Motel 6, is one seriously funny dude.

Thing I've Read - Freakonomics -

I've been wanting to read this book ever since it came out. I finally did, and thought it was a great read. Like the authors of the book, I am keenly interested in economic incentives, but I don't really care about financial markets, etc. The Freakonomics guys also have a great blog. Perhaps my favorite chapter of the book was about a guy who lives among gang members in Chicago and does one of the most thorough economic studies of a gang ever, and finds out their corporate structure is basically the same as McDonalds. The guy, Sudhir Venkatesh, has his own book now, which I'm looking forward to reading. He was also on the Colbert Report last week.

Thing I've Done - dance lessons for my wedding -

Yep, that's right. I'm learning to fox trot for the big day. Going well, and gives me some quality time with my fiancee. I need to learn new steps, practice alot, etc. So far, so good!

That's it for now. If I don't have something specific to write next time I want to blog, Seen/Heard/Read/Done seems like a good recurring post.

Obama plays chess, Clinton boxes....

2008-03-02T22:23:00.003-05:00

A while back I ran across this article comparing Obama's campaign strategy to chess and Clinton's to boxing.

I don't care so much about the content of the article. I just want to use it as an excuse to post a video of the ultimate combination of brains and muscle....

Chessboxing.

The Fucking Continues

2008-03-01T00:17:00.002-05:00

You saw "I'm Fucking Matt Damon." You saw "I'm Fucking Ben Affleck." You thought the Fucking was over. You were afraid of endless copycat celebrity Fucking videos. But Kevin Smith managed to actually put another relatively funny one together. Without further delay, "I'm Fucking Seth Rogen."

Jimmy Kimmel: "I'm Fucking Ben Affleck"

2008-02-25T23:20:00.002-05:00

I know I'm like the billionth person to link to this, but it's a hilarious response to Sarah Silverman's I'm Fucking Matt Damon. The best part? Josh Groban.

Blog Semi-Retirement

2008-02-14T12:40:00.003-05:00

There's no use denying it. I'm semi-retired from the "blogosphere."

The updates on this blog have been getting less and less frequent. This is for a variety of reasons, the main reason being that I've kind of lost the enthusiasm. If I were going to make this blog everything I want it to be, I'd have to blog every day, sometimes two or three times a day, respond to all the comments, etc. I just can't make that a priority in my life right now. For one, I think I've made some pretty healthy life choices lately. I've been exercising more, reading more, and, not insignificantly, become much more productive at work. Oh, and I have a wedding coming up, and need to get some stuff done for that. I don't want this blog to cut into any of that.

In addition, I've probably been a little less inspired to blog lately. For a variety of reasons, I don't really feel like blogging about politics these days. I have a strong preference for a candidate in the Democratic primary as you all know, and I feel justified in having a strong preference in choosing the next leader of our country. But I seem to offend those around me who have different opinions on the degree of difference between the candidates. I don't want to be offensive. So I'm kind of avoiding this aspect of politics until after the Democratic Convention.

Likewise, there's really nothing all that interesting going on for me in the sports world right now. Maybe that will change when March Madness and the baseball season start, but it's looking like a long year for my Cardinals.

My blog semi-retirement really won't change much. I'll likely blog a few times a month, just as I have recently, about pop culture or sports or in time, politics, or whatever suits my fancy. This is more of an acknowledgement of the reality than anything else.

If you want to follow me on a more regular basis, I suggest two things....

1) Twitter. My twittering frequency, like my blogging frequency, goes up and down, but I do twitter more often than I blog, in general. Some people think twittering is "blogging for people with ADD".... I prefer to think of it as blogging for people with other desires and obligations... often twittering is more responsible than blogging.

2) Google Reader. If you don't use some sort of blog reader already, I highly recommend it as a one-stop place to read all your favorite blogs. I more and more frequently use the "share" feature. On the right sidebar of this blog, you'll see a box with my recently shared items. This box updates throughout the day, as I share more items. You can click "read more" at the bottom of the box to see more of my shared items. If you use Google Reader yourself and you have my email, you can see my items in your reader and share items with me as well. Be warned... I do share lots of political postings, some very opinionated, so if you're going to be offended, don't tell me I didn't warn you.

That's about it for now. Funny how my longest blog posting in a while is about how I'm not blogging as much.

Happy Anniversary to Me!

2008-02-01T15:21:00.000-05:00

I've been blogging so rarely lately, I almost forgot that, effectively, today is the two year anniversary of my blog. Happy anniversary to me! Now I should start blogging more often.

Top 5 Movies of the Year

2008-01-23T22:43:00.000-05:00

I have a compulsion to make lists like this every year, so here I go.

The usual caveat... There are lots of movies I haven't seen that could have made the list. The biggest likely contenders... Zodiac, Michael Clayton, American Gangster, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Sicko, I Am Legend, Eastern Promises, Lust, Caution, and Grace is Gone.

So, of the movies I DID see, here are the top 5.

1. No Country For Old Men
2. Sweeney Todd
3. Knocked Up
4. Superbad
5. Juno

Some might some that having movies like Knocked Up and Superbad negate my whole list, that I can't be a serious film watcher... I don't care. Those were two of the best comedies in years and deserve to be on the list.

Oscar Nominees 2008

2008-01-22T19:03:00.000-05:00

Full List Here.

First, things first... gotta pay my respects to Heath Ledger. Sad, sad situation. He was very impressive in Brokeback Mountain and I've been anxiously anticipating his performance as The Joker in the new Batman movie. Always sad to lose someone so young. Now, I think he'll be remember in the iconic way that James Dean, or at very least, River Phoenix, is remembered. Rest in Peace, Heath.

Now on to my thoughts on the nominees....

Ok, I know I'll just sound like the Tim Burton fanboy I am for saying this, but Sweeney Todd got screwed for best picture, and Burton especially got screwed for director. When will the academy ever show the man some love? Sweeney was my second favorite movie this year, next to No Country for Old Men.

I've seen all best picture noms except Michael Clayton. No Country For Old Men was by far the best. I hope, hope, hope it wins, but fear Atonement will, which was by far the worst of those nominees (I should see Michael Clayton to confirm this, but suspect this is the case).

I will also go on record as saying Johnny Depp was better than Daniel Day Lewis, although DDL already has this wrapped up. DDL was good, but Depp was better. Won't break my heart to see DDL win, though. Depp will win an Oscar eventually. It's a done deal. Even if it's a Pacino-Scent-Of-A-Woman make up award in 20 years, Depp will win an Oscar.

Wouldn't a real best actor race be nice, some day, though? The last three winners were Forest Whitaker, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Jamie Foxx in extremely lopsided races, and I think DDL has close to that kind of edge this year.

Supporting Actor is just as lopsided. Everyone who's not named Javier Bardem... thanks for playing and go home.

In my annual "I should see more movies with women" moment, I have to cop to only having seen Ellen Page as Juno in the best Actress category. She was good, but won't win. This is between Julie Christie and Marion Cotillard.

Supporting Actress... Cate Blanchett seems to be a lock in the Bob Dylan movie no one has seen.

Art Direction will go to Atonement, Cinematography will go to No Country For Old Men.

Coen Brothers will win Best Director... If not, talk begins about how they're the new Scorcese.

No End in Sight upsets Sicko in the most liberal, I mean, best, documentary category.

Ratatouille will win best cartoon.

Atonement will win Best Score by a mile... why only 3 nominees?

The song from Once beats out all the songs from Enchanted.

Diving Bell and the Butterfly and Juno get the "They won't win anything else, so lets give 'em something" screenplay awards. Although, to be fair, Juno would win screenplay anyway.

Quick New Hampshire Thoughts

2008-01-08T23:10:00.000-05:00

Obviously as an Obama guy, tonight was a minor setback. I still think he's got the upper hand, but now he has a race. Obama's misstep in New Hampshire was that he didn't keep himself in the news cycle. Hillary had all the coverage in the last couple days with her "emotional speech", That's what Bill Clinton did so well, and Hillary's picking that up... her speech was a brilliant political move. I think either Barack or Hillary (or yes, Edwards) has what it takes to beat any Republican. McCain's speech tonight was a disaster... I still think he's toast.

Iowa Caucuses

2008-01-03T22:36:00.000-05:00

I've sort of been live-Twittering the Iowa Caucus, but thought I'd put my thoughts here too.

- Damn, I wish Mitt Romney would have beat Huckabee. Romney's just SO BEATABLE!

- Although the Iowa Caucus was held about 2 weeks later in 2004, this is basically the 4th anniversary of the "Dean Scream."

- Time for Bill Richardson to bow out gracefully. The more Dems that bow out, the harder it gets for Hillary. Doubt she's the 2nd choice for many.

- Lyndon LaRouche isn't running for president this year. What gives?

- Ron Paul is gonna beat Giuliani by a wide margin. That's gotta hurt.

- I can't believe that the sight of Chuck Norris actually convinces people to vote for Huckabee. He's right there behind Huckabee at the podium.

- Obama's speech is blowing all the other speeches out of the water. He's by far the most electable Democrat.

- And the first two Iowa casualties are.... Chris Dodd and Joe Biden.

The Nose Knows Year in Review

2007-12-27T16:19:00.000-05:00

This will be my last post of the year as I'm about to leave on vacation until New Years.

I did this last year, and here I go again... The first sentence of my first post of every month this year.

January

Webb swears in tomorrow, and I was at his swearing-in party at the Clarendon Ballroom tonight.

February

While this blog actually dates back to the summer of 2004, there was over a year gap between posts.

March

And absolutely nothing happened.

April

Of course, I'm talking about.....

May

Here's what not to do when you're a Mormon running for president, trying to convince a skeptical public that you're religion isn't wacky...

June

I'm kind of surprise that, to the best of my knowledge, I've never linked to Fire Joe Morgan on my blog.

July

I was walking by the Cingular (We used to be AT&T and now we're AT&T again, or something) store...

August

Ever wonder who the people are whose pictures show up week after week, with different names, in The Onion's "American Voices" section?

September

So, after posting every weekday for two weeks, which is alot for me, I was kind of taking a break from blogging.

October

I've always kind of liked LeBron James.

November

Since I haven't posted anything in over a week, here's video of a man skipping a rock 51 times for the world record.

December

Of all the shit that has spewed from Karl Rove's mouth, the idea that Congressional Democrats are the ones that wanted to rush to war in Iraq in 2002 is possibly the biggest lie I've ever heard him tell.

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And with that, Happy New Year!

Best Songs of 2007 Revision

2007-12-21T09:13:00.000-05:00

Dude. I should be fired from my own blog.

You know what I forgot about when listing the best songs of 2007?

The entire Once soundtrack.

I saw this movie back in June or so. It didn't make my mid-year top 5. That's because the music did alot more for me than the movie overall. Still, it has certainly stuck in my memory more than, say, the latest Die Hard or Spider-man. It will probably be a while before I get to a year-end best movies list, still too many key movies I haven't seen. Will Once make that list? Probably not, but you never know.

Anyway, back to the important topic at hand, the MUSIC in Once. Essentially, the music in Once IS the movie. Glen Hansard reminds me of Cat Stevens at his best, both in songwriting and performing style.

Sorry, Ben Harper, but I have to knock you down a spot for best song of the year. I'm now giving it to "Falling Slowly," performed by Hansard and his co-star Markéta Irglová. But really, I'm picking one song to represent the whole soundtrack. Several songs on the soundtrack could be at or near the top of my list.

I haven't actually bought the soundtrack, but I will, and I've heard it enough to know it would be my pick for best CD of the year. Granted, I've only bought two 2007 CDs I can think of, Bruce Springsteen's "Magic" and Radiohead's "In Rainbows." Both of those fall into the "good, not great" category for me. So "Once" soundtrack it is.

Presidential Candidates and their Baseball Preferences

2007-12-19T09:33:00.000-05:00

Over the last couple days, Home Run Derby has given a rundown of the presidential candidates and their baseball preferences. Here is a breakdown, in my opinion, of the rankings of their baseball preferences.

1. Mike Huckabee - Cardinals fan

This is so painful for me. Not only is he surging in the polls, which I very much fear as I think he's the Republicans' best candidate, he has the same baseball allegiance as me. Of course, he did say this in 2004...

“I wanted the Cardinals to win, but if Boston wins, I’m thinking, ‘This is going to be the biggest story in sports history’ “

which makes me question his true allegiance... Cardinals fans wanted to block that possibility from their mind until after the series.

2. Barack Obama - White Sox fan

At least my actual favorite presidential candidate has the second best baseball preference. The White Sox are my third favorite baseball team, and favorite American League team, and the fact that Barack is a no-bones-about-it fan of the South Side, and even talks smack about the Cubs, is a very good sign.

3. Dennis Kucinich - Indians fan

I've got no beef with the Indians, and hey, I feel sorry for Dennis. He needs to be ranked highly somewhere, and it sure as hell isn't going to happen on the campaign trail. Bonus points for hometown loyalty from the Clevelander.

4. John McCain - Diamondbacks fan

I've got no beef with the D-Backs either, and again, points for hometown loyalty.

5. (Tie) John Edwards and Ron Paul - Unknown

Home Run Derby speculates that Paul is a Pirates fan, but they offer no real evidence, so I'm listing him as unknown. I almost put these two at the very bottom for not declaring allegiance, but I couldn't put them below Phillies, Yankees and Red Sox fans.

7. Joe Biden - Phillies Fan

Sorry, but I still consider being a Phillies Fan to be an endorsement of throwing batteries at Cardinals. And I think Biden needs to be questioned about it in a debate.

8. (Tie) Rudy Giuliani - Yankees Fan, Mitt Romney and Chris Dodd - Red Sox Fans

At this point, I despise the two teams about equally. At least these three all have allegiances based on where they live. Unlike....

12. Bill Richardson - Yankees and Red Sox Fan

Seriously, Bill, what the fuck? You're a fan of TWO teams I absolutely despise? You're probably my second favorite overall candidate, but you can't be both a Yankees AND Red Sox fan. Especially if you're from fucking New Mexico. Amazingly, there's someone worse. And it's none other than....

13. Hillary Clinton - Cubs and Yankees Fan

Sure, she's at least lived in the two cities for which she roots... As much as I'm required to hate the Cubs as a Cardinals fan, I'd at least give her some respect for sticking to her guns if she was a Cubs fan only. But being a Cubs Fan AND a Yankees Fan is probably the worst possible combination in baseball. And it puts her at the very bottom of the list.

Best songs of 2007

2007-12-16T11:38:00.000-05:00

I freely admit it. I'm becoming an old fogie who doesn't really know much about the music these days, but I thought I'd attempt to make a list of a few of the songs that I thought were pretty good this year.

1. "In The Colors" - Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals"

I just heard this song for the first time in the last week or so, but I really dig it. Might even be my favorite overall song of the year. It's a pretty simple song, as are alot of the songs on this list, but it just has a great groove to it...

2. "Livin' in the Future" - Bruce Springsteen

Overall, Bruce's new album is a mixed bag, but this song is awesome. Reminds me how great Bruce and the E Street Band are at their best.

3. "Thinking About You" - Norah Jones

I'm a big Norah fan, although she hasn't broken much new ground between her first album and now. Still, this is a pretty standard Norah song that is among the best things I've heard this year.

4. "1234" - Feist

Yes, the song from the iPod commercial. That's how lame I've gotten. I find my favorite songs through commercials.

5. "Young Folks" - Peter Bjorn and John

Speaking of which, I found this song through commercials too. It's been used in more than one, and I'm not really sure what product was being advertised when I heard it. And it's not technically a 2007 song, but I first heard it this year.

6. "Gravity" - John Mayer

I'm not a big John Mayer fan. I largely thing he's a poseur. But this is my favorite John Mayer song. Also, not technically a 2007 song, but I first heard it this year.

7. "Before He Cheats" - Carrie Underwood

Go ahead. Make fun of me, but this is a good song.

Honorable mentions... "The Pretender" by the Foo Fighters, "Rehab" by Amy Winehouse, "Hey There Delilah" by Plain White Ts (Yes, make fun again), "Icky Thump" by the White Stripes.

Karl Rove is Full Of Shit (But What Else is New)

2007-12-01T09:12:00.000-05:00

Of all the shit that has spewed from Karl Rove's mouth, the idea that Congressional Democrats are the ones that wanted to rush to war in Iraq in 2002 is possibly the biggest lie I've ever heard him tell.

I was working for a Democratic congressman at the time, and granted I was a low level staffer, but I was still entrenched enough in DC politics at the time that I think I had a pretty clear picture of the situation.

Bush wanted to rush to war. Democrats in Congress accused Bush of wanting to go to war without his authorization. The Republicans, who, remember, controlled the House at the time, made a very smart political call and called the Democrats' bluff. Make no mistake, the Republicans wanted to go to war fast, and wanted a vote before the 2002 election.

The Democrats blew it big time. Enough of them caved (I'm proud to say the member I was working for is NOT one who caved). So the Republicans (1) got their authorization for war and (2) made the Democrats look like hypocritical wimps (which alot of them were). This series of events was the main reason Republicans made further gains in 2002 and dealt the Democrats a blow which they didn't recover from until 2006. This was mostly Rove's doing, and now that everything Rove worked for is falling apart, he's trying to rewrite history. It's not going to work.

Recappinng my NFL Predicitons

2007-11-27T22:35:00.000-05:00

I'm a fucking genius.

At the beginning of the season, I predicted the Saints would win the Super Bowl.

They promptly started the season by losing their first four games. To their credit, they're now 5-6. But highly doubtful they'll be winning any Super Bowl.

Wait. It gets better.

I predicted the 49ers would win the NFC West (They're 3-8) and the Rams would win a Wild Card spot (2-9). I predicted the Bears (5-6) to win the NFC North, and the Panthers (4-7) to win the other Wild Card.

But why dwell on all that? I predicted the Cowboys (10-1) to win the NFC East.

I'm looking a little better in the AFC... I predicted the Patriots and Colts to win their divisions, which were pretty much no brainers. I predicted the Chargers too, who despite being 6-5, are atop their division. I predicted the Ravens, though, and they're 4-7. I predicted the Titans to win a Wild Card (possible, although they need to do some work) and the Bengals to win the other (not gonna happen).

You can't get prognostication like this anywhere else.

Top 10 Performances in a Coen Brothers Movie

2007-11-13T18:46:00.000-05:00

I saw No Country For Old Men over the weekend. This was my most anticipated movie of the fall, and it didn't disappoint. So far, it's my favorite movie of the year.

Rather than write a glowing review, like pretty much everyone is, I thought I'd pay tribute to the Coen Brothers by creating a list of the top 10 performances in Coen Brothers movies.

First, a note... It's been years since I've seen Millers Crossing, Blood Simple, Barton Fink or The Hudsucker Proxy. But I did like all of the above. So really, this is the top ten performances from Raising Arizona and everything since Fargo.

Now, some honorable mentions... Peter Stormare in Fargo, John Tuturro and Steve Buscemi in The Big Lebowski, Tim Blake Nelson and John Tuturro in O Brother, Where Art Thou, and Tommy Lee Jones in No Country For Old Men. These are all strong performances, and the fact that they are mere honorable mentions shows how good the Brothers are at getting top notch work out of their actors and actresses.

On to the list.

10. George Clooney - O Brother, Where Art Thou?

George Clooney makes great decisions when choosing his roles. This might be his best work. He's so fun in this movie it's ridiculous.

9. Josh Brolin - No Country For Old Men

He really made an impact on me in this movie... He was so good as a character on edge, it made me wish we could ressurect Hitchcock, just so he could direct Brolin.

8. Steve Buscemi - Fargo

Sorry for the gruesome picture, but it really sums up everything you need to know about Steve Buscemi in Fargo. He really has the unsung performance of this movie, overshadowed by a couple other performamces that may show up later on this list.

7. John Goodman - The Big Lebowski

Most hilariously intense bowler ever. Don't roll on Shabbas.

5. (Tie) Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter - Raising Arizona

It's hard to say which of these two performances is better, and they work best together, so I'm combining the two.

4. Javier Bardem - No Country For Old Men

Certainly the most evil character in a Coen Brothers movie. One of the best on-screen villians since Hannibal Lecter. And hopefully he'll be getting a Best Supporting Actor Oscar in a few months.

It's amazing that there have been three better Coen Brothers performances than this, but the top 3 are undeniable.

3. William H. Macy - Fargo

As a car dealer caught up in a web of lies, perfectly nervous and perfectly Minnesotan... No one else could have pulled off this performance like Macy. One of the best performances of the nineties, period. But it wasn't even the best performance in that movie.

2. France McDormand - Fargo

A police officer in a small town, pregnant, and caught up in something bigger than she'd ever imagine she'd encounter. And she's the smartest person in the whole movie. And she's calm. And she's got a sense of humor. And Frances McDormand plays her perfectily.

1. Jeff Bridges - The Big Lebowski

One of the funniest performances EVER caught on screen. Playing essentially the laziest man on the planet, all "The Dude" wants to do is smoke pot, drink White Russians, bowl, take baths, and listen to some Creedence. That is, until his rug gets peed on.

This is so unlike any other Jeff Bridges role, it's amazing. Amazing, and perfect.

How Big was that win for Illinois?

2007-11-12T10:19:00.000-05:00

I want to start out by saying this was one of the most spectacular weekends for football I could imagine.

My grad school, Wisconsin, beat Michigan, giving them their first Big Ten loss.

My 0-8 St. Louis Rams won a game.

I went to the Maryland game, and saw yet another upset.

But, by far, the highlight of the weekend was Illinois beating Ohio State.

Now, I'm no Illinois football historian by any means, but this is one of the biggest wins in the history of Illinois football.

- Illinois hadn't beaten a #1 ranked team since 1956.

- Illinois had NEVER beaten a #1 ranked team on the road.

A little more on Illinois football...

- Illinois has won four national championships outright.... but none since 1927. They won in one poll in 1951.

- They last won the Big Ten championship in 2001, when they went on to lose the Sugar Bowl. This year they will make their first bowl appearance since that season.

- They last won a bowl game, the MicronPC.com bowl, in 1999.

- They last went to the Rose Bowl in 1984.

They won't be winning the Big Ten, going to the Rose Bowl, or any other BCS bowl this year, but they're looking like the #3 team in the Big Ten (#2 if Michigan beats Ohio State). And more importantly, this is a very young team! They'll be a legit contendor to win the Big Ten next year.

Good times!

And now...

2007-11-07T09:32:00.001-05:00

Since I haven't posted anything in over a week, here's video of a man skipping a rock 51 times for the world record. Beat that.

Hugh Laurie - Before he was "House"

2007-10-30T23:02:00.000-04:00

I'm increasingly becoming a fan of "House," and I'm amazed at the old clips of Fry and Laurie, the Monty-Pythonesque comedy team he was once a part of. He's so different than "House" in this clip, it's unbelievable. It's also very funny.

For the first time in a year....

2007-10-29T10:29:00.001-04:00

I can't accurately type these words....

"World Champion St. Louis Cardinals."

Oh well.

World Series

2007-10-22T09:13:00.000-04:00

So the Red Sox make it to the World Series after all.

I've been predicting the Red Sox to make it to the World Series since the beginning of the year, so I was right on that count. And if it wasn't for blind loyalty, I would have been predicting them to win it. And I have been predicting them to win it since the beginning of the playoffs. I also correctly predicted the outcomes of the ALCS and NLCS.

So, I'm sticking with it. The Red Sox will beat the Rockies. Don't get me wrong, I'm rooting for the Rockies (It would be un-American of me not to), but I think the Red Sox are the better team and are likely to prevail.

Last year, the Tigers won the ALCS in 4 straight, and it took the Cards 7 games to win the NLCS... And the Cards won the World Series. This year the Rockies swept the NLCS and it took the Red Sox 7 games to win the ALCS. Foreshadowing? I don't really believe in that stuff, but as I said, I do think the Red Sox will win.

Also of note, with the Red Sox in the World Series, the Patriots dominating the NFL, and high hopes for the Celtics, it's possible Boston sports fans are about to become the most insufferable creatures on the planet.

My first homepage ever.

2007-10-21T01:01:00.000-04:00

Oh. My. God.

I just found out that the first homepage I ever created (while I was in college) is archived online.

Here it is.

This is like finding a long lost friend. I haven't seen this since around 2000.

Granted, the graphics aren't there, so you can't see everything. And not all the links work. There are some pages with white text that was on a background of graphics, so now you have to highlight it to see it.

Particularly of note... The List, which my friend Brad and I created. It speaks for itself (and includes white text that needs to be highlighted).

Also, some very up to date commentary on Newt Gingrich resigning from Congress, Some astronomy pages I made for a class (that really suck without the graphics) and my list of the 25 greatest screen characters, which would be vastly different if I made it today (which I might do in another post another day).

Wow. Just, wow.

Objectionable Mascots

2007-10-18T09:42:00.000-04:00

Reading King Kaufman's column today got me thinking a little about racist/discriminatory mascots. As an Illinois alum (The "Fighting Illini"), I've thought about this quite a bit in the last 12 years or so, so here is a summary of my thoughts.

- The "Tradition" argument is crap. Teams will survive name changes. The Washington Wizards are no less popular than when they were the Washington Bullets. The Stanford Cardinal, formerly the Stanford Indians, are doing just fine. And new traditions can take root very fast (Exhibit 1: The Presidents Race at Washington Nationals Games).

- All Native American mascots should be eliminated. This doesn't necessarily mean the team names have to go, but the mascots have to go. This has largely been done (with my alma mater, one of the last holdouts, recently caving). Some logos still persist... like Chief Wahoo in Cleveland, and these have to go.

- Schools and pro sports teams should consider changing ALL Native American team names, and should stop using "endorsement" of tribes as an excuse. I don't care what rabbi endorses it, I'd have a hard time accepting a team called the "Washington Jews."

I suppose an argument could be made that a name itself is no more offensive than Vikings, Celtics, etc... they're just honoring the heritage of the area. But this seems like after-the-fact excuse making to me. And perhaps if there's any real dissent voiced, the Vikings and Celtics should change their names too.

Furthermore, the whole point of a team name is to unite the fans. If a third of your fans don't support your mascot or team name (as was the case when I was a student at Illinois), haven't you already lost that battle? It was refreshing to go to grad school, where Bucky Badger was supported by approximately 99% of the student population.

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And now on to some specific recommendations.

- Illinois, drop the word "Fighting" from the name. Just be the Illinois Illini. This serves a double purpose of getting rid of the stereotypical warlike image of Native Americans, and changes the name to a generic term for "people from Illinois."

- Utah Utes. Honestly, I never knew that Utes were a group of Native Americans until recently. So just drop all Native American imagery and you're fine. Just like Illinois, you have a general term for "people from Utah."

- Cleveland Indians. As I said, Chief Wahoo HAS to go. And King Kaufman had a good suggestion... Go back to being the Cleveland Spiders. It's a great name, rooted in the tradition of the city, and you can totally capitalize on merchandising. Do you see how much people love Spiderman? Hello?

- Washington Redskins. This is the worst name out there. It doesn't just refer to Native Americans, it's a racial slur. As Chris Rock said, this is no better than a team being called the "New York Niggers."

You've got no way out of this, Washington. You've gotta change the name, or make your mascot a potato.

- Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Not Native American, but I find this one to be really bad. Is there a worse perpetuation of stereotypes in college sports than "Fighting Irish?" You might as well name a team the "Uptight Brits" or "Lazy Mexicans."

- Chicago Blackhawks. This one is so easy to fix, it's irritating. Put a space in there. Become the Chicago BLACK HAWKS. Put birds on the uniform. Have fierce bird sounds in your promos and at the games.

- Braves and Seminoles. Drop the Tomahawk Chop. It's somewhat offensive, but more than that, making stiff arm movements while singing a made up chant is just silly. Whether you know it or not, you look silly doing it.

You Most Certainly CAN Judge a Book by its Cover

2007-10-16T09:30:00.000-04:00

Last night my fiancee and I were discussing famous quotes or maxims or what-have-you that don't really make sense to us. I'll be posting on the others another time, but I wanted to start with "You can't judge a book by its cover."

What?

You can definitely judge a book by its cover. If not, publishers are wasting alot of time and money on the covers. You might not get a 100% accurate assessment, but you can JUDGE a book by its cover. And you can usually be pretty accurate.

For example:

Here's a phone book. It's from St. Louis. From 1983. Useful only if you have a grandparent or something that hasn't moved in the last 24 years, in which case you probably know the phone number anyway. Not something I'd care to read or have.

Or how about this:

This is a computer programing book. The languages covered in the book are right in the title. I'm not a programmer so, again, this book is of no use to me. I'm making that judgment by looking at the cover.

So maybe these examples don't count. Maybe it's actually novels and other forms of nonfiction that you can't judge by the cover. Let's try this out.

I've never seen this book before, but I'm telling you, it's a crappy romance novel. Guaranteed.

Run away. Fast.

Now it gets a little trickier.

I've never read King Lear. Don't know much about it. The cover is very nondescript. So can I judge it by its cover? If I hadn't known it was by Shakespeare, sure! I'd see the name "William Shakespeare." I'm guessing everyone pretty much has a preconceived notion about Shakespeare one way or the other, so one can certainly pass judgment on this book based on the cover alone.

Lets say you live in a vacuum. You've never heard of Catcher in the Rye or J.D. Salinger. Would you ever want to pick up this book? I might, thinking it was about baseball. Otherwise, I guess not, and I never would have read this, which was probably my favorite book when I was in high school.

So, fine. You can't judge Catcher in the Rye by its cover.

Unless there's a description written on the back cover.

So in summary, here's how the phrase should read.

"You can judge a book by its cover, even if the assessment isn't always 100% accurate. You can often get a good sense of whether the book is something that will interest you or not, and if you can't tell by the front cover, look at the back cover where there's usually a synopsis of the book."

Public Service Announcement

2007-10-12T09:22:00.001-04:00

Thanks to the now-defunct blog MOsanthrope.

Catching Up On Baseball

2007-10-09T22:08:00.000-04:00

Sorry if this blog is becoming all baseball all the time, but it's been 4 days since I last blogged, and alot has happened in the baseball world in the meantime.

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The NLCS is Rockies vs. Diamondbacks, and the ALCS is Red Sox vs. Indians, which means I got both AL predictions right and both NL predictions wrong so far.

My revised World Series prediction: Red Sox beat the Rockies.

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The Cubs got swept, and I would be falling down on my duty as a Cardinals fan if I failed to point out that this guarantees a 100 year World Series drought for the Cubs. Technically, they would have to lose next year to make it 100 straight seasons, but since they last won a World Series in early October 1908 and they now can't win one until late October 2008, that's 100 years.

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Lou Piniella got what was coming to him.... Carlos Zambrano will be very well rested for his next start. In April.

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The Yankess lost too, which means they've spent $1.2 billion in payroll since their last championship in 2000. Steinbrenner is pissed and has threatened to fire Joe Torre. Because, you know, it was Joe Torre that caused the Yankees to lose 12-3 in game one.

Granted, Torre is overpaid, like alot of Yankees. I don't really blame Steinbrenner for firing Torre, because no manager should make as much as he does. But I'm sure Steinbrenner will overpay for another manager. And in my eyes, the obvious candidate is....

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Tony La Russa. Yes, the manager of my beloved Cardinals. Tony's partner in crime during his tenure in St. Louis, general manager Walt Jocketty, got canned last week. Tony has technically been offered the job to come back, but I think the writing's on the wall. He's gone. He'll leave or ownership will relent on their offer... I'm hoping he's gone, personally... just seems like a very uncomfortable situation if he's still the Cardinals manager next year.

If he leaves, he's the biggest splash the Yankees, a.k.a. Steibrenner, can make in replacing Torre. And I think Tony would jump at the chance to be with an automatic contendor again.

----

So if Tony's out in St. Louis, who's in? Could it be... Joe Torre? That's right, is there a straight-up switch in store for the Cardinals and Yankees?

It's certainly possible. Torre played for the Cards and managed them once before. But I'm thinking they'll go young... former Cardinal utility man and current third base coach Jose Oquendo has pretty much been groomed for the job. Oh, and there's this guy named Ozzie Smith who is likely to have some role in the Cardinals organization once Tony's gone.

----

Any Yankees fans who STILL want to see A-Rod go are crazy. He went 4 for 15 in the Yankees' four game postseason, including a home run in game four. Sure, he started out 0 for 6 in the first two games (walking twice in game one)... which means he went 4 for 9 in elimination games. Almost .500!

Yet some Yankees fans, and journalists, STILL think he's a postseason liability. The Fire Joe Morgan blog has an excellent rundown (just look at the last ten posts or so).

Fortunately for those Yankees fans, Yankees management isn't as dumb as them. There's still a good chance he'll remain a Yankee (as a Cards fan I hope so... otherwise he's likely to become a Cub). But if there's ever a Cardinals-Yankees World Series while A-Rod is a Yankee... I'd gladly take postseason A-Rod off their hands and have him switch teams, so as not to be a liability.

LeBron James - Traitor

2007-10-05T11:54:00.000-04:00

I've always kind of liked LeBron James. I had no reason not to, and he's kind of charismatic.

But that just changed in a heartbeat.

LeBron James gets paid an insane amount of money by the CLEVELAND Cavaliers to play basketball, and how does he repay the loyal Cleveland fans? By showing up at an Indians playoff game in a Yankees hat. It's bad enough to to be a Yankees fan. But this is sort of like George W. Bush showing up to work in a Taliban jersey.

The Curse of Lou Piniella?

2007-10-04T09:08:00.000-04:00

OK, I already told you I don't believe in curses. But when Cubs manager Lou Piniela does things like this....

Webb was locked in a tight game with Carlos Zambrano until Chicago manager Lou Piniella made a questionable move. He pulled his ace after only six innings and 85 pitches because he plans to bring the right-hander back on three days' rest in Game 4.

He's asking for trouble. You gotta play for today, man. There might not be a Game 4.

Having said that, there will probably be a Game 4. I just don't see the Diamondbacks winning in 3 straight. In fact, I still predict the Cubs to win the series... I already conceded that the Diamondbacks would win when Webb pitches, which is all that's happened so far. But the Cubs will win in spite of Lou Piniella, not because of him. And it might take 5 games, instead of the 3 or 4 it might have taken if the Cubs had won last night.

Moving on in the article...

Did planning for Game 4 cost the Cubs in Game 1? Piniella was terse when a reporter asked if he could be accused of looking ahead.

"I'm not accused of anything, sir," Piniella said.

Ummm.... You're not accused of anything? Ummmm, you ARE accused. Presumably, the reporter was ACCUSING you by asking the question. If not, many Cubs fans were accusing you and I'm accusing you now.

You can deny the accusations, but that doesn't make the accusations cease to exist. Work on your grammar, man. Sheesh!

Falling Out of Love With Compact Discs

2007-10-02T17:51:00.000-04:00

There's a good article in the Onion AV Club today about one writer's love affair and break-up with compact discs.

Alot of it hit home. Like the writer, I used to LOVE my CDs. I sometimes nostalgiac-ly miss actually going to stores and buying CDs, and particularly midnight sales. I remember a record store in Champaign where there was ALWAYS a line of obsessed fans at midnight, every Tuesday, where people would stand in line to buy the latest releases from their favorite bands. I would go to the store whenever, say, a new They Might Be Giants or Tori Amos CD came out.

The end of my love affair with CDs came, essentially, in about 2000. When I discovered MP3s and, in particular, Napster. Yes, I was a criminal, but, in my defense, if iTunes existed a few years earlier, I probably would have used it instead.

The next tipping point was when I moved from Wisconsin to DC in 2001. I could only take whatever fit in my car, so I decided to get rid of all my jewel cases and keep my CDs in folders. Once I realized I cared about the actual music more than the container, it was all downhill. At that point, the goal was to make my music as compact as possible.

Not much later, I got my first MP3 player. I've posted about my history with MP3 players before, so I won't go into detail. I will add though, that I've since gotten an car stereo with flash drive capability. My car was really my last refuge for CDs. I still listen to CDs once in a while, but more often, I convert the CDs to MP3 to listen to on the fly.

Do I miss CDs? Sure, in a nostalgiac way, sort of like the way I miss Max Headroom.

NL Playoff Predictions

2007-10-02T12:44:00.000-04:00

So after I posted last night, The Padres scored 2 runs in the top of the 13th.... and then the Rockies scored 3 runs in the bottom to win the Wild Card. Quite a game! And now I can make my NL playoff predictions.

The Rockies won an amazing 14 of 15 games to finish the season and win the Wild Card. They're now rewarded by playing the Phillies, who have merely won 13 of their last 17.

I don't believe in "momentum" in the sports sense. The Cardinals and White Sox have had whatever the opposite of momentum going in to the playoffs for the last two years, and they both won the World Series.

I think the Phillies will beat the Rockies, because they have an insanely good lineup.

The Diamondbacks won the NL West despite being outscored on the season. They'll win when Brandon Webb pitches. Which will be two games at most. The Cubs should be able to win the series.

So that means, I can't believe I'm writing this, the Cubs and Phillies will face each other in the NLCS.

That should be a pretty good series. Two very good lineups. Cubs probably have a slight edge on pitching, but outside of Zambrano, not absolutely dominant, especially against that Phillies lineup. The Phillies go to the World Series and lose to the Red Sox.

Here's my prediction recap.

ALCS: Red Sox v. Indians
NLCS: Cubs v. Phillies
World Series: Red Sox v. Phillies
Champs: Red Sox

This is the game that never ends....

2007-10-01T23:50:00.000-04:00

It's just before midnight Eastern, the Padres and Rockies are headed to the 13th inning, trying to get the last playoff spot. This is one of those "instant classic" baseball games, but I'm going to sleep. I hate being old and having to work tomorrow. I'll check back in with my NL playoff predictions tomorrow, assuming this game actually ever ends.

Five Most Overrated Directors of All Time

2007-10-01T13:52:00.001-04:00

I hate doing lists like this. They make me feel kind of dirty. I should celebrate film, not tear it down.

But, for whatever reason, when I get an idea like this, I just have to go through with it.

This is actually a response to Filmspotting's lists on the same topic, which included directors I LOVE like Tim Burton, Robert Rodriguez and Peter Jackson.

Anyway, here are the five most overrated directors of all time. One note... like on Filmspotting's lists, anyone who has ever made a "masterpiece," like, say, George Lucas, is exempt.

5. Ron Howard. His best movie was A Beautiful Mind, I actually thought Da Vinci Code was OK, Cocoon and Splash were fine back in the day, Apollo 13 is tolerable. But the dude has NEVER made a GREAT movie. If I was grading his work, I wouldn't give him above a B yet.

4. Guillermo Del Toro. He's still relatively new and might have better work to come, but why do people think Pan's Labyrinth is so great? It did nothing for me, nor did Hellboy.

3. Brian De Palma. Scarface was sort of fun, but it was completely campy and by no means "Great." Carrie was a somewhat better flick, but why is this guy held in such high esteem? I know he's not at the Scorcese/Spielberg level, but he seems to be thought of by many in the next level. Why is that?

2. Wes Anderson. I don't understand why people love him so much. Rushmore is his best work to date, and it's merely mediocre. Bottle Rocket and Royal Tennebaums did absolutely nothing for me.

1. David Lynch. He's the Pink Floyd of film. Blue Velvet was pretty good (perhaps his Dark Side of the Moon, but not THAT good).... Straight Story is his only other movie worth watching, and that's because he made a straightforward movie INSTEAD of the rambling crap he usually makes.

I'm going to go take a shower now.

Baseball Predictions revisited

2007-09-30T18:26:00.000-04:00

Here is a recap of my baseball predictions for the year.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

3/29/07

East: Red Sox, Central: Tigers, West: Angels, Wild Card: Yankees,
Champs: Red Sox, Cy Young: Matsuzaka, MVP: A-Rod

7/9/07

East: Red Sox, Central: Tigers, West: Angels, Wild Card: Indians,
Champs: Red Sox, Cy Young: Haren, MVP: A-Rod

Not bad, overall. I gave up on the Yankees, but picked three of the four postseason teams correctly (Although I picked the Indians in the Wild Card instead of as the Central champs.) I'm still going with the Red Sox to win the AL, and A-Rod is the likely MVP. Dan Haren won't win the Cy Young though... it's looking like C.C. Sabathia.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

3/29/07

East: Mets, Central: Cardinals, West: Diamondbacks, Wild Card: Brewers,
Champs: Cardinals, Cy Young: Carpenter, MVP: Pujols

7/9/07

East: Mets, Central: Brewers, West: Diamondbacks, Wild Card: Cardinals,
Champs: Cardinals, Cy Young: Peavy, MVP: Fielder

Well, this isn't quite as good. Obviously blind loyalty led me to go with the Cardinals and it didn't work this year. The Diamondbacks are the only playoff team I picked correctly (but hey, give me credit for that one, it wasn't such an obvious pick). The Phillies took the East, the Cubs took the Central, and the Wild Card will be determined tomorrow in a tiebreaker game between the Padres and the Rockies. The Peavy Cy Young pick still looks good. MVP looks like Jimmy Rollins, or maybe Matt Holliday if the Rockies win tomorrow.

Playoff Predictions? Here it is for the AL.... Red Sox and Indians win the division series, Red Sox go to the World Series and beat whatever NL team makes it.

I'll check back once all the Wild Card dust is settled to give you my NL playoff predictions.

Curses

2007-09-28T10:12:00.000-04:00

As a Cardinals fan, this is going to be the most meaningless postseason to me since 2003. But it won't be entirely for nothing... There will be several teams that I have strong feelings about in the postseason.

I hate the Yankees. I hate the Red Sox. I hate the Phillies slightly more than I hate the Mets, but I will hate whichever team gets into the playoffs (and it's possible both will).

I have no strong feelings about the Indians or Angels, or anyone in the National League West, so if any of those teams win, I'm fine with it.

And then there's.... the Cubs.

True, the Brewers still have a shot, but it's looking like the Cubs will make the playoffs for the first time since 2003, which is the last time the Cardinals missed the playoffs.

You want to know a secret? And it pains me as a Cardinals fan to admit this, but....

I don't believe in curses.

I'm not superstitious. Although, I liked Michael Scott's quote from The Office last night, "I'm not SUPERstitious, but I am a LITTLE stitious"... that doesn't really apply to me either.

I pretty much have the skeptic's take on curses. From the Skeptic's dictionary...

Curses seem to have been a regular part of ancient cultures and may have been a way to frighten enemies and explain the apparent injustices of the world. There is no evidence that anyone has successfully invoked occult powers to do harm to others, but there is evidence that those who believe they have been cursed can be made miserable by exploiting that belief. Fear and the human tendency to confirmation bias and selective thinking can sometimes lead the believer to fulfill the curse. (Emphasis mine)

That's right. Cubs fans are not cursed. But they feel like they're cursed, which is almost the same thing.

An unfortunate side effect of the postseason lately, with Steve Bartman in 2003, and the Red Sox comeback in 2004, is relentless talk about curses.

Heck, I admit, for a while it seemed like the Cardinals could have been cursed. Despite making the playoffs many times between 1982 and 2005, the Cardinals just couldn't seem to seal the deal. Maybe this guy put a curse on the team in 1985. Who knows.

But then the Cardinals won in 2006. With a pretty mediocre team, at that. Supposed "curse" over.

I've already seen lots of curse talk this year.

Someone drove down from Wisconsin to Wrigley Field, with a goat, to renew the Billy Goat Curse.

Mr. Met has supposedly cursed the Mets.

And my favorite, The "Pee Your Pants for the Brewers" website has supposedly cursed the Brewers.

Like I said, I think this is all bullshit. BUT.......

The Cubs are still very unlikely to win the World Series.

Why? They're just not a great team. And on top of that, the playoffs are largely a crapshoot.

So lets say all teams are even entering the playoffs. That means any given team has a 12.5% chance at winning the World Series. Some teams are better than others, but that doesn't always mean much in the playoffs. I'll knock the Cubs' World Series chances down just a tad since they're not one of the better teams in the playoffs, to 10%.

So there you have it. We know, going into the playoffs, that the Cubs have about a 10% chance of winning it all. Can it happen? Sure. The Cardinals had about a similar, if not worse, chance of winning it all last year. But in the likely scenario that the Cubs don't win it all, let's not blame it on a silly curse.

Wikipedia Entries for Extremely Common Things - Part 1

2007-09-27T11:55:00.000-04:00

Today...
mostly because I haven't blogged since Sunday and feel the need to write something...
despite not having much to say...

I'm going to start a new project on my blog, called, "Wikipedia Entries for Extremely Common Things" (Or WEECT, as the kids call it)

This is somewhat inspired by Cracked's "The 8 Most Needlessly Detailed Wikipedia Entries", but it's a little different. I'm seeking out Wikipedia entries for the most common things to man. And I will relay ten interesting facts from the Wikipedia entry.

This first one is one my fiancee and I came across a while back when we were hungry. That's right... we looked up the Wikipedia entry for....

FOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
.
.
.
.
.
You know.....
.
.
.
.

This stuff.

Here are your ten facts about food.

1. "Food is any substance, usually composed primarily of carbohydrates, fats, water and/or proteins, that can be eaten or drunk by an animal or human being for nutrition or pleasure."

2. "Most traditions have a recognizable cuisine, a specific set of cooking traditions, preferences, and practices."

3. "Food is traditionally obtained through farming, ranching, and fishing, with hunting, foraging and other methods of subsistence locally important."

4. "While some food can be eaten raw, many foods undergo some form of preparation for reasons of safety, palatability, or flavor."

5. "The term 'cooking' encompasses a vast range of methods, tools and combinations of ingredients to improve the flavor or digestibility of food."

6. "Ovens are one type of cooking equipment which can be used for baking or roasting and offer a dry-heat cooking method."

7. "Many cultures produce food for sale in restaurants for paying customers."

8. "Packaged foods are manufactured outside the home for purchase."

9. "Food deprivation leads to malnutrition and ultimately starvation."

10. "Dietary habits are the habitual decisions a person or culture makes when choosing what foods to eat."

So there you go. Boy. That was boring. If you've actually read this far, I'll now reward you with a pretty cool picture of a grocery store in Portland.

Youth Without Youth

2007-09-23T21:54:00.000-04:00

I mentioned Francis For Coppola's new movie, basically in passing, as one of my most anticipated movies of the fall. Now I've seen a trailer.

All I can say is... what the hell? But it's still Coppola, and I am still curious.

Jim Moran and AIPAC

2007-09-21T09:51:00.000-04:00

It kind of pains me to write this as Yom Kippur is just about to commence, but....

I kind of agree with Jim Moran when he talks about AIPAC and other Jewish organizations in the build-up to the Iraq War.

I'm linking now to Lowell of Raising Kaine, whose take is pretty similar to mine. He's Jewish, Pro-Israel, and he lives in Moran's district (I used to), and he's got some issues with Moran, and he thinks Moran could stand to be a little more careful when he speaks... but he doesn't think Jim Moran is an anti-semite.

Pretty much the same for me. Jim Moran's got some problems, no doubt. This is what he said, which led to the latest controversy....

Moran said that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) "has pushed this war from the beginning . . . They are so well organized, and their members are extraordinarily powerful -- most of them are quite wealthy -- they have been able to exert power."

When you put it like that, this quote bothers me a bit. But here's a little more context.

You’ve touched on a quandary, and it particularly applies to the Jewish American community. Jewish Americans, as a voting bloc and as an influence on American foreign policy, are overwhelmingly opposed to the war. There is no ethnic group as opposed to the war as much as Jewish Americans. But, AIPAC is the most powerful lobby and has pushed this war from the beginning. I don’t think they represent the mainstream of American Jewish thinking at all, but because they are so well organized, and their members are extraordinarily powerful—most of them are quite wealthy—they have been able to exert power.

Sure, Moran should have known that "quite wealthy" would set some people off, and he may be overstating AIPAC's power a bit, but generally speaking...... he's right. And he makes it pretty damn clear he's talking about AIPAC, not Jews as a whole.

After 9/11, I felt abandoned by groups like AIPAC that pushed the Iraq War, which I opposed from the beginning. Is AIPAC solely responsible for the war? Of course not. They were a very small part of the equation. But make no mistake about it, the leadership of AIPAC fully supported the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Rice-Wolfowitz led invasion of Iraq, and they should be held accountable for it.

AIPAC was not the only organization that did this... It disturbs me to this day that 9/11 caused such a shift among Jewish organizations that had previously been more-or-less civil liberties organizations... Many of these organizations could have stood to shift some of the resources they used to support the Iraq war toward fighting the PATRIOT Act and other assaults on our freedom at home.

Some people probably think I'm an anti-semite for even writing all this. Let me be very clear... It's possible to support the Jewish community without fully supporting AIPAC. In fact, I'd argue, and I have before, that linking people like me with neo-conservatives INCREASES anti-semitism. Likewise, it's possible to be Pro-Israel while sometimes criticizing its government, just as it's possible to support America and criticize its government.

During these days of atonement, sure, Jim Moran, could stand to do a little atoning. But AIPAC has a few reasons to ask for forgiveness on Yom Kippur as well.

Is Mary Kate Olsen, gasp, a decent actress?

2007-09-19T23:00:00.000-04:00

I haven't seen the rest of the show, but from this clip, I think Mary Kate Olsen is actually pretty decent as a bible thumping, yet somewhat charming, stoner chick on Weeds.

Watch This....

2007-09-18T22:30:00.000-04:00

Keeping your eye on the bat at all times. If you're at work, you can watch it on mute, sound isn't necessary.

Was this for real? People commenting on Youtube are disagreeing on this as we speak. Some claim to have been at the game and seen it happen. I'm pretty sure it's real, it would have taken serious editing to fake.

The Onion AV Club is Wrong About Music Again

2007-09-17T22:49:00.000-04:00

Recently I posted about how the Onion AV Club missed the boat about The Rockin'-est Song of All Time. Now they're trying to tell me that 1997 was some sort of watershed year for music. The theory seems to be that Radiohead's OK Computer came out in 1997, as did 17 other albums that supposedly make it a great year (none of which are very interesting to me). First of all, The Bends is a better Radiohead album, so 1997 isn't even the best year for Radiohead. Second no mention of the only other 1997 album I consider to be great, Ben Folds Five's Whatever and Ever Amen.

Another AV Club writer wrote a rebuttal, claiming 1998 and 1999 were better.

Both writers are way off.

The truly great year for nineties music was.... 1991.

Exhibit A: Nirvana, Nevermind
Exhibit B: U2, Achtung Baby
Exhibit C: REM, Out of Time
Exhibit D: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Exhibit E: Pearl Jam, Ten
Exhibit F: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Into the Great Wide Open
Exhibit G: Lenny Kravitz, Mama Said
Exhibit H: Toad The Wet Sprocket, Fear
Exhibit I: Bonnie Raitt, Luck of the Draw
Exhibit J: Metallica, The Black Album
Exhibit K: Matthew Sweet, Girlfriend

Look at that list. Are you kidding me? All those came out the same year?

Seriously. I've listed these exhibits in order of importance... Pearl Jam's monumental debut, arguably one of the most important albums of all time was merely the FIFTH most important album of the year. Because there were four albums that were even MORE important. And you know how much I love Tom Petty... One of my absolute favorite Tom Petty albums was released in 1991, and it didn't even crack the top five!

1997? Yeah, right. 1991 is THE YEAR for nineties music, and you know it, AV Club.

Dara's Concert Meme Challenge

2007-09-14T10:25:00.000-04:00

From Dara....

Here's how it works: Copy this list, leave in the bands you've seen perform live, delete the ones you haven't, and add new ones that you have seen until you reach 25. An asterisk means the previous person had it on their list. Two asterisks means the last two people who did this before you had that band on their list.

On to my list...

1. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers**
2. Dave Matthews Band**
3. Bob Dylan**
4. Goo Goo Dolls*
5. U2*
6. Willie Nelson*
7. Queensryche*
8. They Might Be Giants*
9. Dixie Chicks*
10. Gin Blossoms*
11. Smashing Pumpkins*
12. Santana
13. Phish
14. Tori Amos
15. Dr. John
16. B.B. King
17. R.E.M.
18. Radiohead
19. Ray Charles
20. Johnny Cash (w/ June Carter)
21. Lenny Kravitz
22. Red Hot Chili Peppers
23. Simon and Garfunkel
24. Nine Inch Nails
25. Marilyn Manson

Ok. NOW the season is over.

2007-09-14T09:37:00.000-04:00

Sorry if that's a disturbing image, but that pretty much sums it up right now.

The Cardinals are 5 games out behind the Cubs, 4 1/2 behind the Brewers. A little over two weeks to go in the season.

The Cards have four games against the Cubs this weekend, and even if they sweep (unlikely, as they haven't won in a week) they'll be a game back. And unless the Reds sweep the Brewers, the Cards would be even further behind the Brewers.

Honestly, they had no business even being in the race in September, so this was pretty much inevitable.

Go.... Brewers? Well, if the Cubs do make the playoffs, there's always the chance of this again. I guess that's something for Cardinal Nation to root for.

Warner for Senate

2007-09-13T12:08:00.000-04:00

Now for some blatant politicing on my website....

I won't go into detail, but I enthusiastically support Mark Warner's recently announce Senate campaign. Sure, I've crossed the river into Maryland, but Maryland politics hasn't yet grabbed me the same way Virginia politics has, with Jim Webb last year, and now this.

Two Democratic senators in Virginia? Two years ago that would be crazy talk, but now, it's likely.

Holy crap! Ryan's right!

2007-09-12T12:59:00.000-04:00

In a post appropriately titled "Garfield is bullshit, man," my friend Ryan posted this blatantly obvious observation that, for some reason, has never occured to me....

Here it is: Garfield has no reason to hate Mondays.

He's a fucking cat. He doesn't have a job. He doesn't even interact with the world. The most I can figure a Monday affects him is that Jon's gone after the weekend, which we know he doesn't care about. Hell, he should be happy, since the DHL office is open again after the weekend, allowing him to package up Nermal for another Abu Dhabi trip.

I'm smacking my head because of the obviousness of this observation. For more of Ryan's rant against Garfield and its creator, Jim Davis, click here.

Rockin'-est Song of All Time Winner

2007-09-10T22:25:00.000-04:00

I've made my decision.

My Generation, by The Who.

Enjoy.

And an alternate performance.

Movies I Want To See This Fall (non-Apatow edition)

2007-09-10T10:02:00.001-04:00

I've been putting off writing this list because, frankly, there are alot of movies that I want to see this fall, and the list seemed like a tall order. I thought it would be a top ten, but there are few more movies than that here.

So is there one movie that I want to see more than the others? Last year around this time I was basically steadily jumping up-and-down in Borat anticipation, and this year, yes, there is a movie that I have even more excitement for. This one, however, is a more serious oscar-contender type of movie.

No Country For Old Men

It's kind of crazy to think, but the Coen Brothers have basically been on cruise control since The Big Lebowski. They haven't done anything great since then. So why my excitement for this movie?

Over the weekend, I caught a small little bit of Fargo on TV. I hadn't really forgotten how great that movie is... I've seen it many times, and if I had a list of most re-watchable movies, it would surely be top ten material. But still, every time I see even a few minutes of it, it blows me away. Just great acting, tense but offbeat, incredible cinematography... As fun as The Big Lebowski was, Fargo is still THE Coen Brothers movie for me.

No Country For Old Men looks like the most "Fargo" movie since Fargo. And the critics really seem to be digging it so far. Tommy Lee Jones is an actor I always love, and Javier Bardem looks like he just might be putting in the performance of the year.

On to the other movies....

-----------------

Sweeney Todd

Tim Burton + Johnny Depp = Automatic Inclulsion On My List

These are the guys who have collaborated for Ed Wood, Edward Scissorhands, and Sleepy Hollow... All movies I love. I even liked Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

I haven't seen any incarnation of Sweeney Todd, but it really seems right up my alley. If there's anyone I'd want to direct a "Musical Thriller," it's Tim Burton.

-----------------

I Am Legend

Lately Will Smith has been "the actor who can do no wrong" for me. Of course, this has largely been because he's gotten away from big, overblown blockbusters. Which might be what "I Am Legend" is. But still, something about the concept has me drawn in... This could be one of those movies like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, where a big budget and a great story meet to form a classic piece of art.

Or, it could be more like X-Men 3.

-----------------

There are several movies that I want to see based solely on the directors' previous works... Lust, Caution (Brokeback Mountain's Ang Lee).... Juno (Thank You For Smoking's Jason Reitman), Eastern Promises (A History of Violence's David Cronenberg), There Will Be Blood (Punch Drunk Love's Paul Thomas Anderson, and bonus points for casting Daniel Day Lewis)... oh, and Youth Without Youth directed by some lightweight named Francis Ford Coppola.

------------------

The Kite Runner and Atonement.... This year's nominees for the "I know I should read this before I see the movie, but probably won't" award.

------------------

Grace is Gone

What? John Cusack might finally have an Oscar worthy role? Enough said. I'm there.

------------------

and finallly...

Bee Movie

I'm a definite fan of Dreamworks animation, and, like everyone else, I've been waiting for Jerry Seinfeld to do something worthwhile ever since Seinfeld went off the air. I think he may finally be on to something.

Happy fall movie season, everybody!

Rockin'-est song of all time?

2007-09-06T22:20:00.000-04:00

Steve Hyden of the Onion's AV Club just posted his choice for the Most Rockin' Song of All Time.

His choice? Ramble Tamble by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

It's kind of funny he chose a CCR song, as I've often thought of them as perhaps the purest rock band of all time. And he managed to choose a song I'd never heard, and yes, it rocks.

But it's not the rockin'-est song of all time.

First, let's look at the criteria he's used...

1) It came out between 1955 and 1980
2) It has to be bluesy, but not too bluesy
3) It can’t be a classic rock radio staple
4) It must make you drive at least 10 mph faster within the first 60 seconds and/or make doing the dishes fun.
5) You know it when you hear it.

I disagree with criterea 1 and 3. There's no reason to exclude post 1980 music... "Born in the U.S.A.," "Sunday Bloody Sunday," and "Rock This Town," and everything by AC/DC deserve to be considered, and even newer songs, like "Cold Hard Bitch" by Jet, are pretty straightforward rock songs. And I see no reason why a popular song can't be the rockin'-est ever.

I have no problem with the other 3 criterea, although I don't know about driving faster, but it should make driving fun. I agree that the purest rock is somewhat bluesy, and, while the phrase is pretty empty, sure, you know it when you hear it.

I'm adding 3 criterea...

1) The song has to clock in at under 5:30. The purest rock is concise. This, incidentally, would disqualify Ramble Tamble.
2) At it's base, it's gotta be electric guitar, bass, and drums. Keyboards are acceptable. A stray instrument is ok, like the cowbell of "Honky Tonk Woman" or a Neil Young-esque harmonica, but not much more.
3) The song has to have a confident, perhaps even cocky attitude. One of the first songs that came to mind for me was "Don't Do Me Like That" by Tom Petty, but the lyrics are all about being scorned, perhaps even a little whiny... so that's not the ticket.

So the verdict is...

I don't know. I'm working on it. I'll get back to you on it. A few nominees though, from which I may or may not choose....

"Sunday Bloody Sunday" by U2. Although asking "How long must we sing this song" isn't really the right attitude, I don't think.

"Lust for Life" by Iggy Pop.

"My Generation" by The Who.

"Rock and Roll" by Led Zeppelin.

"Fortunate Son" or "Travelin' Band" by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

"You Shook Me All Night Long" by AC/DC.

Thoughts?

American Gladiators

2007-09-06T12:27:00.001-04:00

It's coming back. Seriously.

NFL Preview 2007

2007-09-05T09:09:00.000-04:00

So, after posting every weekday for two weeks, which is alot for me, I was kind of taking a break from blogging. I was thinking I wanted to get around to my promised post on my most anticipated movies of the fall, but I'm thinking that can wait until the weekend.

And then I realize.... Oh crap! It's Wednesday, and the NFL season starts tomorrow! And, I have a weird impulse to always get my predictions on record before the season starts. So here we go.

I'm not good at predicting the NFL. Let's get that out there right away. Here are my predictions from last year. I'm sure you all enjoyed that Bengals-Giants Super Bowl, but the point still remains.... I know jack shit about the NFL.

Granted, I posted my revised predictions halfway through the year, and accurately predicted a Colts-Bears Super Bowl. I had the Bears winning it, though.

Maybe I'm being hard on myself, the NFL is probably the hardest league to predict. This decade, the Rams, Ravens, Patriots (the first time), Bucaneers, and Steelers have all been pretty surprising, rarely predicted, Super Bowl champs.

On to this year...

NFC WEST

1. San Francisco
2. St. Louis
3. Seattle
4. Arizona

This might be my only prediction that really goes out on a limb... Everyone's picking the Seahawks, my most least favorite team in the NFL. So maybe this is wishful thinking. But I really don't think they're that great anymore. And I think my Rams are somewhat underrated, and the 49ers are VERY underrated.

NFC SOUTH

1. New Orleans
2. Carolina
3. Tampa Bay
4. Atlanta

You know how the Saints were supposedly inspired by the aftermath of Katrina in their amazing season last year? Um, I don't think Michael Vick's dogfights will have the same effect on the Falcons.

NFC NORTH

1. Chicago
2. Detroit
3. Minnesota
4. Green Bay

Bonus prediction.... Favre's consecutive games played streak ends this year.

NFC EAST

1. Dallas
2. New York Giants
3. Washington
4. Philadelphia

Unlike last year, I won't be predicting the Giants to go to the Super Bowl this year. Fine. Eli is no Peyton. I get it.

NFC Playoffs: San Francisco, New Orleans, Chicago and Dallas win the divisions, St. Louis and Carolina get the Wild Cards

AFC WEST

1. San Diego
2. Kansas City
3. Denver
4. Oakland

You can stop LaDanian Tomlinson, you can only contain the cliches people speak about him.

AFC SOUTH

1. Indianapolis
2. Tennessee
3. Jacksonville
4. Houston

You know who else is no Peyton? Vince Young. At least not yet.

AFC NORTH

1. Baltimore
2. Cincinnati
3. Pittsburgh
4. Cleveland

Sorry, my Ravens fan friends, but I probably just jinxed your team.

1. New England
2. Miami
3. Buffalo
4. New York Jets

Someone's gotta pick someone besides the Patriots to win this division, right? Well, yeah, but it's not gonna be me.

AFC Playoffs: San Diego, Indianapolis, Baltimore and New England win the divisions, Tennessee and Cincinnati get the Wild Cards

Someone's gotta pick someone besides the Patriot to win the AFC, right? Ok, fine. I'll do it.

Super Bowl: New Orleans Saints vs. Indianapolis Colts

Everyone seems to think New England is by far the favorites this year. I still think the Colts are better.

NFL Champions: The New Orleans Saints

And the Saints are even better than the Colts.

Bookmark this page now, you'll want to make fun of me by mid-November.

Toothpicks

2007-08-31T10:04:00.000-04:00

Hey! Restaurants! Will you stop it with the toothpicks?

I mean, who need a toothpick unless it's used to serve Hors d'Oeuvres?

What's the point of a toothpick on the way out the door? To pick the crap between our teeth? Well I have news for you... Toothpicks are just tempting enough to think they'll be effective at getting between your teeth, but frustrating when they don't really accomplish the job at hand. So I get your stupid little toothpick, pick at my teeth for a while, and then look like some stupid hillbilly chewing on a toothpick when I decide that's the only thing I can do with it.

So here's my advice....

Dental Floss. If you're going to give us something to get at the crap between our teeth, give us the good stuff. I'm sure you can come up with some fancy-schmancy dental floss dispenser to match your ambiance. Is dental floss at the front door uncouth? Not really any more uncouth than toothpicks.

Come on. Don't look at me like that. It's a good idea. Admit it.

My Favorite 2007 Movies So Far (Non-Apatow Edition)

2007-08-30T09:40:00.000-04:00

So I gave you my first place tie picks for 2007 movies so far.... here's the rest of my top five.

Boy, I really haven't gone out of my way to see indie flicks this year... Every movie on my list is a huge blockbuster. Most critics would laugh hysterically at my list, and probably rightfully so. But it is what it is. And I really feel like I'm out on a limb with my pick for #3.....

That's right, Spider-man 3. The movie got a score of 60 out of a possible 100 on Metacritic, which is, like, a D. So what did I think? From my review...

I'm not going to beat around the bush. It was awesome.

I'm a little surprised at all the mediocre reviews it's getting... I really thought this was the best of the series so far. Most intersting story and by far the best villians. Sandman was fantastic.

So what's the 4th best movie of the year so far?

Ratatouille. Pixar animation is so good, it's almost unfair. It seems so effortless these days. I remember seeing A Bugs Life and being absolutely blown away by the animation... These days, it's just par for the course. Maybe that's why this isn't a little higher on my list... Toy Story and Finding Nemo are still my all time favorite Pixar flicks... But this is probably my third favorite. That's largely due to the story... and the fact that the movie has truly inspired me to become a better and more adventurous cook. I'm serious. A little movie about an animated rat has made this 30 year old want to make a better omelet.

Number 5 movie of the year....

Live Free or Die Hard. As I said before, the movie was fun and worth the time. This movie probably won't be in my top 15 or 20 by the end of the year, but it's the fifth best thing I've seen so far.

On a side note, why did no one correct me when I called the movie Live Free AND Die Hard in my previous post? It's called Live Free OR Die Hard. Like combining the slogan of New Hampshire with a Sears car battery. So is the movie really about cars breaking down in New Hampshire? Watch for yourself, and find out.

Cardinals-Cubs Rivalry

2007-08-29T07:55:00.000-04:00

As the Cardinals pull into 2nd place in the NL Central, 2 games behind the Cubs, who they play 5 more times this year, I thought it would be a good day to link to Wikipedia's entry on the Cardinals-Cubs Rivalry. The best rivalry in all of sports, Yankees-Red Sox be damned.

Speaking of which, on ESPN News last night, the little square on the bottom right hand corner showed, where they typically have the most important story of the day, was showing updates of the Ysnkees-Red Sox score. WTF?

How on earth was that the biggest story of the day? The Yankees won and pulled within 7 games? So what? The Yankees are done for, at least as far as the division goes.

The Cubs and Brewers started out the day as 1 and 2 in their division as well, with only 1.5 games between them. Isn't that a more important game? The Diamondbacks and Padres started out 1 and 2 in their division, with 2 games between them, and the Padres won to pull within one game. Much more important than the Red Sox and Yankees.

And you know ESPN news will be doing the same thing tonight.

Judd Apatow

2007-08-27T21:52:00.000-04:00

Above is Judd Apatow. Bow down to him.

As mentioned last week, I'm recapping my favorite movies of the year so far this week, and I will be announcing my most anticipated movies of the fall. But I really feel Judd Apatow deserves his own post.

I'm declaring a tie for my favorite movie of the year so far, because these two are pretty much inseparable in my mind. One directed by Apatow, one merely produced by Apatow.

Of course, I'm talking about

Knocked Up....

and Superbad.

Seth Rogen deserves alot of credit too, as the star of one and a supporting actor in the other, and as a writer for both. And there's Jonah Hill too... the honor really goes to all of Team Apatow.

Are these silly comdeies? Sure. Are they some of the best written and most heartfelt silly comedies in years? Of course. Are they the best movies of the year so far? Well, I haven't seen a ton of movies, and the Oscar fare hasn't come out yet, so, affirmative.

And we're not done with Team Apatow yet... Judd is also producing one of my most anticipated movies of the fall...

Walk Hard.

"Walk Hard" is a send-up of music biopics like "Ray" and "Walk the Line" and stars John C. Reilly as Johnny Cash, er, I mean, "Dewey Cox."

I'm not really expecting this one to be as good as "Knocked Up" or "Superbad," but it's almost too easy to forget that Apatow was also a creative force behind "Anchorman" and "Talladega Nights." Those movies weren't quite as impressive as Apatow's 2007 resume, but they're very funny comedies in their own right. I'm expecting "Walk Hard" to be more "Talladega Nights" than "Superbad," but that's pretty damn good anyway.

Best. Seasoning. Ever.

2007-08-26T22:55:00.000-04:00

Many of my fellow Southern Illinoisans might already know this, but the best seasoning known to man may very well be Magic Dust.

This was made famous by the 17th Street Bar and Grill in Murphysboro, Illinois, which is Bon Appetit magazine's pick for best ribs in the Country.

Magic Dust is the secret ingredient, and it's great on almost anything, not just ribs. Here's the recipe.

Movie Blogging

2007-08-24T09:20:00.001-04:00

Over the course of the next week or so, I plan on making a couple movie posts, one about my favorite movies of the year so far, and one on my most anticipated movies for the rest of the year.

But first, I need to revisit my list of Top 5 movies from last year.....

When I posted in January about my Top 5 movies of 2006, I picked The Pursuit of Happyness as my favorite movie of the year. This spring, that changed. That's because I caught up with a better 2006, movie...

The Lives of Others

This movie, which, at its base, is about Cold War surveillance in East Germany, blew me away. The German movie won Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars. In a weird way, the movie actually reminded me of Schindler's List.... None of the violence or horrible images of that movie, but a similar story of insiders in oppresive regimes making risks to help the oppressed.

Unfortunately, the heart and soul of the movie, Ulrich Mühe, passed away, way to early, this past June.

So, here's my revised Top 5 movies of 2006.

1. The Lives of Others
2. The Pursuit of Happyness
3. Thank You For Smoking
4. Prairie Home Companion
5. The Departed

Another movie I didn't see until 2007, Children of Men, would probably now be number 6 on the list.

Back to the Tap

2007-08-23T10:28:00.000-04:00

So, last week I posted about how I planned to drink 102 ounces of water a day at work.

Well, a funny think happened on the way to the water cooler... and to the bathroom... and back to the water cooler... and back to the bathroom...

It really became a struggle to drink that, at least on most days. As a refresher (no pun intended), I have a 34 ounce water bottle on my desk, and the plan was to fill it and drink it 3 times a day. On my thirstier days, that wasn't a problem, but on most days, I didn't want to really drink any more water after 1 1/2 to 2 fills.

You can go back to the original post for all the details, but basically I made a calculation that I needed 118.75 ounces day, and I figured after my 102 ounces at work, the other 16.75 would be easily made up through food intake. In the comments, Joe accurately stated "You are vastly underestimating the amount of water you consume via eating." I knew he was right, but I also knew I was erring on the side of making sure I was consuming enough.

But really, if I know I'm getting enough, why drink even more water when it's a struggle?

Even Swoopy from Skepticality, who is the one who got me thinking about water in the first place, posted this....

Listeners are concerned I believe in the 8 glasses a day myth.
Fear not.
The big bad blue jug, advertises the 8 glasses a day myth, and I drink out of it.
I should probably get rid of it.

Following the link, I found some useful information....

The confusion may have arisen because a typical adult's energy requirements call for two to three litres of fluid – but it doesn't all have to be in the form of glasses of water. All foods and non-alcoholic drinks count toward the goal. For example, Barr said:

broccoli is about 90 per cent water
bread is about 35 per cent water
meat, fish and poultry contain 50 to 60 per cent water

So, time for a new calcualtion. I'm starting with the same 118.75 ounces, but....

---- For sake of simplicity, I'm estimating I eat a pound of food each for lunch and dinner, and that it's equally divided between meat, veggies and carbs. I actually think this is fairly accurate. Also for simplicity, I'm using the above broccoli percentage for all veggies and the above bread percentage for all carbs.

So that's a little over 5 ounces each for each food category at each meal, So I'll say I get 5 ounces of water from veggies, 3 from meat and 2 from carbs, or 10 ounces of water each for lunch and dinner.

---- I usually don't have much more than a granola bar or piece of fruit for breakfast, but I do have bad snacking habits. I'm going to say that breakfast plus snacks amount to another half of a lunch or dinner every day, so I'll say I get 5 ounces of water from other food sources every day.

---- Here's the biggest change in my calculation... taking other fluids into account. I'd say I average about a 16 ounce drink each for lunch and dinner, and usally about 16 ounces of caffenaited beverages on a typical work day. So that's another 48 ounces right there.

---- So here's the new math..... 25 ounces for food and 48 ounces for other beverages comes to 73 ounces a day. That leaves me only 45.75 ounces of other water needed per day. So I'm doing just fine, and getting a little extra, if I only drink 1 1/2 or 2 of my water bottle per day. And this isn't even taking other water I typically drink at home into account.

Much more manageable.

Obama's Got Game (and other observations about Basketball and Democrats)

2007-08-22T11:33:00.000-04:00

Check out this footage of Obama on his high school basketball team...

Not only is he sporting Michael Jordan's #23, he knows how to rebound and score (although he needs to work on his free throws).

As I've announced multiple times, Obama's my guy in the primary. Perhaps I should only pick primary candidates based on their basketball skills from now on... I also voted for former New York Knick Bill Bradley over Al Gore in 2000.

I hope I'm doing more than racial profiling, but I'm thinking Obama has to be the best basketball player in the Democratic field. Even if I'm convinced that this guy...

is the long lost father of this guy...

Am I the only one that sees a resemblance? Granted, Hinrich's like two feet taller....

It's a little harder for me to make the case for my 2004 guy, Wesley Clark.

This is the best picture I could find, but Kerry clearly has the height advantage and would probably win a game of one on one.

Michael Vick

2007-08-21T10:07:00.000-04:00

I don't really have much to say about Michael Vick that everyone else hasn't said already, but for whatever reason, I feel the need to write a few words about him.

What he did, of course, was horrible. The punishment he is likely to get, at least 12 to 18 months in jail, is fitting. And it sounds like he'll probably be banned from the NFL for another year or so after that, putting his earliest likely return around 2010. And I won't be crying if it's even longer with, say, a longer sentence (closer to the five year maximum) or, a longer suspension from the NFL, or even a lifetime ban.

This is a situation where I feel I just have to sit back, watch the wheels of justice turn, and accept that whatever the final punishment he gets is just... I just don't know what the answer is, if there's a way to quantify cruelty to animals in the terms of NFL suspensions and jail terms.

If he returns to the NFL, in 2010 or whenever, I can accept that. I do believe that people can be rehabilitated, and I have to hope, for the sake of humanity, that people like Michael Vick can find the light and become more ethical human beings.

However, I'm with King Kaufman on this one... I just don't see it happening. Vick's got at least three things going against him... He had never really lived up to his talent anyway, the quarterback position would be an even harder position to return to than any other, and, most importantly, a team would have to voluntarily take on the distraction he would become. Michael Vick in 2010 would make the Terrell Owens distractions of the last few years look like nothing.

So I think it's time to just put this one in the books and wish Michael well upon his release from a well deserved prison term.

Mix Tape USB

2007-08-20T10:26:00.001-04:00

If this thing costs less than $10 or so (And really, a 128 MB flash drive is about all you need to hold a proper mix tape).... this thing just might be kitschy yet modern and functional enough to purchase.

San Jose Semaphore

2007-08-17T10:25:00.000-04:00

What it's this? The four circles spin around and create the entire text of Thomas Pynchon's "The Crying of Lot 49."

Read about the semaphore here. The people who figured this thing out were obviously very dedicated. They make Robert Langdon look like the chump he really is.

Three And A Half

2007-08-16T10:24:00.000-04:00

3.5

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Three and a half. That's the number of the day.

The Cardinals have climbed to within three and a half games of first place.

But three and a half is also the number of years Steve Chen spent at my alma mater, the University of Illinois. He was a year behind me at U of I. He never graduated.

Instead, he moved to California, and a little conversation with a couple of his friends led to a little website called Youtube. Indirectly, that conversation led to Steve having $326 million on Google stock.

So lets see... I started school before him, graduated, even went on to grad school and graduated from that... I could use my $326 million right about now.

I don't want to rain on a dead man's parade...

2007-08-15T10:25:00.000-04:00

and I don't want to stand up for the Cardinals' archenemies either, but it has to be said...

Phil Rizzuto's use of "Holy Cow!" in baseball broadcasts is an entirely unoriginal, blatant rip-off of Cubs announcer Harry Caray.

Phil Rizzuto's bigger contribution to pop culture was as the baseball announcer in Meatloaf's Paradise By the Dashboard Light, which Phil didn't like because of the sexual overtones of the song.

That having been said, the baseball world will miss Phil.

The 7 Most Awkward Law & Order Celebrity Cameos

2007-08-15T10:05:00.000-04:00

Courtesy of Cracked.

And yes, that is Chevy Chase playing Mel Gibson.

I Don't Really Believe in Karma, But....

2007-08-15T09:30:00.001-04:00

What on Earth was the Brewers organization thinking buy staging a reunion of the 1982 Brewers World Series team while the team that beat them, the St. Louis Cardinals, were in town, 5 1/2 games behind them in the division, starting a three game series?

The Cards won last night, and are now 4 1/2 out. As much as I loved seeing my Cardinals win the World Series last year, it would be even more amazing if the Cards reach the playoffs this year, given how poorly they played to start the year. I still think it's a long shot. But if they do manage to pull it off, and, as long as I'm dreaming here, make another run at the World Series.....

Dude.

Happy Macaca-nniversery!

2007-08-14T14:24:00.001-04:00

Here's George Allen, one year ago today.

How Much Water Should I Drink? (and an aside on bottled water)

2007-08-14T12:15:00.000-04:00

So I was listening an episode of the podcast Skepticality regarding bottled water... Their take on bottled water is similar to mine... I drink it sometimes more as a convenience factor than anything else... I'll take it in with me to a baseball game when I'm not going to want sugary or alcoholic drinks, If I don't have a water bottle handy I'll get one for the gym, etc. But it's naive to think that bottled water is necessarily from a "better source" than any other water... indeed alot of it's from municipal water sources anyway. Rarely is bottled water any purer than regular old tap water, especially if you filter it in a pitcher. And the price of bottled water is often ridiculous, especially when you consider that it's just water. Not to mention the environmental impact of the millions of plastic water bottles Americans use every year.

As the old saying goes, Evian is just "naive" spelled backwards.

But this is all a digression.... What I really want to talk about is how much water I should drink on a given day. Swoopy, one of Skepticality's co-hosts, said she has a jug that holds 54 ounces, and she drinks at least that every day because that's what she's supposed to drink.

I did some searching for other recommendations... Some sites state the "8 x 8" rule... Drink eight 8oz glasses of water a day, for a total of 64 ounces.

But then I found more sites that recommend even more.... divide your weight in half, and drink that many ounces a day.... At 190 pounds, that means I should drink 95 ounces a day. But I figure some people are more active, weather conditions vary, etc, so I don't really like a one-size-fits all measurement.

I like this calculation because it takes more into account. Drink (in ounces) 50% to 75% of your body weight (in pounds), depending on how active you are. Add 16 ounces each for dry climate and strenuous exercise.

So here's how that works out for me. I figure, even though I have a sedentary desk job, I probably walk more on a given day than the average person, so I'll put myself right at the middle.... 62.5%. 62.5% of 190 is 118.75 ounces.

DC is a very humid climate, even when it's hot, so I'm not adding anything for dry climate. When I go to the gym I drink at least 16 ounces anyway, so the gym pretty much accounts for itself and I'm ignoring the gym and the water I drink there in my equation.

So I have a 34 ounce water bottle at work. If I fill it up three times a day, that's 102 ounces. That leaves 16.75 ounces, which I probably get naturally from food and/or drinking water with dinner, etc. So I think I'm set if I drink my water bottle three times a day.

Drink up!

The Following Classic Battles Have Been Decided....

2007-08-13T14:14:00.001-04:00

As Chris Rock said....

"Remember when we was young everybody used to have these arguments about who's better, Michael Jackson or Prince? Prince won!"

Prince won indeed, but here are some other classic battles that, in retrospect, have a clear winner (winners in ALL CAPS).....

-----------------------------

MATT DAMON vs. Ben Affleck

Matt has two major movie franchises under his belt (The Bourne movies and the Oceans movies) while Ben seems to make crappy movie after crappy movie. And think about it... with all the people in the Oceans movies, isn't it a slap in the face to Ben that he isn't in them in the first place? I mean, CASEY Affleck can score a role in them, but not Ben?

This Onion article pretty much sums up the debate.

-----------------------------

U2 vs. r.e.m.

vs.

Remember around 1991, when these were basically equally huge bands? Heck, by the mid-nineties, R.E.M. may have even taken a small lead.

Not so much anymore.

-----------------------------

Pepsi vs. COKE

Seriously, did anyone ever really think Pepsi was better?

-----------------------------

Corey Haim vs. COREY FELDMAN

This was never really a battle either.... despite the fact that Dara posted a poll on her blog and it was decided by a mere one vote.

I've caught a couple minutes of The Two Coreys and, despite it being excruitatingly bad, I watched long enough to see that Feldman's life is clearly in better order. But none of this matters. Let's go to the filmographies...

Now, one could argue that Corey Haim had the decency to take a break from 2002 through 2007 and not make movies such as Serial Killing 4 Dummys like Corey Feldman. But this is giving Haim too much credit. I think the truth of the matter is that Corey Haim COULDN'T get roles in movies like Serial Killing 4 Dummys.

Ok, that probably isn't really true, but the truth lies in the rest of their filmographies.

NOTABLE MOVIES WITH FELDMAN, BUT NOT HAIM

Stand By Me
The Goonies
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
Gremlins

NOTABLE MOVIES WITH HAIM, BUT NOT FELDMAN

Lucas
Silver Bullet

Game. Set. Match. Feldman wins.

Sellout at RFK! (And some Rick Ankiel thoughts)

2007-08-10T11:44:00.000-04:00

For the first time all season, after going to about 8 Nationals games, I finally went to a sellout at RFK Stadium!

Of course, it had nothing to do with the Nationals.

It had a little more to do with this guy.

I, avid soccer fan that I am (cough, cough), got to see David Beckam's first MLS Soccer game. He only played for a little over 20 minutes, but it's pretty cool to have been part of history. I feel pretty lucky to have seen a few historic sports events first hand... Ozzie Smith's left handed home run in the playoffs in 1985, Ron Dayne breaking the college rushing record, Roger Clemens' 300th win, the Nationals first home game in 2005.... now I have another to add to the list.

I have to say, the D.C. United fans put the Nationals fans to shame. There was so much more energy in that stadium than I'd ever seen at a baseball game.

**************************

In other sports news, it's the moment I and many other Cardinals fans have been waiting for... the return of Rick Ankiel to the major league roster. The transformation from pitcher to outfielder is complete, and he even hit a home run his first night back!

I have this vision in my mind that I'll be telling my grandchildren the cautionary tale some day of a pitcher who had all the talent in the world but let his emotions get the best of him. Now, with a little luck, this story's going to have a happy ending.

**************************

Unfortunately, Ankiel's return to the Cardinals roster comes at the expense of Scott Speizio, who is seeking treatment for substance abuse. The details, including what substance he has been abusing, are unknown, but I wish him the best and hope he wins whatever fight he's fighting. In a year in which the manager got a DUI and a pitcher died from another drunk driving accident, the team doesn't need to be taking substance abuse lightly, and I consider it an extremely positive sign that Speizio is voluntarily seeking treatment. I hope the red goatee returns to the roster soon.

Barry Bonds is the New Home Run Champ. Deal With It.

2007-08-08T09:21:00.000-04:00

Don't give me that asterisk crap.

Here's how I see it.... And personally it doesn't matter much to me whether Aaron or Bonds holds the record....

Once a home run is hit, and the umpire doesn't overrule it, and the game isn't contested... Mark it down for history.

Baseball is all about history. Home runs can't be erased. If there was sufficient proof that Bonds used steroids to ban him from baseball before he broke the record, fine. But that didn't happen. The home runs count.

To take away home runs throws the entire baseball universe into chaos. If you're going to take Bonds' personal achievements away, don't you have to change the scores of all those games? Don't you have to take away the Giants NL Pennant from 2002 away? And that's not even getting into McGwire, Sosa, etc. Not just in baseball either... Are you going to take a few rings away from the Pittsburgh Steelers?

And if we're talking about unfair advantages, are we going to put asterisks by all statistics before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier?

The game is over. As far as I know, the Nationals are not contesting the outcome (seeing as they won, I sure hope not).

Barry Bonds is your new home run champ. Deal with it. We'll pick up this conversation again when A-Rod and Pujols break the record.

Could I become...gasp.... a Trekkie?

2007-08-07T10:58:00.000-04:00

Don't worry. The answer is almost certainly no.

Look, I embrace my geekdom in many respects, but for me, Star Trek obsesssion has always been the ultimate level of dorkiness that even I would never obtain. I've probably seen no more than five episodes of any version of Star Trek on TV.

The movies are a somewhat different for me... I've probably seen most and I've genuinely liked at least a couple. I've never really eagerly anticipated a Star Trek movie, though...

But my interest is pretty high for the next one. "Lost" creator J.J. Abrams is directing, and Zachary Quinto, who plays Sylar on "Heroes," is onboard to play a young Spock.

When all is said and done, it will still be Star Trek, but I wanna see this one.

The Onion's "American Voices" People Revealed....

2007-08-03T10:09:00.000-04:00

Ever wonder who the people are whose pictures show up week after week, with different names, in The Onion's "American Voices" section?

Well, at last, they have been revealed.

Michel Gondry's Nose Knows

2007-07-23T22:32:00.000-04:00

Don't get me wrong.... My Nose is still the one that truly Knows.

But I find it very cool that Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind director Michel Gondry can solve a Rubiks Cube with his nose.

Don't believe me? Watch.

Voters take Richard Pryor's Advice

2007-07-17T14:26:00.000-04:00

Who else remembers, in the movie Brewster's Millions, when Monty Brewster, played by Richard Pryor, urges New York City's citizens to vote for "None of the Above" in the mayoral race? And he had to stop the campaign because "None of the Above" was leading in the polls?

Fast forward to the 2008 race for the Republican nomination for president....

And the leading Republican presidential candidate is ... none of the above.

....

A hefty 23 percent can't or won't say which candidate they would back, a jump from the 14 percent who took a pass in June.

Giuliani's popularity continued to decline steadily as he faced a spate of headline headaches, came under increased scrutiny and saw the potential entry of Thompson in the mix; his support is at 21 percent compared with 27 percent in June and 35 percent in March.

The former New York mayor is running virtually even with Thompson, who has become a threat without even officially entering the race. The actor and former Tennessee senator has stayed steady at 19 percent. McCain, the Arizona senator who is revamping his nearly broke campaign, clocked in a bit lower at 15 percent, while Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, remained at 11 percent.

Revised 2007 baseball predictions

2007-07-09T09:48:00.000-04:00

It's the All Star Break, which means it's time to revisit my predictions:

AL East: Red Sox. The Yankees' string of winning the division ends. Dice-K proves he can do it in the states.

This prediction is looking very good, I'm sticking with it.

AL Central: Tigers. Last year wasn't a fluke

Still looking good.

AL West: Angels. Why not?

I've predicted all 3 first place teams in the AL, at least through the All Star break.

AL Wild Card: Yankees. The Yankees' string of making the playoffs does not end.

This prediction isn't looking so good, and I definitely hope I was wrong... Like almost everyone, I'd love to see the Yankees miss the playoffs. Right now I've gotta go with the Indians to get the AL Wild Card.

AL Champs: Red Sox.

Sticking with it.

AL Cy Young: Daisuke Matsuzaka. Yes, he'll be that good.

He has been a good pitcher, but not Cy Young good. It's certainly looking like Dan Haren will win the AL Cy Young right now.

AL MVP: Alex Rodriguez. And Yankees fans will still hate him.

Not sure that Yankees fans still hate him, but my pick is looking very good.

NL East: Mets. They'll eek it out over the Nats. By about 50 games.

The Mets don't have the division locked up by any means, but they're still the team to beat. Although they may only eek it out over the Nats by 25 games.

NL Central: Cardinals. Duh.

Folks, loyalty can only take me so far. At this point, I can't pick the Cards to win the division. They're not out of it, only 7 1/2 out at the All Star game, but the Brewers are a much better team and will win the division.

NL West: Diamondbacks. I never really know who to predict in the NL West, so this is just a guess.

Why is the NL West always so unintriguing to me? It's looking like a good race in the West, and the Padres are in first right now, but I'll stick with the Diamondbacks, just for the heck of it.

NL Wild Card: Brewers. I predicted a Brew Crew wild card last year too. Didn't happen. Maybe when it doesn't happen this year, I'll predict it again next year.

As I said above, I don't think the Brewers will win the Wild Card this year... they'll have to settle for the division. So who will win the Wild Card? Lots of teams could still do it. Probably not the Cardinals. But.... what the heck. The Cardinals will win the NL Wild Card.

NL Champs: Cardinals.

I'm making unrealistic predictions anyway, so why not stick with this one?

NL Cy Young: Chris Carpenter. Why not pick a Card for Cy Young too?

In two years of making predictions, this is clearly my worst category. Last year I picked Jake Peavy, who went 11-14 with a 4.09 ERA. This year, I picked Chris Carpenter, who got hurt on opening day and hasn't pitched since. And the kicker... You know who's looking like the Cy Young winner this year? Jake Peavy.

NL MVP: Albert Pujols. Let's make it a trifecta.

Pujols could still win it, but Prince Fielder is the obvious choice right now.

Your 2007 World Champion St. Louis Cardinals. Come on. Don't look so surprised.

I'll stick with it, but you're now allowed to be surprised, or even call me insane.

Now that I'm 30... My 500th post.

2007-07-05T10:33:00.000-04:00

Coincidentally, this is my first post as a 30 year old and my 500th post overall.

So I woke up with weird stomach problems... not really sickness, just weird stomach problems... at around 6 AM, and couldn't really fall back asleep. Maybe this is the norm for people in their 30s. Because I'm obivously a completely different person than I was when I went to bed last night, with a different first digit in my age.

Today, I thought I'd google the phrase "now that I'm 30" and see what I come up with.

Here are some samples...

**** Now That I'm 30 (My Top CDs)
**** Music I Live By Now That I'm 30

So apparently, I'll continue listening to music in my 30s. Good to know.

**** I could have said that people will respect me now that I'm 30. Who am I crapping, though?

I agree with that sentiment, and am glad I'm still allowed to use the word "crapping."

**** Also, I’ve decided that, clearly, the universe was trying to point out to me that now that I’m 30.

Hmmm.... I don't really believe the universe a) cares much about me and b) has fingers.

**** It was just about seeing things differently now that I'm 30: slow down, enjoy the moment.

Yep. As Warren Zevon said, "Enjoy Every Sandwich." Incidentally, congrats, Warren, on being the first person I've quoted in my 30s.

**** Now that I'm 30, I feel that I'm taking more risks as well.

Hmmmm... Haven't really done too much risky yet, but I haven't been 30 for even half a day yet.

**** Now that I'm 30+lbs past that I struggle between balancing what's really important, my family, and accepting what I can do for myself as enough.
**** Now that I'm 30 years back from Vietnam, that was halfway back to now.

These two don't apply to me so much.

**** Now that I’m 30, I feel even more concerned about what’s going to happen.

I 'm actually pretty sure there's a guy who talks to everyone the day they turn 30 and tells them everything that's going to happen. I'm expect him to be there at my 3:00 meeting.

**** Am I a curmudgeon, now that I'm 30?

That is for you, the reader, to decide.

Google Image Search

2007-07-03T09:57:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Google Image Search, the last week has been very big for my blog....

In fact, it's the biggest week by page views in the history of my blog, and yesterday was the biggest the blog has ever seen.

For whatever reason, if you did a search for "Spiderman" on Google Image Search in the last week, this image is among those you would have seen on the first page of search results. Alas, today it is nowhere to be found (and I looked through the first 20 or so pages of results...)

However, all of a sudden, people are finding my page through Google Image Searches for Kiss. At the moment, I'm the second search result on the first page. Let's see how long this lasts.

Live Free and Die Hard

2007-07-02T09:42:00.001-04:00

My official verdict... fun and worth the time. Probably the best of the series other than the originial. About 5 minutes of watching Die Hard made me feel bad for ever watching 24. John McClane could break Jack Bauer like a twig.

My Inevitable iPhone Post

2007-07-02T07:52:00.000-04:00

I was walking by the Cingular (We used to be AT&T and now we're AT&T again, or something) store...

So I tested the iPhone out.

The good...

It is admittedly slick.

I like the idea of Youtube and a fairly slick weather thingy and map thingy that you can take anywhere.

The bad...

I have regular human size fingers, so I made like 50 mistakes just trying to type a URL. Granted, I've never had a blackberry or anything, so some people might be more used to this, but I found it incredibly annoying.

Price (duh). $500 or $600 is absolutely ridiculous. I could see why people would pay $300 or $400 (I still wouldn't be one of them), but $500 or $600 is way too much.

Only 4 GB or 8 GB of music for that price... If I were spending that I'd want at least 20GB like a low end, full size iPod.

It's still Apple, so all of my criticisms of iPods still apply, particularly the reliance on iTunes and annoyance of synching, lack of "drag and drop" capability, and all that stuff.

I didn't have a chance to try it as an actual phone, so no comments on that part.

Thirteen Most Overrated Bands and Artists of All Time

2007-06-21T18:34:00.000-04:00

I feel like stirring up a little controversy today... I'm sure everyone has some sacred cows on this list, so if you feel like dishing out your anger, I can take it.

I will start with a disclaimer though... This is by no means a list of bad bands (notice the lack of progressive rock). In fact, everyone on the list has at least a song or two I think are pretty good. It's just that these bands and artists aren't nearly as great as most people make the out to be.

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13. Jimmy Buffett

Jimmy Buffett wrote very catchy songs, alot of them pretty good, but really, were they good enough that he should be able to have sellout tour after sellout tour for 30 years with no notable new material?

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12. Steve Miller Band

Same story as Jimmy Buffett.

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11. Oasis

Americans liked this band for a while, they had a few big U.S. tours, and then Americans pretty much got over them. I'm fine with them acheiving that level of fame. It's the fact that, in England, they were basically the biggest band since the Beatles that baffles my mind.

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10. Eagles

Again, nothing particularly wrong with the band, but does their Greatest Hits really deserve to be the best selling U.S. album of all time?

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9. Kiss

Never has a band gotten further on image alone and complete lack of notable music (and talent).

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8. Metallica

I don't deny their impact on popular music, but they're nowhere nearest the greatest hard rock band of all time, as alot of people seem to think they are.

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7. Fleetwood Mac

I have a soft spot for Stevie Nicks, as alot of people do, but really, the songs aren't all that and I don't really have any use for the rest of the band.
Rumours is a contender for most overrated album of all time.

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6. Nirvana

This band proved that timing is everything. Smells Like Teen Spirit is a great song that came along and flipped the music scene on its head like maybe no other song in rock history. But if Kurt didn't kill himself, they would have totally had time to ruin their reputation. I mean, they already started the process with In Utero.

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5. Grateful Dead

I don't think I need to say much here. You know the story. Countless hippies worshiped and followed a band that could barely play chords for 30 years.

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4. Sex Pistols

Multiply my thoughts on Kurt Cobain by 10, and you have the Sex Pistols.

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3. The Doors

"Lizard King" my ass. Has their ever been a more self indulgent rock star than Jim Morrison, with as little real talent to show for it? He called himself a poet? Because he could rhyme "fire" with "pyre." He was actually a pretty crappy lyricist. Ugh. Ok, I'll stop ranting about him now.

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2. Pink Floyd

Dark Side of the Moon? One of my top ten or so favorite albums of all time... but everything else is average (The Wall) to pure, utter torture (Animals).

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1. Elvis Presley

Really, this wasn't even fair. Elvis is so far and away the most overrated it's not even funny.

Look, I actually like Elvis, but you have to be really highly rated to be really overrated. And Elvis is as highly rated as they get. He takes the number one spot because he is credited for basically inventing rock and roll... Here's a list of some of his contemporaries who were light years better.... Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, The Everly Brothers, Bill Haley and the Comets, Roy Orbison.... Need I go on?

Hillary's Campaign Song

2007-06-19T17:36:00.000-04:00

I already announced my support for Obama, but here's another reason not to vote for Hillary in the primary...

If Hillary wins, we'll have to hear Celine Dion constantly for the next year and a half. The choice is yours, people.

Bob Barker's last "The Price is Right"

2007-06-15T14:31:00.001-04:00

If anyone has already watched Bob Barker's last "The Price is Right" already, please don't spoil it for me. I want to see for myself whether Bob gets "whacked" or not.

Welcome Coverville Listeners!

2007-06-11T13:26:00.000-04:00

A welcome to anyone who is finding my blog through the Coverville website or came here after listening to the podcast....

I submitted a "Musically Challenged" trivia segment that Brian used in Episode 331. At about 29:21 into the podcast you can hear me try to stump Brian and Tina, but listen to the whole show! And subscribe on iTunes or whatever podcasting software you might use... Coverville is the best music podcast around!

Sopranos (Spoilers)

2007-06-10T23:15:00.000-04:00

Was the ending brilliant, disappointing, or just plain nerve-racking? I actually think it was pretty brilliant. It's only been over for a little over an hour, and I already see alot of people saying "what the fuck was that?," etc., on their blogs, though... that's not surprising at all, given how it ended.

But I thought it pretty much kept with the spirit of the show. The show's success largely lied in the fact that pretty much anyone could get whacked at any time, so of course everyone was wondering whether Tony would die or not... And we were all prepared for pretty much any ending... so the only way to surprise was to not let us know at all, give us a sort of a Lady or the Tiger ending... Who would have thought a scene where pretty much nothing happens other than a family meeting at a diner, some shots of other people eating and walking around and the such, Meadow trying to parallel park, all set to "Don't Stop Believin'"... could be so tense?

Kudos, Sopranos. Well played.

You know what would make the "War on Terror" even better?

2007-06-04T14:32:00.001-04:00

If the Cold War flared up again right in the middle of it.

Fortunately, Putin and Bush are just the type of cool headed leaders that would never, let something like that happen.

Oh.

Well, fuck.

I return with... a sports post.

2007-06-01T12:17:00.001-04:00

I'm kind of surprise that, to the best of my knowledge, I've never linked to Fire Joe Morgan on my blog.

While I wholly support the idea of ESPN firing Joe Morgan, one of the most frequently wrong, lazy and uninspiring sports announcers (and that's saying something)....

The blog is really about much more than Joe Morgan. It's about bad commentary/insight from announcers, sportswriters, players, managers, etc...

Today there's a post about Davey Lopes, who complains about "clogging the bases." As opposed to, you know, nice, clean, unclogged bases with no runners on them and no potential scoring opportunities.

Too many teams are sitting back waiting for the 3-run homer. You've got a bunch of guys that are slow afoot, go one base at a time, clog up the bases, and that's pretty much what this game has become. A nonathletic-type game. We've got too many DHs.

Memo to Davey Lopes... Getting guys on base and keeping them on base is a GOOD THING. When homers and other base hits/extra base hits come, it's better to have runners on base than empty bases. Giving the other team free outs is quite often a BAD THING. "Manufacturing runs" frequently means "manufacturing outs." Sacrifices are WAY overused. Stolen bases are also WAY overused. Bunts are WAY overused. All these things, except for successful stolen bases, result in more outs, which result in the opposing team having a better shot at getting out of the inning.

Ok, I'll get off my soapbox now.

In case you're wondering....

2007-05-24T14:12:00.000-04:00

No, I haven't forgotten I have a blog. I've been busy for the last couple weeks moving all my belongings from Virginia to Maryland, plus I've been really busy at work... So that pretty much accounts for my every waking moment. Well, ok, I did make time to go to one baseball game, and watch the season finales of Heroes and Lost.

I'll blog again sometime soon. I promise.

New Poll

2007-05-10T22:11:00.000-04:00

Given how politically charged the phrase "support the troops" is, I was thinking that I've never seen a poll where the question was stated as simply as possible.

So, do you support the troops? Answer on the sidebar.