2012 NBA Predictions

Eastern Conference:

1. Miami (Southeast Champ) - With the addition of Battier, I don't see how they don't run the table in the East. By "Run The Table" I literally mean a 3 or 4 loss season against the Eastern conference.
2. Chicago (Central Champ) - Record-wise, they will be right up there with Miami, and I think the Eastern Conference Finals is such a lock that it's silly.
3. Orlando - I still think Dwight is a complete buffoon, and I still don't like the way they play basketball. I still think B. Bass is a better player than big baby, and I still think Turkoglu is completely horrendous defensively. But I look at the league and I don't see how they don't finish above the 5 teams below.
4. New York (Atlantic Champ) - This will be down to the wire, and I think the C's will give them a run for their money, but they just flat out have put the pieces together.  Enough pieces to beat Boston, regularly, at least.
5. Indiana - I'm starting to think that the Pacers can finish in the top 4 - and they might be better than the Knicks, but NBA Rules say the Knicks need to be seeded in the top 4 as Division Champs.  Granger, West, Hansborough...I love the roster and I love this team
6. Boston - The Jeff Green injury just killed this team from a roster standpoint, and while I think they are talented, athletic, and skilled, I believe their age is going to hurt them when looking at the athleticism of the NBA.
7. Philadelphia - They are the 8 seed if Jrue Holiday doesn't play like an All-Star, and even if he does they may not be.
8. Atlanta - Most likely I'm wrong, the Hawks are probably better than this, but they still continue to be such idiots, and they let Crawford go, who at least provided something. Josh Smith, as a team leader, is a recipe for disaster. This is more of an "I hope" pick, b/c I hope the Pacers are good, and I really hope the Celtics don't finish worse than 6th.

Western Conference:

1. Oklahoma City (Northwest Champs) - I think its finally the year they put together the run. Last season was somewhat ruined by the brain fart of Russell Westbrook - and his thinking he was the franchise. I think cooler heads have prevailed, everyone knows what is at stake, and guys like Ibaka are still getting better, Perk losing lbs help, and I just think its time.
2. Denver - Ty Lawson & Andre Miller make a great backcourt, and they got so much going on on the frontcourt with Nene, who is better than ever. They are not really all that fun to watch, but they are strong.
3. Los Angeles Lakers (Pacific Champs) - I don't have it in my heart to vote against Kobe. I don't like him personally, but my feeling about a true champion and fighter is to force them to show me they can't cut it anymore. I still think they can cut it. Kobe + Gasol is damned good.
4. San Antonio Spurs (Southwest Champs) - This team is so boring it's painful, but like Kobe I don't think Duncan is done, and Parker/Ginobili are still Parker/Ginobili.
5. Dallas - Dirk makes them a #5 seed, insert basically any other All-Star Power Forward and I don't even think they make the playoffs.
6. Los Angeles Clippers - Everyone calm down. Jordan can't hit a free throw and their bench stinks. Shut it.
7. Memphis - They were fun to watch last year, weren't they? Unfortunately, I don't think they have the mental toughness to win more than 35 games in a short season.
8. Minnesota - They are my Pacers of the East - the underdogs, the little morons that can...Kevin Love had a historic season, and I really like the youth they have on the team, and the athleticism. I think a taste of .500 ball in January will get them sufficiently motivated to make the NBA's Sweet Sixteen.

East Final 4:

Miami v. New York (Miami wins 4-1)....       Miami Beats Chicago 4-2

Chicago v. Boston (Chicago wins 4-0)....

West Final 4
OKC v. San Antonio (OKC wins 4-3)....       OKC Beats Denver 4-3

Denver v. LA Lakers (Denver wins 4-3)....

Trophy:

Miami rips through OKC in 5.

Howard to AGT

AGT is America's Got Talent, and I have essentially zero interest in that show.  Unfortunately, one of my broadcast idols, Howard Stern, has a tremendous amount of interest in that show, and has agreed to be the next judge, as many people already heard.

People know I like Stern a lot, so they've been asking me what I think about Howard going to AGT, and I have an answer, but it sorta doesn't make any sense, so I want to get it all down on paper where I can think more clearly, albeit not as concisely.

Howard is a remarkable talent - and a remarkably divisive individual. You know how people always say, "there are 2 types of people in the world, those who x and those who y..."?   Well there are literally 2 types of people in the world, those who like Howard, and those who don't.

I am always really surprised by those who don't like him, but I don't spend any time and/or attention trying to convince them, I just know that essentially on a daily basis for a VERY long period of time in my life, Howard has provided me and some of my best friends with a remarkable level of laughter, and it rarely has anything to do with what you all think it has do to with.

Yes, Howard does things that most normal people would register as gross, as offensive, as rude and as vulgar. It is a part of his personality - I frankly think it is so amazingly refreshing that he puts himself out there to an extent that literally only Charlie Sheen has - but the difference is a major portion of Howard's real personality is a loving, warm, vulnerable person.  People always talk about Howard like his perverse side is a character, but it isn't, and thats what I love about him. He's a full human, flawed, gross, lovely, charming, witty and rude. He's all of it.

AGT is a cookie cutter talent show - i've seen only moments of it, so I won't go into too much judgement, but you know from advertisements and clips if its something you want to see, and I know I don't want to see it. Howard loves it, he raves about it, he can't wait to be a judge.  As he's expressed, he doesn't want to be on AGT to bring on Eric The Midget or other recurring Wack Pack characters from his show - he wants to be on because he feels he can judge talent, and given his track record in the studio on the radio, he can.

The thing I worry about the most is that Howard does have a bit of a desire to please everyone - he really tries WAY too hard on his appearances with Letterman, Conan, MTV, etc. When he is himself, when he is his flawed self, talking with Robin & Fred about the news...when he is himself talking about his family or interviewing  Porn Star, whenever he is himself, I am drawn. Drawn to his personality, drawn to his tics and flaws, and drawn to his overall presentation.

I don't care that his radio show will be more about AGT than about anything else now, I trust him comically and trust his delivery & style so completely, I will likely even watch and be engaged with the goings on of AGT b/c of Howard - but I just hope that he lets the overall TV public judge him the way he lets his radio audience judge him.

Here's my appeal to Howard:  Do nothing but be yourself.  Judge the way you want to judge, say what you want to say, but don't try to please us.  You are funny, we know you're funny, and you're smart. You are a groundbreaking talent, and there are a lot of people who will never concede that point, and you gotta just let them go.

That's all I got - I'm real excited for Howard to expand his talent and his capacity to do really cool things - and possibly to even reinvent himself. I don't care how harsh the public is to him, I just hope he is not so harsh on himself, and allows his talent to ease out, rather than try to smash us over the head with it.

Baba Booey.

Icing the Kicker

There is a lot of controversy over whether or not Jason Garrett iced his own kicker this Sunday in the Cowboys game, and I can’t take it.

As a football fan, every single player & analyst I have ever heard has said that icing doesn’t work.  Icing, usually, only gives more time to a kicker to get comfortable and line himself up properly – I don’t have the #’s, but I am probably 100% sure that icing has shown no true effect on games – sometimes they make them, sometimes they miss.

That, however, is when the other team calls the timeout. 

I do believe icing the kicker happens when your own coach does it to you – mostly b/c you start to think, about anything…and in sports, overactive thinking is usually bad.

I have a recurring dream/nightmare that I can’t swing my golf club – that everything is in the way and even if I swung I know I couldn’t make contact. It usually results in my group/foursome holding back the entire course from progress, and results in me being so sad and frustrated that I can’t just hit the ball.  The worst part of the dream is just the thinking part – that I am over the ball convincing myself I can’t do it.

When a coach calls a timeout, sheepishly, right before a kick, you can only believe, as the kicker, that the coach is questioning something about the play, anything, who knows what, and I do believe it has the icing effect.

Fans and analysts are believing that Garrett iced the kicker in the old fashioned sense, that he was going to make it (and actually did), but then didn’t b/c he had to think about it.  That is partially true, but when your own coach second guesses a situation involving you, that’s icing on a whole new level.

I can predict this for you – at some point Bailey will have to kick another field goal at the end of regulation before this year is up, and I bet the opposing coach will try to ice him, and I can promise you that Bailey will make the FG – because icing by the opponent doesn’t work. At all.

Disney/Pixar

Here are my rankings of Pixar films. The only one I didn't like, as in I hope I don't need to watch again, is Cars 2. The rest have some kind of personal connection or made sense to me, as a story.

1. Toy Story 3
2. Ratatouille
3. Toy Story 1
4. Up
5. Finding Nemo
6. Wall-E
7. Toy Story 2
8. The Incredibles
9. Monster's Inc.
10. Cars
11. A Bug's Life
12. Cars 2

And below are the last 10 Disney Studios animated films, ranked.  By the looks of things, counting Brave, which comes out soon, I'm optimistic that the last 3 films (Tangled, Brave & The Princess & the Frog) are a glimpse into the future of Disney Animation.

1. Tangled
2. Meet the Robinsons
3. The Princess & The Frog
4. Bolt
5. Lilo & Stitch
6. Brother Bear
7. Winnie the Pooh
8. Home on the Range
9. Chicken Little
10. Treasure Planet

New England Pilgrims in the 20th Century v. Hurricane Irene.

Nature, more particularly Hurricane Irene, spent the weekend under the belief that she could best a couple of misfits known as my parents, and I personally found the results to be hilarious.

For those who don't know them, my parents are not completely out of place people who don't know how to operate in this world.  Between them they do own a cell phone (one) and at one point they had a satellite dish - they have traveled the world and made it back to Kingston USA in one piece, and they are not incapable or subjects of anyone's pity.  They just bought kayaks, and they'll explore that Jones River for the next few dozen years like they are a couple of Lewis & Clark's, except they won't bring the President back a few Grizzly Bears (L&C really did that! They lived caged on the White House lawn for Jefferson's enjoyment).

But as "in the now" as they are, there is an equal part of them that wishes for a world of no electricity, an existence that offers as much challenge and consequence as one that offers reclining chairs and the internet.  They don't long for the good old days like the 1960's, they long for the good old days of the 1690's, and it's one thing that gave my sister and I a great deal of comfort when they remained powerless and out of touch for a few days.

If any 2 people took Irene's punches and never hit the mat, it's them, and the below email from my mom today is living proof of that.

Keep punching, Irene, Katia, or whoever you may send next.  My parents won't hit back, but they won't go down easy, either.


From the words of Paula Fisher:


Electricity came on during the night.  This is what we learned while experiencing the inconveniences of Irene:

• We’re old enough to know how to light a gas stove with a match.
• E-Garage doors can be opened manually (but that may mean an electrician will be needed to make it an e-door again.)
• Rain Barrels with the lid not on could (and did) cause a squirrel death in the Ahdeenah section of Kingston L
• When there are no street lights there are more than just Orion’s Belt, and the Big & Little Dippers visible in the night sky
• We actually have ambulatory neighbors (We had thought perhaps they were disabled and could only get from one place to another in cars)
• Neighborhood generators make for an annoying mosquito-like hum/buzz if you don’t have one
• I can go without coffee for two days and not even realize I have
• Rules to games like rummy and gin rummy are not like riding a bicycle, you don’t remember, but as long as you agree to make them up as you go along it’s OK.
• Houses look really warm and inviting from the outside when lit with candlelight
• Since hurricanes usually happen in the summer and Masterpiece (Theatre, Mystery, Classic) are all repeats it’s OK if you miss one
• Having an unexpected day off cuz your company has no power is a really cool surprise and can be very productive
• And finally, it’s worth getting your yard raked, and decorative accouterments back in place even though Katia may be on her way next week

The First Time Sports Have Ever Been Played!

This is a headline from ESPN.com today, in regards to the US Women's Soccer team heroics.

Call it Team Destiny. After Sunday's theater, it's hard to see the U.S. not winning it all

Um. What?

I don't really feel like any thinking person needs a rationale why that's insane, but I submit to you the 2001 World Series, a series in which basically the entire country was rooting for the Yankees. The heroics of Jeter & Brosius were insanely storybook, and BH Kim did all he could to script an emotional story, resulting in WS rings for the Yankees, but that little thing called reality got in the way.

Why is the American press acting as if nobody has ever played sports before? As if no single game has ever been amazing, followed up by a disappointing loss?

Another example - the Celtics win game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals in the greatest comeback in NBA Playoff history.  With game 4, at home, on the horizon, they're poised to take a 3-1 lead in the series at home v. New Jersey, and head to the Finals against the Lakers - a series we had to wait 6 years for, but a series we all wanted.

But guess what? It didn't happen. Kidd & Martin destroyed the C's in 3 consecutive games, and it ended in 6.

Listen, I'm thrilled the US Women's team had a victory that was neat, and I like Soccer and want it to succeed in this country purely b/c the other sports are becoming too much to bear from a financial perspective, but I think part of the reason we hate on soccer a bit in this country is because we almost refuse to get to know it, to take the time to massage the relationship and understand nuances of the game.

Last night Tony DiCicco, former US coach and current ESPN analyst, was calling the victory yesterday a "Triumph of the American Spirit".  That leads to so many questions, like:
1. If they lose, did the American spirit fail?  Or can this only be a positive thing?
2. Doesn't that inherently downplay the athleticism of a victory like that?
3. Could the win simply have been great execution down the stretch?

Simply put, what we saw yesterday was sports at its finest - nothing more nothing less. It wasn't World War II, no fascist regime was toppled, and it wasn't the next introduction of Women's Soccer as the National Sport of the future. It was a (miracle?) victory over a Brazilian team that executed poorly. There is no script, there is no destiny, there is just sports - and nobody knows what will happen.

Cars 2

I was watching Cars 2 tonight, which I pretty much didn't like at all, and I couldn't help but think the scene when they first get to Japan and your eyeballs are popping out of your skull b/c there is so much going on, and there is complete overload and you're trying to figure out how it all fits and and it's just so much stuff...

I've never had that feeling before with a Pixar movie, and it's disappointing to me, as a person who has enjoyed the Pixar run more than anyone I know, that no matter what this rakes in in the box office, an extended "Larry the Cable Guy" act isn't something I will forget anytime soon, and I'm disappointed.

Big hopes for Brave to get Pixar back on track.

SLRHS

I think it is incredible that I still feel very strong feelings of friendship for a lot of people I went to High School with, even if we don't see each other much.  Basically, if you're one of those guys (or girls) I hung out with a lot from 92-95, then a bit less from 95-99, then a bit less than that from 99-Present, I still think you're awesome, and I still really appreciate how you helped make me, me.

...Wild Canyon Games...

It is real important to me to capture this right now - the way I feel about the recently concluded Wild Canyon Games is phenomenally hard to explain, but I'm going to do my best here, and hopefully people will stay with me.

Trust me, when I write blog posts I think about all the possible negative things people can say and think about the things I write, and it sorta consumes me, but i want to be really accurate with these feelings because the fact that this post can potentially live forever really excites the dormant genealogist in me.

The Wild Canyon Games are a Nike sponsored event that take place in the Oregon high desert - a place until this weekend I had no idea existed, but a place that owns a huge, huge memory in my life now, and I feel like I owe it a lot, as weird as that sounds.

The Wild Canyon Games (WGC) took place over the course of 3 separate days, with various events which I'll do my best to explain, and of course you can always visit the Wild Canyon Games website to see more details.

We arrived in Portland on Thursday night, June 2nd...that feels like an absolute eternity ago, mostly because the "we" in this paragraph were me and some coworkers, only about 3 of them I knew well, and the remaining were essentially complete strangers.  The comparisons to me living my own Survivor in a way are really plentiful - it just felt a lot like a giant game for a few days.

I started on Tuesday of last week at TomTom, a new career venture and a whole new industry, "new" was the theme of my last week, and the newness of the faces at the airport of my teammates really was something pretty intimidating, but I was as much excited as I was nervous.  But I feel like I'm not explaining the games well.

The weeks leading up to the event I looked at the WGC website and felt it was all sorta lacking in logistical information, it didn't really explain to me what the events were, and now I can see why. It was 36 hours of physical mayhem - events in these games ranged from insanely hard (.25 mile completely WAY uphill run) to a one mile swim at 7AM in a freezing cold lake or even tame ones like a 300 yard sprint through grass as part of an overall relay race unlike anything you've ever seen.

The games are a masterpiece, the event management is phenomenal, and the site for these games, a Young Life camp buried deep in Oregon is a setting unlike any other piece of earth I've ever been to.  TomTom asked me to be a part of this, and while it was intimidating, I can't imagine a better way to meet the crew and meet the culture, and I have to say I am incredibly impressed - not against my preconceived notions, but mostly as compared to what my fears were.

We landed in Portland and slept in a hotel nearby, then left the next afternoon 3.5 hours or so out to the Ranch where the games were taking place.  Upon pulling into the facility, we first passed the giant lake for the mile swim - buoys as far as the eye could see, and just a massive expanse of rock and cliff around it, a desert that was more inviting than Arizona, with a challenging swim venue nestled into it its nooks and crannies.

As we drove into the camp, we were greeted with what we were told would be "dorms" for camping, but happened upon some brand new better-than-camp style sleeping arrangements, which we shared with a really friendly team from Nike, who sponsored the event and sponsored some of our gear as well.

We had our introductory dinner (lasagna and sandwiches in grab-n-go boxes, and made ourselves comfortable at the expansive camp area. I don't want to go into detail on this camp itself, but it was basically an amusement park - waterslides, wall climbing courses, disc golf courses, wiffleball fields, giant basketball complex, and ice cream diners, it was just immense, and everything a kid could ever want they could have.

The most amazing thing was this place was dry - no alcohol of any kind - and also no wireless connectivity - we were all just there, we all just had to take each other in, all of our flaws and personality quirks and differences, but overall there was SO little in the world of conflict at this thing, it was entirely harmonious, and the setting is responsible for nearly all of that, I believe that completely.

We all went to bed terrified of our next day's adventure, but excited. The day would begin with a 2 events that were to occur simultaneously.  The 2 events were as follows:

Triathlon-

1. 1 Mile Swim in a lake (I did this one in 36ish minutes, not sure of exact time, but I was thrilled. I think it may have been a .92 course, but my zigzagerific style def. made up that .08, no questions asked.
2. 15 Mile Mountain Bike Ride from Hell 
3. 10K through the campsite, on pavement, gravel and dirt.

And while that was going on, the other 4 members of your team competed in a Geocache unlike anything I have ever seen.  Geocache teams divided up into groups of  2, and set out on foot into this massive wilderness in order to rack up as many caches as possible, which wasn't an easy feat. They were in the sun from 7-12, up and down immense hills and mountains looking for a cache of various point values.

We did these 2 events simultaneously and the scores were combined, in a really odd, but effective fashion.  That was the morning.

The afternoon was a team race of sorts, unlike anything I have ever done.  There were 7 different events that needed to be completed by your 7 team members, and having only done one of these events, I'll explain what the other 6 seemed like to me:

1. Cliff Jump - this was really a 12 foot jump off of a fake rock ledge in the water park area, into the pool. The temps were cold, but not too much of a challenge
2. Waterslide - not much to say about this
3. Adventure Course - this was a massive 3 story ropes-ish type course, where a competitor would strap him or herself in and climb up stairs and over bars, through, over and under ropes and other devices that forced balance and poise, very cool activity.
4. Cliff Swing - People were pulled back by a winch about 50 feet up into the air over 30 or so foot deep cliff, and they had to swing, and attempt to throw a water balloon into a parachute laying on the ground below, which proved to be exceedingly difficult and also extremely chaotic.
5. Zipline - There were a few ziplines that started from about 1/8th of a mile up a very steep cliff, down to a lake below.  Teammates flew down this line and attempted to throw a tennis ball into about a 5 by 5 foot floating target, when they were about 15 feet in the air...they came crashing into the water and had to swim to shore, while still harnessed.
6. Ropes Course - At least 50 feet in the air, at a very high point in the campground, a teammate had to navigate through a challenging rope course and attempt to jump 10 feet off a platform, while harnessed in and 50 feet up, to catch a trapeze - this was a 50/50 proposition
7. Blob/Iceberg -  This is what I competed in, and it started with walking up a tower, about5 15 to 20 feet up in the air. You'd walk to the end, pirate style, of this tower, and jump onto a blob - which would shoot the competitor in front of you in line off of this inflatable blob into the lake. It was a catapult of sorts, using an giant inner tube of sorts.  Once you yourself were propelled by the competitor behind you into the water, you would then swim a little less than 1/8 of a mile to an "iceberg" which was a floating wall of death, of which you had to use foot and hand stirrups to climb yourself up the wall.  This was immensely challenging given my 3 factors:
1. I have no upper body strength
2. I had already done a mile swim in the AM and I don't know how to use my legs to swim.
3. This blob had a backwards pitch to it a bit at the start, you really needed to use all your body muscle to get up it.

So the goal was to move through all 7 of those as quickly as possible - there were 4 events in group A, and 3 events in group B, which were separated by 1.1 miles or so - it was a challenge to run back and forth to these, but we had to do it.

We completed the triathlon near the bottom of the pack, maybe 80th out of 105 teams or so, but in the Challenge events in the afternoon we fared MUCH better, I think 49th out of the 105 teams, which was a big point of pride for us.

We went to bed completely exhausted, but still had the full team relay race to go.  Commencing at 7:30 Sunday morning, the relay race consisted of:

1. 300 yard sprint on grass
2. Mt. Bike course, shorter than saturday but still challenging
3. Obstacle course - which I took part in, and started strong, but ended badly with failing to climb over the 9 foot wall, and fighting real hard up the 100 yard uphill run after the bridge
4. 1/2 mile sprint on pavement
5. 1/8 mile sprint swim
6. Halfway Up a 1/4 mile steep, steep hill
7. The 2nd half of the steep, steep hill.

The event was incredible, the relay was so fun, and the games concluded after these events.

The amount of time and energy the volunteers and staff put in was nothing short of remarkable, they worked day and night, tirelessly, to ensure we had an amazing time, and we did.

But mostly I am so happy to be part of the TomTom organization.  At this point, this type of event isn't yet in TomTom's wheelhouse, a lot of first timers and rookies were taking part in a series of events like this, and it really was amazing to see how 14 people (out of an office of around 80!) can group together and perform in very challenging situations, with zero drama, zero moments of non-support, and zero doubt.

It was an inspiring weekend, from the 1 arm and 1 legged individuals pushing through immense physical barriers, to the personal accomplishment of swimming a mile, kickstarting my interest to finish an Olympic triathlon...I am taking so much away from this weekend, and I can't find what thing or what source should be the recipient of my overwhelmingly positive emotion I am currently bottling up...

Thanks for reading and just sign up next year.

...Cavs fans, settle down...

The Cavs won the 1st and 4th picks last night, here are the 1st and 4th picks from 2000 on - will these fellas a championship make? I wouldn't be so sure.  Success rate can't be higher than %50.  We know they are picking Kyrie Irving & probably Kanter - would you be thrilled beyond belief at your chances?  If you were Orlando, would you sign and trade Dwight for these picks? I would!

2010 - John Wall, Wesley Johnson
Way, way, way too early to judge either of these guys. But Cavs fans, you aren't winning in '11-'12 either way.

2009 - Blake Griffin, Tyreke Evans (WOW!)
Immediate impact players, although Evans has had big time maturity issues. Just speaks to the insanity of the draft, and drafting young players.

2008 - Derek Rose, Russell Westbrook (WOW!)
Two years into these picks, you have a mega-squad...

2007 - Greg Oden, Mike Conley
Injuries and disappointments...Conley isn't bad, but he's not a championship PG/SG

2006 - Andrea Bargnani, Tyrus Thomas
No thanks.

2005 - Andrew Bogut, Chris Paul
Took Bogut a LONG time to get good, Paul was immediate. If the Cavs use this blueprint, they are a strong '14-'15 team.

2004 - Dwight Howard, Shaun Livingston
Poor Shaun. Dwight + anyone is a good bet, although I can't stand him.

2003 - Lebron James, Chris Bosh
Eight seasons later, 0 championships

2002 - Yao Ming, Drew Gooden
See Oden & Conley

2001 - Kwame Brown, Eddy Curry
Plop.

2000 - Kenyon Martin, Marcus Fizer
Not horrible, but not what you want...

...My Mellon Collie...

For anyone who is a Smashing Pumpkins fan, I spent about 3 hours today listening to Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness, and while I have nothing but incredible things to say about the album, I do recognize that making a double album following up the flawless Siamese Dream was a little presumptuous, and I can look back with reasonable judgement and think, "I wish Mellon Collie was a single album."

So, I am making it a single album.  The way I put this in my own brain was, if I was going to tell someone about the Pumpkins for the first time, and after they got comfortable with the insanity of Siamese Dream, I'd then introduce them to Mellon Collie, and this would be the album I wish they had the chance to hear:


1. Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness



2. Thru The Eyes Of Ruby



3. Bullet With Butterfly Wings  



4. Tonight, Tonight 



5. Zero 


6. Galapogos            


7. Muzzle  



8. Here Is No Why



9. 1979 


10. Thirty-Three 


11.  In The Arms of Sleep  

...NCAA @ 9:20pm...

Here is the answer to the question, "Why is the NCAA game at 9:20 tonight?":

Because you always have, and will continue to, watch big games at 9:20pm.

Advertisers drive the whole thing, obviously. This isn't about anything besides maximizing the advertising dollar - anyone who says different is not telling the truth, and anyone who can't understand that doesn't want to know the truth.

You may say, "but I think more people would watch if it started at 8:30," but you don't run Neilson, and you don't sell advertising space for CBS.  CBS and its agencies for advertising feel differently.  They don't sell a mythical larger audience an hour earlier, they sell a proven audience number that captures full attention of the LIVE West Coast viewership at 9:20pm.

Much like anything else in our capitalistic society - if you don't like how late it starts, don't watch, but more importantly, don't buy the products that advertise during the game, and don't visit the websites of the products that advertise during the game.

We can defeat this thing and by 2085 the game may start at 9:05, if we fight hard enough!

...Imagineer...

This is why being an imagineer is the greatest possible job on earth.



From the 8:00 minute mark til the end is really the part that astounds me.

This show is completely done by projection, no exterior lighting other than the projection, and each brick of the castle was mapped to design the video and project onto the castle.  The photos in the show are selected daily, from the photos that Disney takes throughout the day of guests (yes, voluntarily)

...Let the Libyan Lies Begin...

This will be short and sweet, but John Kerry going on record saying that Gadaffi isn't the target, and that the Humanitarian aspect is the reason we are charging into Libya, is really an insult to anyone who has a brain and can think their way out of a wet paper bag.

The reason that Humanitarian action is needed is because of Gadaffi, so there are 2 choices here.

We are either trying to stop a deluge with a roll of paper towels, instead of clamping up the leak.  Or we are flat out lying, and going after Gadaffi is our motive, and we won't stop until we see him hang on the internet like we did with Hussein.  Thank God Hussein is dead, given our leaders still can't go into Iraq without complete military coverage, 5 years later.

Hopefully if we get Gadaffi soon we'll all be able to take that Libyan vacation we've been dying to take in 2017.

Watch the news for 5 seconds and the list of propaganda statements being made to get the public on the side of this listless mission is so apparent and so putrid.  They are throwing out the T word - yup, we're now afraid of Libyan terrorism.  What a friggen coincidence?  The same exact week we decide to go in, and try to save every last civilian in Libya, we realize that we may be in trouble with Libyan terrorists.

The only logical thing I can think of is that we have a flux capacitor we shouldn't have:
(won't let me embed):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDS81Ibazdk

...meeting strangers...

I am not good at talking to strangers - I can handle myself in an airport with a ticket counter person, or at a hotel when someone wants to take my credit card and have me be on my way - but having real conversation with a stranger always immediately leads me to a place where I am counting off the ways in which my brain doesn't work like theirs, and how their approach isn't the same as mine, and before I know it I've created a checklist of reasons why I'm different than this person, and I'm counting the seconds until the interaction is over.

On late Thursday night, Alison and I were in line to catch a boat from a dinner show we saw to visit the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World, and I veered out of the long line to check out a map of where we were, and essentially kill time in what would be a long, long wait.

As I was 15 feet away, I heard Alison talking to a stranger, and my first reaction was, "uh oh, this is a long long line..." I was immediately thinking that it'd be hard to escape the conversation when it took the turn it always seems to take, and I walked back over in the middle of the chat and braced myself - after all at least had something in common - we had both just seen the same dinner show.

The conversation completely blew me away - it was an older couple, the male being 65 or so and the female likely 10 or so years younger - both Disney fanatics (she more than he), both eager to kill the time with a good conversation. This newly married couple from Anoka, MN (The Self-Proclaimed Halloween Capitol of the World) were gracious enough to bless us with their familial charm for the next hour while we waited for the boat.

We exchanged phone numbers and emails, promised if we were ever in each other's towns we'd call each other up, and one thing in particular struck me.  The invitation to come over and meet up for "supper" was such a unique and homey way to talk - the use of that word, "supper", struck such a chord in me. Not many people use that word, and I don't know if a stranger has ever offered me over for it before, and both Alison and I felt immediate warmth from these strangers, it was a really great chance coincidence.

I have no clue if I'll ever see them again - they are Disney Vacation Club members as Alison and I are, and given the frequency we both find ourselves in Disney World, there is a chance we'll meet up with them again - I've already sent a "nice to have met you" email and I'm already waiting for the reply.  I hope we find ourselves together for supper at some point in the future, missing out on that opportunity would really be a waste of what was a fantastic hour of our lives.

...Gasoline...

Before you say a word about gas prices - as you pump your car full of gas - please realize that you are in control of what price that gas costs.

You can blame a president, you can blame perpetual crisis in the middle east. You can blame Qadafi and Hussein and Mubarak and Libya and Pakistan and Afghanistan and Al Queda and Bush and Bush 2 and Mike Huckabee...but the real blame is us.

Me, you, everyone who drives a stupid car that uses stupid gasoline. "But I have to get to work" is a symptom, it isn't the justification.  Listen, you bought into this game of nonsense, and I did too, and we all did. I cannot believe gas is as cheap as it is - and I'm not saying that as compared to Europe or anywhere else, I'm saying as compared to a basic reality.

We know that companies like to make money, and actually owe money to the people who make them companies. We know oil companies sell a product to us, and we also know that if we purchase that product in the same volume whether it is at X price or X+Y price, then they are being irresponsible to their shareholders if they don't add the Y, and possibly throw in a Z while they're at it.

Instead of looking into the camera of your local news while pumping your stupid car full of stupid gas, think for a second about the level of control you have.

Yes, I own a gas guzzling SUV, and i own a not gas guzzling compact car. The reason I have both types of vehicles is so I can be responsible when gas prices skyrocket, and purchase less gasoline, therefore showing the sellers and manufacturers that yes, price does matter to me.

If you hate the price of gas, stop paying for gas.  If you have to pay for gas, pay for less of it. Ask your friends to do the same. If they choose not to, then Gas companies win, you lose, and it was a fair fight.

I'm boarding an airplane now, that is 100% full of other people who have decided to complain about gas while whizzing through the air on a giant gas guzzling machine that puts dolla billz into the pockets of the companies they say they despise.

...New Look C's...

This is the most incredible off the court day I can ever remember for the Boston Celtics. Here, in fact, are my top 5 most memorable off the court day the C's have had, to me, in reverse order of importance:

1. The day in Bailey Island, ME where Jake showed me, with a tear in his eye, the day the Celtics traded Bryant Stith. 
2. While I was at the draft lottery, the Celtics expected to get the #1 pick (again) and secure either Oden or Durant, and instead ended up with the #5 pick, which deflated me at the time, but led to... 
3. At the draft, the Celtics draft Jeff Green & traded him on draft night for Ray Allen - starting the rumors of the eventual Garnett arrival in Boston. 
4. The day the ping pong balls bounced the wrong way and the C's thought they'd get #1 & #3 (Duncan & Billups) in the draft, and ended up with #3 and #6 (Billups & Mercer). 
5. Today, the day they traded Perk & others, in conjunction with the complete NBA mania, and the short 9 man Celtics squad v. a new look Denver team. 

So that brings us to today, and as someone who clearly talks about and loves the NBA, I have had more than a few folks ask me what I think about today's deals.

I think today's flurry of trades are not ones you can assess totally, as I don't think they are done. The Celtics are going to acquire other players, and individual moves are just pieces of the puzzle. If the Celtics acquire Troy Murphy, and if they acquire another big man who can play some kind of Defense, even a Rasheed Wallace, and if Shaq is healthy and just resting, then I am not upset at all with the deal.

Jeff Green is a superstud, I believe that. Last year during the playoffs I wrote this about Jeff Green:

But the Thunder's chemistry is in a lab coat, with beakers and bunson burners all over the place. At this point they are mad scientists. Chemistry doesn't just keep people happy, chemistry makes normal players turn into complete badasses. Their bench is so deep, and so badass, and I don't even think they are that physically gifted, or at least NBA-gifted. Jeff Green has turned into a supermachine, a defensive player with the confidence of a Hall of Famer. He is so quietly destroying the Lakers with all the intangibles that I am starting to think he is in his early 30's, and somehow had a Face/Off transplant with Pippen from the mid 90's.

To be honest, I feel that way about him still. As Steve Kerr put it tonight, big men aren't the Celtics issue, Dwight Howard is almost literally a clown and the Magic aren't the problem. Yes, we may struggle against LA again, but I don't think I'm too terrified - and there is no planning on beating Duncan if the Spurs advance, you just have to hope it happens. Bottom line, I think that Jeff Green is the best player in the entire trade, and I am psyched to have him in green, extension or not.

Now we get to Kendrick Perkins, which is absolutely more complex and difficult to think through. Here is what I wrote about Perkins after his injury during the Finals last year. If you don't feel like reading the entire other post, the gist is this: I love Perkins, I was sad to see him get hurt, and I am furious that he was robbed of the ring.

But it gets more complex. The NBA is finance, plain and simple. The NBA is about squeezing the proper combinations of contracts & attitudes into a giant blender, and making the nectar that comes out taste delicious. It's a nearly impossible task.

I have said for a long time, that in a marriage, love isn't enough for it to to work. It's a baseline, you have to love each other, but you have to realize that you also have to have aligned philosophies on money, kids, things that you find fun, how to approach life, etc.

In the NBA, talent isn't nearly enough. Having the right Center for your team, even if he is perfect for you and perhaps better than the one you replace him with - that may not be enough to make it all work. And I think the fact that Perkins contract was up this year, and at this time last year I was already completely concerned with his financial situation, which, I cannot say enough, is more important than the player's talent and/or chemistry with the other players.

So Perkins is gone, and I think he is gone because his injury threw his contract situation into complete chaos. The real value for him is a moving target, and when given the choice to offer Jeff Green just under $6 Million next year (qualifying offer), and let his restricted free agent status tell us, is he worth it? I think we extend his contract, sign Kristic and let Big Baby walk. Those are my takes, but Ainge has never done what I thought he would do.

I will miss Perkins, I was not shy about loving his style, his game, his play, and his heart, even if he was a pain a bunch of the time.

Perkins was not his former self, however. He was more than a liability this year offensively, and I didn't see light at the end of that tunnel, for this season at least. Perkins couldn't jump, couldn't go back up quickly, and his temper is a dangerous thing in the league of quick T's. Don't take this as sour grapes - I think he is fantastic, and I could see the C's winning it all with him as the anchor on defense.

I also can see them winning it when nobody is there on the Lakers to cover a second unit of West, Jeff Green, Troy Murphy, Glen Davis & Jermaine O'Neal. So at the end of the day, I think the emotions are real, and strong, but the reality is, I like this new look team.

...My 2011 Oscar Thoughts...

Picture

1. The Social Network
I saw this on a plane, and I feel like if I saw it in the theatre it'd be in my top 5 of the last 5 years (see my list below).  I feel like this movie had everything, but unfortunately it looks like it embellished the truth pretty significantly, so that's disappointing. But oh well, who cares. I don't. The score, I should mention, was my favorite since Wall-E.

2. Toy Story 3
At the time when I saw this, I declared it my favorite all-time animated film.  There hasn't been an animated movie that has brought out the kind of emotional reaction and connection like this one did, ever. On a side note, I am not confident about Cars 2.

3. 127 Hours
I put off seeing this one for so long because I knew the story - i saw the hour 20/20 or whatever it was with Tom Brokaw and Aron Ralston a few years ago. I knew about the arm, the fall, the tendon, the water, the whole thing...But this really was an achievement by Boyle more than anything else, he really drove the story home with tons of clever film techniques that I don't think anyone would have imagined - I won't give things away, and I don't know technical film-speak, but he made a story we all know, and sorta dread reliving, into a compelling 1.5 hours.

4. The Kids Are All Right
Totally unique look at gay marriage and gay relationships. It wasn't about the troubles of life b/c the couple was gay, it was about the troubles of relationships, and how confusing they are in general. I think in the long run, if people watch this en masse, it could do more for the same-sex marriage cause than any other movie to this point has.

5. True Grit
Like every Coen Brothers movie, this was entertaining from start to finish. See my sub-Coen Brothers list below.  If I could write one sentence as compelling as every single line in a Coen Brothers movie, I'd be such a happy fella.

6. The King’s Speech
The acting performances were incredible, and the story was really great. I had 2 British people watching this movie about 7 rows in front of me, and they were the only people laughing at some of the jokes. I think I would have liked this more if I was British.  Royalty is silly, though, isn't it?

7. The Fighter
I spend my whole life avoiding conversations like basically every conversation that took place in this movie.  What a painful existence - I don't mean poor, I mean completely happily ignorant. So happily ignorant they don't even know they're all unhappy.

8. Inception
I liked Inception more than this, but it's such a hard film to put into place compared to the rest of them. It was a visual spectacle, it was the token Summer nominee that will be part of the 10 films as long as there are 10 nominees, it deserves accolades but I don't think it deserves Best Picture nomination. It was a cool story, but and as I said before it sorta did break new ground visually...basically I don't have anything bad to say about it, but it wasn't what is usually a Best Picture nomination.

9. Winter's Bone
This one is so clearly the result of the 10 nominations. This was Frozen River, it was Vera Drake - it wasn't a Best Picture nominee for real, it was just a few good & great acting performances. I can see how this book could be astounding, but as a film it was just so-so.

10. Black Swan
If Natalie Portman wasn't exploring her sexuality on the big screen, this movie would have been nominated for a Razzie.  How many consecutive conversations between The Swan & the Director did we need to hear him say cliche after cliche about her needing to "let go?" See my sub-Worst Best Picture Nominees since '00 list below.


(If it's in red, I didn't see it)
Actor 

1. Colin Firth, The King’s Speech
2. Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network
3. James Franco, 127 Hours
4. Jeff Bridges, True Grit
5. Javier Bardem, Biutiful 


Actress

1. Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right
2. Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone
3. Natalie Portman, Black Swan
4. Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole
5. Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine

S. Actor

1. Christian Bale, The Fighter
2. Geoffrey Rush, The King’s Speech
3. Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right
4. John Hawkes, Winter’s Bone
5. Jeremy Renner, The Town

S. Actress

1. Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit
2. Melissa Leo, The Fighter
3. Amy Adams, The Fighter
4. Helena Bonham Carter, The Kings Speech
5. Jackie Weaver, Animal Kingdom

Director

1. Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech
2. David Fincher, The Social Network
3. Joel & Ethan Coen, True Grit
4. David O. Russell, The Fighter
5. Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan

No Danny Boyle in this category is dumb. Dumb Dumb Dumb. I would say that his direction and film-making in this year was outdone by nobody - the story of 127 Hours was carried completely by the direction. The acting was good, but not as good as the direction. So stunned.

Original Screenplay

1. Inception
2. The Kids Are All Right
3. The King’s Speech
4. The Fighter
5. Another Year

Adapted Screenplay

1. Toy Story 3
2. The Social Network
3. 127 Hours
4. True Grit
5. Winter’s Bone

Animated

1. Toy Story 3
In the category, there is no way anyone could compete with this. Pixar is magical, the characters are iconic, and the story was fluid and fantastic. This is a no brainer, and the Academy will agree.

2. How to Train Your Dragon
Who names movies? Who titles films? This is a terrible name for a really great story. It was a funny & caring story, and the name of the movie is terrible, which I think turned off viewers. I am biased, it wasn't as good as Tangled, but it was good.

3. The Illusionist
I am completely baffled by this selection. Triplets of Belleville was really entertaining from start to finish, the story was quirky and made sense. This story was nonsense. It was, as Ryan said, a movie you like if you are trying to prove something about yourself. It was mostly boring, I didn't fall asleep, but the connection between the main characters made no sense.  Visually, the only interesting thing was the vehicles - this guy loves transportation (bikes, trains, cars, etc), but otherwise it was a yawn, and in ryan's case, a snooze.

I also want to say that it is effin nonsense that Tangled wasn't nominated. The scene on the water with the floating candles was a remarkable achievement - one of those scenes that animators spend months and months working on, and one of those scenes that changes the landscape of the genre.  I am not sure if there was something going on, some kind of bias, but it was really stupid that it was skipped over, especially for The Illusionist.



* My Top 10 Films in the Last 5 Years:
10. Waltz With Bashir
9. Up
8. The Social Network
7. Inglorious Basterds
6. The Cove
5. Atonement
4. There Will Be Blood
3. Toy Story 3
2. The Hangover
1. The Dark Knight


* Top 10 Coen Brothers Movies:
10. Hudsucker Proxy
9. Miller's Crossing
8. Intolerable Cruelty
7. Raising Arizona
6. True Grit
5. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
4. Burn After Reading
3. A Serious Man
2. Fargo
1. The Big Lebowski


* Top 5 Worst Best Picture Nominees Since '00:
5. Master & Commander
4. Black Swan
3. The Blind Side
2. Curious Case of Benjamin Button
1. Crash - and it WON!?!

...If there is NBA Hoops Next Year...

My projected 2012 NBA All-Star Teams:


East:
G - Derrick Rose, Bulls
G - Dwyane Wade, Heat
F - Lebron James, Heat
F - Carmelo Anthony, Knicks
C - Dwight Howard, Magic


G - Darren Williams, Nets
F - Chris Bosh, Heat
F - Kevin Garnett, Celtics
G - Rajon Rondo, Celtics
F - Paul Pierce, Celtics
F - Carlos Boozer, Bulls * Edit on 2/24 - I forgot Amare, and this will go to him. I'm big on Bogut next year.
C - Andrew Bogut, Bucks


West:
G - Chris Paul, Hornets
G - Kobe Bryant, Lakers
F - Kevin Durant, Thunder
F - Blake Griffin, Clippers
C - Yao Ming, Team TBD * Will be replaced by Tim Duncan, Spurs


F - Pau Gasol, Lakers
G - Tony Parker, Spurs
F - Kevin Love, Wolves
F - Dirk Nowitzki, Mavericks
G - Russell Westbrook, Thunder
C - LaMarcus Aldridge, Blazers
G - Eric Gordon, Clippers

...the Melo saga is over, and everyone is upset...

We treat pro athletes, and their desires, like George Bailey treats his family in this scene (start at :50, and watch til 8:25 if you are ambitious. Just do it, it's tremendous movie-making).  Watch this scene as if we all George Bailey and we're fans of the NBA, and his children are the players who make up our team, year in and year out.



We are a chaotic fanbase - we are fickle group of maniacs who cannot decide what we want, except we all know we don't like it when people are rich. The only thing we like less than these guys being rich, is them being rich & happy - oh nothing is worse.

Maybe I'm misreading things, but no question the overall media, even the NY media, seems to be frustrated with this deal.  Dick Vitale had the nerve this morning on Mike & Mike radio show to say that the quality of the NBA product will be bad, b/c there are 8-10 teams that are good, and the rest will stink.

This is coming from a guy that champions NCAA basketball - has he ever seen the 20 worst teams in the tournament before?  Out of the hundreds of teams in the NCAA tourney, there are 7 or 8 every year that actually have a chance to win, the rest are a collection of crazies who are good enough to play D1, not good enough for the pros, and definitely not talented enough mentally to will a team to greatness.

But this isn't college, it's about the NBA, it's about Jon Barry and everyone else who is really mad at Carmelo for wanting to play with Amare, and possibly one of the three best point guards in the league, next year when Paul or D. Williams joins them both in New York.

We get mad at the players for wanting to play for a team purely for money (Joe Johnson in Atlanta), and we get mad at players when they join up with other superstars in an attempt to win it all (Lebron, Bosh & D.Wade).  We're just upset about it all.

We are George Bailey when it comes to being possessive about our superstars..."what's wrong with our car!" we lament, and we scream at our players for leaving for money, and scream at them for leaving for rings.

Now, I am of the opinion that Carmelo + CP3 + Amare may not be enough to win it all, but I know they have a shot. I don't buy this, "too many superstars on one team are bad" theory, but you can't argue with the fact that Carmelo, in his own brain, thinks a championship is more likely.

Guys like Jon Barry & Dick Vitale spending their time living in Pottersville, thinking that the only way to earn your success is to do so on your own, miserably, without a friend in the world...they resent the guys who want to be with friends, play where there is fame, and make the money they have earned.

As far as the money goes, I don't know what to tell you, people, you are in control of all this. We are in control of all of it. I live my life understanding that fact, and understanding that as long as I dish out $80/seat 10-15 times a year, I am allowing Kevin Garnett to be paid an insane sum that makes no real sense.  I contribute, so I don't complain.

Every time you watch a game on TV, buy a shirt, or buy products that are advertised on the TNT broadcasts, you are contributing to it all. Every time you go to a bar airing the game, or take part in a fan poll on NBA.com, you're contributing. That's just the way it is. I don't know if that's the real crux of the issue with this trade, but I know it's part of it all.

...Me and The Beatles...

First of all, I can't believe that the Blogger dictionary doesn't know The Beatles, and remove the squiggly "you spelled this wrong" line underneath it. How sad. It sorta diminishes this post before I even start, but I guess I could have kept my mouth shut and none of you would have known.

It is not a common thing that you can pinpoint the moment your life changed, and I am not exaggerating at all that I could easily do that when it comes to the Beatles.  As a matter of fact, with the help of Trav, I bet he could tell me, almost to the minute, when my life changed.

Mr. Brande, 10th grade History/Social Studies teacher at Silver Lake Regional, who knew he would be the catalyst for a momentum shift in my musical life that would change the way I approach art - maybe he knew, and it was certainly his intention, but I wonder if he knew.

I walked into his History class on Wednesday, December 23rd, 1992, I think it may have actually have been 5th period, but i am not entirely sure, and Brande sat us down to tell us that, because it was the last day before Christmas break, we'd watch The Compleat Beatles, which you can watch on Youtube and I embedded Part 1 here:



I sat, and watched, and its hard as an adult to remember at time when I listened to Beatles songs with zero context - the thoughts of "I've heard this before" or, "Mrs. Donavan used to sing this to us in First Grade," were the depths that my thoughts went to.

Until Eleanor Rigby came on the screen. I don't think I had ever heard that - the deprivation of not hearing that song literally may be the closest to child abuse that my parents ever came - until the moment it came on the screen during the Compleat Beatles.  


The song was completely mesmerizing to me, and it broke me down quickly. I don't know what I was listening to at that time of my life, I know I was still into Bel Biv Devoe, and I owned some Fresh Prince albums, and I am sure I was into the High 5 At 9 on whatever JAMN 94.5 was at the time...but the point isn't to list off things that people will remember, it is to refresh my own memory of my relationship with the Fab 4.

The next day, Christmas eve, I took out my parents old album collection and searched high and low for Revolver, so I could listen to Eleanor Rigby.  I remember talking to my mom about what album Eleanor Rigby was on, there was no internet or itunes, no way to remember the albums and songs except asking your Mum...

I went to great lengths to listen to my parents vast Beatles collection on vinyl. The stereo system was downstairs, and my bedroom was upstairs, and I actually sent speaker wire outside the house up to my bedroom, and plugged in the speakers so I could play albums downstairs, and listen in my room while I played Super Nintendo. My parents vinyl collection included Sgt. Pepper, Let it Be, Magical Mystery Tour, The White Album and a few others.

That collection was supplemented over the years by cassette tapes mostly, and then gradually onto CD's. By the time I hit college I owned every second of Beatles music available to the consumer world - and the release of the Anthology albums and TV shows was something I'll never forget - it was a real taste of what it felt like to hear something "new"...

This commercial spoke to me so completely



It's almost 20 years later, and I still own it all, and don't listen to it enough. I really ache for the feeling of listening to those songs on vinyl during nights and weekends, and I am amazed by how good that really sounded.  I miss the feeling I used to have about the Beatles, and I'll never find it again, and it's sorta sad, but it's a fantastic memory I have of childhood.

...Exit, A Review...

I just finished watching Exit Through The Gift Shop, one of the films nominated for a 2011 Academy Award for Best Documentary. I was able to watch it on Netflix streaming, I suggest you do the same, it was pretty entertaining and put some things that have Boston connections into a bigger context, namely the Shepard Fairey vandalism case.

I won't sum up the movie or really even critique it as a film, I just am eager to release some emotions about the content before I take a shower and go to a brunch with real people who are smarter than more thoughtful than me.

Man, art, huh? What do you say? Within eyeshot of me right now is the following art, in my living room. And I am just using art b/c I don't know what else to call it.
> An It's A Wonderful Life movie poster
> a wall scultpure of 9 people riding their bikes
> an old tea blanket (no idea what to call it) from the mid 80s that explains the rules of Cricket to a non-cricket playing country citizen, its ironic and intentionaly confusing
> a painting given to me and Alison as a gift from our friend Josh for our wedding
> a painting made by alison's aunt of Newport, where we were married
> 2 astrological pictures that correspond to me & alisons signs
> I consider the Kermit playing a banjo on a log sittong on our side table art as well

All of those things have particular meaning to Alison & I, we were not driven by any factor besides personal "yes please" on those pieces.  When you see people pursuing art, talking about art, wanting art, or creating art for any other reason than a personal piece of joy, it really starts to wear down on you.

Exit Through the Gift Shop is an hour and a half of the other side of art - its a cynical look at artists, and the junk that they create, but mostly how awful people who pursue art for any reason other than personal meaning are.  I don't think the movie intended to be that, and if you watch it you may feel completely different, but that's how I saw it.

The first 40 minutes are spent trying to get you to buy into the fact that Street Artists are anything but vandals - they aren't, they are listless litterers with a great deal of talent for the thing they are trying to produce. I wish they were doing something useful like saving the whales or selling sneakers, like me.

To be completely transparent, these guys tried to deface Big Thunder Mountain in Disneyland with their vandalism, and that made me mad, so my judgment probably isn't very viable in this case, but you'll see. They also then made it sound like putting a fake guantanamo bay prisoner near the tracks of Thunder Mt. should be understood by all, and anger by the Disney Land security force was unwarranted.

But anyway, now that I get that out of my system....the rest of the film is the "What is art?" argument, which is a valid one, but it really rests on the fact that those seeking fame, fortune and celebrity the quickest way possible seem to always find the shortest path through art. They either create, like the subject of the flim, or purchase, like the celeb-hungry people who lined up at the art show at the end to purchase assembly line nonsense, created by interns, rather than the artist himself.

The funniest thing about it though is the vitriol that this dude's contemporaries feel towards him. They attack him like he has no right to subvert the whole process - the subject is someone who is taking all the shortcuts to millions, and the fellow vandals he associates with can't handle it. They think their fake names and hooded sweatshirts give them some sort of stamp of approval - as if spraypainting on a public or private building at midnight every night for 7 years builds up some inherent bank of carnival tickets that can later buy you credibility in the real world.

I enjoyed the film. I really did. I found it entertaining, and I don't know if I found it entertaining in the way the filmmakers wanted me to - or if I also took the shortcut and quit on connecting with the subjects early on, so I could poke fun of them later in my blog, but either way I recommend it, and I am not sure how it can be topped by the other 4 nominees - but I should see them before I speak.

Here is a trailer for the film

...Imagination Pavilion...

My insane love for Disney World is not matched by many of my peers. That's not bragging, I spend most of my life shy about it and don't really like to talk about it with people that I can't really, really trust.

That being said, I know that everyone who has been to Epcot has enjoyed the "jumping water" outside of the Imagination Pavilion.  This video really captures why people enjoy it, and it's flat out entertaining.

Enjoy!

...Pop culture concerns...

I am not going to write a dissertation on all the things in Pop Culture that irk me, because that's not a valuable use of anyone's time, especially my own. However, there are 3 or 4 things going on out there that confound me, and I'd like clarity, although the reason they confound me is that there is no clarity that can come from analysis - trust me, I've analyzed, and there's no clarity. But here are the irk-while events going on.

Birthers: (EDIT, 1:23 PM - Upon comments from Micah & Keely, primarily, I immediately regret writing this. Not in a 'woe is me' kind of way, but more of a 'this is what happens when you do anything without thinking first.' kind of way. I am leaving it up as another reminder that I am a flawed, flawed person.  Enjoy!)
I don't have a liberal friend that won't cringe at this section of my post...but I'm really starting to think there is validity to the question here.  I don't know, call me crazy, call me a fascist, call me whatever you want, but for those of you who know me, I think you know that I don't think of this whole "where was he born?" thing as a witch hunt. I don't want blood, I just sorta want to know if the process was subverted, and if chaos will ensue.

Let's pretend for a minute Barack Obama was not born in the US. Honestly, the only proof we are working off of here is his word, and the word of his friends. You can choose to believe that. The last Pop Culture Icon President we had was Clinton.  He lied about his sex life in every creative way possible. He lied under oath. He lied in the Oval office. He lied, lied, lied.  At the time, I remember defending him saying that the question should have never been asked under oath, but I was naive. Of course it should have.  This is different though, it's more serious.

Doing the business in the Oval Office is one thing - that act doesn't mean that your Presidency is illegitimate, it means your behavior is awful, and it means your morals are out of whack, but it doesn't mean you had no right to govern in the first place.

Back to pretend land where Obama in fact was born elsewhere...that, under the Constitution of the US, Obama's presidency is illegitimate. As are his Supreme Court appointees, and all the legislation that was signed into law.

I guess what I'm getting at is, in the 2012 Election, the GOP will not let this, "aw, trust us" gig slide. Like it or not, fair or unfair, he will have to prove his place of birth.  This reminds me SO MUCH of the movie, The Contender, one of my favorite political dramas ever, consisting of a role that I think may have been Jeff Bridges finest (yes, better than The Dude).  In that movie, VP Nominee Laine Hanson had a choice - talk about her romantic past - discuss rumors and innuendo in an open forum, OR not do that. She chose not to, and she won out in the end, because the rumors were unfounded and she didn't want to dignify them with a response.

Will Obama take the same tact?  The difference is, he is an elected official and I don't think the public will stand for it.  Her fate was a positive one, but she was appointed, not elected, that's the rub.

The liberal argument has been, "Birthers are awful people, who are perpetuating McCarthy-ism and Obama has nothing to prove. This wouldn't be asked of him if his name was Barry O'Bonner, an Irish-Christian self made Republican from Templeton, MA". And they are probably right. Unfortunately, that isn't how politics works, and my personal opinion is Obama is in deep trouble unless he produces paperwork.

This is when we'll know it's all over, and it's coming soon, if it hasn't happened already.  When the liberal argument shifts from what I wrote above, to "well, it doesn't matter anyway, he is inspirational, and the rule is DUMB!"

Get ready for it.

Glee v. Skins:
I have a mixed audience here, so I'll keep it PG-13, or at the most, NC-17. Wait, which is worse, NC-17 or R? I think R. I really don't know though.  As you may have seen, MTV's Skins is in a boatload of trouble. Everyone is up in arms and upset about the possibility of flat out child-pornography, which we all know is MTV's hope - to get to a place where they are flat out accused and sued of it. They are the Larry Flynt of TV, and they want to be, and so does America. America wanted them to show child porn. I am not kidding.

Anyway, they are in trouble because the children on that show are depicted in realistic ways performing acts deemed as sexual by the FCC, and anybody with common sense. Okay, got it, I agree, that shouldn't be on TV, there's no place for it for public consumption, and it's not right.

But what confuses me is that everyone is okay with Glee, a show that is a permanent cash cow, a show that is generating numbers through the roof, that depicts people who are acting as children, performing and singing about acts that are gratuitously sexual. Yes, the difference is those actors are above 18, but they are playing children, sophomores in High School in some cases, and they are talking about things that I know Sophomores talk about - but is it Glee's job to depict it?

You can have the argument that we are too rigid as a society, that there shouldn't be these laws in the first place, but there are the laws, and they do exist, and I can't figure out why Skins loses advertisers, while Glee has advertisers and talent begging to be a part of it.

The Recovery of Rep. Giffords:
Nothing that has happened so far in the recovery of Rep. Giffords has alarmed me too much. There is not a person of sound mind that is doing anything but pulling for her physical and mental recovery from what obviously was a tragedy - a horrific act of a lone insane person. Politics aside, this story is covered in sadness, and Loughner did basically everything he could to sound every alarm within earshot of basically everyone he knew that this was going to result in danger, if not death.

The act and the motivations of the act aside, I want this woman to recover in peace. I am not sure why her Husband wanted to be on TV to talk about her story - his interview on Nightline or Dateline or whatever it was was very respectful, well done, and he is obviously a compassionate and warm man. I respect him and their story a lot.

Maybe it's for symbolism - you can't be a Politician or an Astronaut without understanding and overvaluing symbolism - but that image of them with the sun setting or rising or whatever, with him staring into her face while she lays on a hospital bed in Arizona, it just felt wrong, and I can't say why.

I want her to recover in peace - if she wants to rise to a political post again, I wish her all the best, I want her to do anything she wants, I just cringe a bit at the coverage of this recovery - because the bottom line is that the news cycle can't do anything with tact, and certainly doesn't have her best interest in mind, and I hope it all plays out in the most level-headed way possible.

...A Brutal Reality...

2004 Patriots, 14-2 and win the Super Bowl
2005 Patriots, 10-6 and lose to the Broncos in Div. Playoff Rounds
2006 Patriots, 12-4 and lose to the Colts in the Conf. Championship
2007 Patriots, 16-0 and lose to the Giants in whatever
2008 Patriots, 11-5 and Brady gets hurt - miss the playoffs
2009 Patriots, 10-6 and get blown out by the Ravens, at home.
2010 Patriots, 14-2 and get beat bad in the Div. Playoff Round

The Steelers have won 2 Super Bowls in that time, and are working towards a 3rd.

I know Brady had a run that was unbelievable, and he is a great QB, but a Steelers win, with Ben coming off of the offseason he had, really may be vastly more impressive than Brady's run.

How many years can a team fall short and the Coach & QB are still called the greatest?

...Top 3 Guys In Sports I Wish Would Disappear...

Here are the 3 guys in Sports I wish would disappear - this isn't a list of the 3 guys I like the least - Rex Ryan will not be on this list, for example, despite the fact that I think it's possible I find him to literally be the worst.

I think if you want a Rex Ryan metaphor, here is a quick clip that explains how I feel about Rex Ryan. In this video, Jack Skellington is Bradykid, Oogie Boogie is Rex Ryan, and Santa's foot at the end is Danny Woodhead.  

It's the unravelling that I really like. This list isn't a list of guys I only dislike - it's a list of guys that I dislike, but also I feel they detract, rather than add, to the glory and glamour of sports. Rex is a buffoon, but my argument would be that as a villain, he added more to this NFL season than he took away. These guys below are all about subtraction.

Here are the 3 guys in Sports I'd really like to just see disappear.  

Craig Sager - It isn't his wardrobe choices that put him on this list, it's just about everything about him. I get frustrated when Bjork shows up at the Oscars wearing a dead swan and people say that she is the "worst dressed" - because she is obviously trying to dress like a maniac.  That's what Sager is doing here, except he is forgetting he isn't part of the show at all. At least Bjork made "Dancer in the Dark," and was incredible.  Sager offers nothing. Literally nobody would notice if he was gone, and he is pretty much on par with all sideline reporters, in all sports. The only difference is Sager draws unnecessary attention to himself with his clothes, and TNT encourages it.

Bud Selig - If you truly read through his legacy, he not only stands out as someone who has mismanaged the sport, but also someone who seems to have the scruples of the aforementioned Oogie Boogie Man.  His early legacy is pushing Fay Vincent out of the seat of Commissioner for his own personal gain, reinstating George Steinbrenner's lifelong ban (a ban people often forget even happened), as well as trying to force the Expos and Twins out of the league, illegally, and settling a giant lawsuit after realizing it was a mistake. He was at the helm when the league was brought to it's knees with a labor stoppage in '94, and closed his eyes as tight as possible during the reign of steroids.  Now we look back on it, the steroids era is as comical and farcical as the Frank Drebbin as Ump portions of the Naked Gun. (I've posted that video here before, so I won't do it again). He ruined baseball   for me, personally, and after he goes I'll consider giving it another shot.

Rick Reilly - I was trying to think if the third would be a player, or a reporter, but I think making it a player would be unfair. Players are players, and their personalities aren't the most important thing - you could argue they aren't important at all.  I don't consider Craig Sager a reporter, he is literally a clown, and Selig is a businessman, whose ethics and output have left us all to question his personality.  The third is Rick, someone who is at the point in his career where he is writing fluff pieces, but making sure that the awards he won when he produced real journalism are in the byline for these fluffies.  His latest article pushed me over the edge.

I may come off as someone who likes Jay Cutler, and to be honest I don't really have an opinion. I often think at times he looks disinterested and I don't think he is a Super Bowl winning QB - his body language is confusing, but I am not on his team, and they did go 12-4, and I have some friends who are athletes who are maniacs (Hot Kyle, anyone?) but I'd put him on any team of mine for the rest of my life, he's my guy, and I am sure Jay is someone's guy.

But Rick Reilly is also a metaphor for all the sports journalism out there - folks who have nothing better to write about except sports where people literally die (Steam Room Competitions) and pictures on their books of people putting things in their pants.  Rick isn't interested sports, Rick is interested in Dolla Dolla Billz.  Loving money in itself doesn't bother me, but doing under the guise of my beloved Sports Journalism world is offensive to me

Do you have a list?

...iPhone to Verizon...

I got the iPhone the first week it came out, back in '07 I think it was. I think it was '07, wasn't it?  Anyway, I didn't wait in lines, but I did go maybe 3 or 4 days later and bought it.

It changed my life, and frankly it changed all of our lives. iPads, Tablets, Netbooks, and the expectations of smart phones in general were blasted up into a billion bits and reformed by the technology breakthrough that was the iPhone.

The first 12 months of owning it, I loved it beyond belief. No need to go into detail, but it was incredible.  But then, as the newer versions were released, and features were enhanced, more and more folks bought the phone, and the first thing I started to notice was my service getting worse and worse.

The principle that more people on a network the same size means a more downgraded and slow network, it makes sense.  This past summer, I really came to the conclusion that I cannot own the iPhone anymore.  It was something that wasn't manageable in my life anymore, and the network was so slow, and so unreliable, and I couldn't make a call without a 65% chance of the call being dropped.

Advance to today, and the news about Verizon getting iPhone looks more official than ever, and I have the following emotions:

1. Happiness for fellow Verizon subscribers, however, for those who use GMail and Google Calendars, I cannot imagine why you'd choose to avoid the Droid.
2. Joy that AT&T is going to be visited by an angry ghost that will steal all of its non-contracted subscribers, about 80% of those who have 6 mos. or less on their contracts, and about 50% of the rest of the people to Verizon.
3. Fear that my perfectly pristine, 100% connected, never a dropped call network will go through the same fate as the '08-'09 phase of the AT&T 3G network.

Verizon may have convinced everyone that their network is inherently better, but the world of Apple hasn't come in full force and shown how quickly the inundation and overpopulation of a network can really put a wrench in the gears.

I love my Droid X, I have no reason but to have faith in Verizon, but I am at the same time cautiously optimistic when I say, "I really hope my network doesn't suffer the same fate as AT&T's 3G did."

...Quick NFL Playoff Post...

Just for fun, and clearly not as an expert, and clearly not for betting purposes, this is what I think will happen in this weekend’s NFL Games. I am not going to get into reasons why, I will just list what I think the #1 factor of the game will be – not coaching, just player(s).

Jets @ Colts – Colts win by 10, Manning has essentially zero issues.

Saints @ Seahawks – Saints win in a squeaker, and just like every Seahawks game it is beyond painful to watch.

Ravens @ Chiefs – Ray Rice is a no-show, Chiefs win by a TD

Packers @ Eagles – Packers win, they continue the streak of not being down by more than 7 at any point this entire year, and end up winning much like they did in week 17…low scoring affair.

Leaving these matchups:

AFC:

Chiefs @ Patriots

Colts @ Steelers

NFC:

Green Bay @ Atlanta

New Orleans @ Chicago

The cool thing about that is the Patriots, if they make a Super Bowl, have a 50/50 chance of a Super Bowl rematch against a previous opponent (Eagles, Packers, Bears), and 2 of those they lost to, so that’d be neat.

Also, if the Pats advance, they’ll tie the Steelers All-Time for 2^nd most Super Bowl appearances, and be only 1 behind Dallas.

...Orton & Cutler...

Back in April of '09, Cutler & Orton were in a deal.

With the draft picks being made, the deal ended up being:

Jay Cutler to the Bears
Kyle Orton, Robert Ayers & Richard Quinn (via draft pick trade with Steelers).
Here are some notes about Ayers: http://www.denverpost.com/broncos/ci_17009731
Richard Quinn has 1 catch in 2 years.
Kyle Orton has been benched, in favor of a QB that nobody (but me, for some reason) has any faith in.

The Bears are 11-5, and have the #2 seed in the playoffs.

I wrote a blog post at the time of the trade, basically it was short and sweet, you can see it here.

I am writing this purely to say I was right.

...The West Wing, again...

Last evening at around 9:45 pm, Alison and I finished The West Wing, seasons 1-7.  Prior to us kicking off a West Wing commitment, I had watched seasons 1-4 on Bravo, when it was airing every night for a few years, and then watched Seasons 5, 6 & 7 live as they aired – Alison had never watched an episode.

I was guarded to watch with Al, mainly b/c if she didn’t like I didn’t know how we’d continue as a married couple – what would it say about her if she couldn’t be moved to tears by Margeret or Charlie?  What if she didn’t give a crap about CJ Cregg’s love life the way I did – it was a scary prospect.

Thankfully, by a few episodes in, Alison was hooked. I own seasons 1-5 on DVD, we Netflix’d some of season 6 and then borrowed from Wizzy season 7.  Last night, the process came to an end, we finished the show.

I won’t spoil any endings, I won’t ruin anything for anyone, but watching it again was incredible, it didn’t have the same progression that I had remembered.  I know that seasons 1-3 are incredible TV, and I know that seasons 6 & 7 are just a different show – but I was surprised by how I actually liked 6 & 7 more than 4 & 5 – how the magic seemed to go away for a period, then come back with a vengeance.

I know the backstories of contract disputes, and writer changes, and character plotlines based on things outside of the show, but overall watching this show again solidified my theory that the West Wing was the last incredible Network drama.  With the evolution of our TV watching, the fact that with apple tv, google tv, on demand, Netflix and other devices, tv show watching is disappearing in the form that we know it.

Cable networks are dominating the drama genre – Mad Men, The Wire, Boardwalk Empire, Dexter, Weeds…all the critically acclaimed dramas are way outside of the reality-all-or-nothing mentality that is keeping ABC, NBC, CBS & Fox afloat.

The West Wing remains the most powerful TV viewing experience I can remember, and in my top 5 shows of all time, if not top 3.

Finally, here are my superlatives:

Best TV Show Ever: Mad Men

Most Fun Show Ever: Survivor

Funniest Show Ever: Seinfeld

Most Addicted I’ve Been To A Show Ever: The Sopranos

Not Even TV It Was So Good: The Wire