A Simple Tool

I had an amazing and exhausting weekend.  I’ll basically go through it chronologically.

FRIDAY

 9-5:  During work I was able to watch a few episodes of Friday Night Lights, which I’ve been checking out for the past week or so.  It’s really,  really good.   Good acting, hot chicks, football, a nice cast of characters and it’s all filmed in a pseudo-documentary style, similar to Battlestar Galactica.  The show has been sort of quietly building up hype and the howls of protest after it got snubbed by the Emmys (who also snubbed The Wire) motivated me to watch the show.  If I could figure out what time it’s on, I’d add it to the few shows I actually watch on TV regularly (which is pretty much limited to BSG, The Office, 30 Rock, House, and It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia).

Friday night: The Simpsons Movie.  Wow, good stuff.  Essentially, it’s a 90 minute long episode.  Thankfully, it’s a 90 minute long good episode, so I didn’t feel gyped out of my 8 bucks.  There were even a few pretty solid laugh-out-loud moments, which have been sorely lacking from the show in the past five years or so.  As a plus, we went on opening night so the crowd was really into it.  If you’re a fan, check it out.  If you’re not a fan of The Simpsons then, what the fuck?

Late Friday night: There were naked women at a party which was taking place in my apartment.  Of course, I wasn’t in any way involved with this party, instead attempting to sleep before my summer league tournament.  The involvement of naked women with the party was your first clue that I was not actually there.  Positive: got to see naked chicks.  Negative: got 4 hours of sleep before important tournament.

Saturday

Despite getting very little sleep (and having all my Red Bull’s drunk by some drunk), I think I played pretty well.  But how I played paled in comparison to how my team as a whole played.  After winning decisively in our first two games, we faced the number 1 seed in the tournament, who had gone undefeated all season, Gritty’s.  We hung in there the whole game but, after a brief rain delay, we were down 13-12 with the hard cap at 14.  Enter Wonder who skies one of the best players in the league to make it 13-13 and then, after a fantastic pull by Ster, records back to back d-blocks on the aforementioned player on the goal line (the first d-block resulted in an utterly bullshit foul call) and we score to take the game.  In the semis we blew a 10-3 lead and found ourselves down 16-15 capped at 17.  Once again we came up big and won on universe point.  However, squandering that lead cost us almost all our legs with our top 3 of Wonder, Emu, and Ster playing about 30 straight points and P-buck and myself having played around 25 of 30.  In the finals we faced the juggernaut that was Maine Gym (who had crushed everyone they’d played thus far) and we played them as tough as we could, taking half 8-6 and being up 9-6 at one point.  However, we couldn’t hold on when Emu and Wonder (who were our primary defenders) began to fade.  That combined with Ster being hurt and P-buck cramping and being unable to breathe correctly caused us to fall 15-11 in the finals.  Nevertheless, it was an amazing tournament and I am incredibly proud to have been a part of our amazing run.  Playing in front of the hundreds of people watching the finals was like a dream, amazing.

Negatives of Saturday: I couldn’t go to the summer league party because I needed to get back to school and the only thing I ate all day was a hot dog.  While missing the party was a bummer, I would trade a million parties for the feeling of taking half in the finals.

Sunday

Woke up at 4:30 am (after 4 hours of sleep, 8hrs in the last 48 if you’re keeping track at home) and drove to NYC for the Rock the Bells concert.  Quick review of the concert: holy shit.  Amazing, amazing bunch of shows.  I’ll try to summarize; We’ll start with the negative:

The Bad

Public Enemy – They seemed really disjointed, plus I don’t know any of their songs and I spent the whole time wishing they were The Roots, who had performed the night before.  There was a lot of weirdness near the end of their set where it seemed that Chuck D. just left the stage (it was hard to tell because at that point I was really far away).

The Weather – It poured from 1-4.  Since I was wearing a cotton t-shirt and there was no place to go inside, this was miserable.  It also really dampened the crowd’s enthusiasm during the Mos Def + Talib Kweli set, which was pretty damn good.   Luckily it stopped at around 4:15 and I was able to change into a dry shirt which made all the difference in the universe.

I missed MF Doom – I was watching Public Enemy at the time and had found a pretty good spot so I didn’t want to lose it for the rest of the concert.  Bummer.

Getting Out of the Concert - Thousands of people trying to fit in a narrow bus line and not respecting anyones personal space, enough said.

The Great

The Slice of Pizza I had after the concert - Will Mills took me to some pizza place that sold slices that were like two feet long for 3 dollars, since all I had eaten in the past two days was a hot dog and a soft pretzel this was the greatest slice of pizza in history.

The Hosts -  Supernatural and Rahzel.  Really solid job keeping everyone into it between sets, mixed in with some sweet freestyles by Supernatural.

Pharoe Monche - He just knew how to get the crowd involved.  Everyone was going nuts for his whole setand when he started up with “Simon Says” the place went Berserk, definitely the highlight of the earlier acts.

Immortal Technique -  See, Pharoe Monche.  Replace “Simon Says” with “Bin Laden” dial down the intensity of my praise by 1.

Sage Francis – Performing on the independent stage.  I learned that Sage Francis is utterly insane.  It’s basically impossible to describe his style on stage as he marches and dances and all sorts of ridiculous things.  Just a huge amount of energy, he was great.

Wu Tang - I mean, Wu Tang.  Come on, they rule.

Mos Def + Talib - Amazing artists, who are two of my favorites and who performed really well, only hindered by the fact that the rain was really taking people out of it by this point.

Brother Ali – Probably the second best act of the show, he was awesome.  I was really amazed by his stage presence which was excellent and got the crowd going nuts.  In fact, it was probably the second most raucous crowd of the show (after Rage, more on this soon).  I’ll probably go get his album solely based on his performance and I’d love to check him out again as a headliner (or with more of the Rhymesayers guys).

Finally, the best part of the whole show RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE – wow, I have never rocked so hard in my life.  Despite 11 hours on my feet, despite the rain, despite rocking for 11 other artists by this point, Rage blew the crowd away.  I don’t even know what more to say, they had insane energy especially from Zach and Tom Morello and hit all their best songs (“Bulls on Parade” FTW~!), ending with just an absurdly high energy “Killing in the Name of.”  Basically, my favorite group from High/Middle School just killing it.  Amazing.

So anyway yeah, best concert of my life.   I saw 13 acts in 11 hours.  Worth every penny.

Good Weekend

Well, I meant to write more on Tuesday, but vacation intervened.  In the meantime I’ve gathered even more things to write about:

Harry Potter

It’s weird to say that I finally was able to pick up this book since I read it the week it came out, but since sixty-five-bajillion people bought it in like two days, I guess I am showing up a little late to the party.  The point is, I read it in a marathon session on Wednesday and I thought it was excellent.  Now, I was already a fan of the other books, so if you’re one of those twats who think that Harry Potter is destroying American literature (like that critic whose article was circulating through the digg/reddit/fark community a couple of days ago, who seemed unable to grasp the fact that not everyone wants to read Pynchon all the time) then stay away.  Otherwise, I thought it was better than the sixth book and probably equal to the 3rd/4th/5th in terms of awesome.  And, Jesus, was this book dark.  The whole series has rapidly moved beyond “kiddie” status, which I suppose mirrors the aging of the initial groups of Potter readers.  Anyway, people, both major and minor, get cacked by the boatload and the finale is pretty satisfying.  If I had one complaint (and me being me, I always have one) it was that the Epilogue was a bit too sappy and at the same time didn’t really explain what had happened to all the characters.  If you’re looking for what Rowling imagined them doing check out this (SPOILER heavy).  I don’t understand why that couldn’t be in the book in the first place.

Pro Football Prospectus 2007 

Everyone who considers themselves a big football fan owes it to themselves to check out FootballOutsiders.com, which is by far the best football site out there.  Football Prospectus is their annual pre-season publication, and once again it’s excellent.  The book provides a brief chapter on every team in the NFL with stats projections and a brief write-up.  Roughly 50% of these chapters have an additional essay which directly relates to either the specific team, or the NFL at large.  The Prospectus also has a blurb about every skill position player in the league, with stats and projections for players likely to make a major impact.  The writers also have a dry sense of humor that caused me to crack up a number of times, which is rare in a discussion of regression analysis.  They also pull no punches, mercilessly going after sup-par players/coaches (say…Chris Chambers or Norv Turner).  Unfortunately, the books press time resulted in a lack of coverage of recent events and their impact on various teams (most notably the Mike Vick saga in Atlanta), but you really can’t fault the FO guys for that.  Overall, this is probably the best book out there for people looking to get a more in-depth look at football, and it’s also a pretty good asset for fantasy nuts (I’ve definitely used it).  Bonus! the Eagles have the 3rd (I believe) best projection in the book and the best in the NFC.

Suttree

Anyone who’s read my blog for more then like a week knows that I’m a big fan of Cormac McCarthy.  Last week I was able to read Suttree, which is apparently his big autobiographical/Portrait of an Artist novel.  The book is sprawling and difficult to describe, I suppose that the best term would be un-rooted.  The story of a young man, Suttree, living a dilapidated existence on a decrepit houseboat outside of Knoxville and encountering all manner of misfits and societal rejects is compelling in its simplicity. It includes a number of hallucinatory sequences (brought on by fever or drink) and the perspective occasionally shifts between third and first person without warning.  On top of this is McCarthy’s traditional lack of punctuation and the reliance on dialog, rather than exposition.  It can be difficult to find your bearings but it’s definitely worth it.   While it wasn’t as good as Blood Meridian or The Road, it’s a damn good book.

Life News

Portland Summer League’s regular season finished up last night.  My team went 9-6, although we only lost one game with our full team.   The tournament is this weekend and, while I feel like we can hang with any team in the league, I’d be happy to win more then one game/make the quarters.  In last nights game we played like ass but, hey, what can you do?  Also, last night featured another idiotic dispute of the “It’s his call” variety.  This is quite possibly my least favorite dispute in Ultimate…IT IS NOT HIS CALL! It is best perspective on the field.  If you are in the process of making a difficult catch it is highly likely that you aren’t looking at your feet, hence you do not have best perspective.  Sigh.

Also, this weekend I’m going to Rock the Bells in NYC which should be awesome. Don’t believe me? Check out the line-up.  Although the whole driving to New York at 5:00 AM after the summer league party doesn’t really appeal to me.  Then it’s back to the lake for a little vacation.  Finally, I’m going to try and get to the Simpsons Movie tonight, which excites me (yes, in that way)

Wow, lots to discuss.

The White Stripes:

I caught the White Stripes in concert last night at the Civic Center in Portland and it was awesome. The opening band (whose name I couldn’t catch) rocked pretty hard, although the crowd was pretty dead for them. Also the lead singer kinda looked like a corpse, but we can’t pick our faces eh?

After a pretty long wait the White Stripes themselves came on and pretty much tore it up, starting with “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground.” Unfortunately, I don’t actually know too many White Stripes songs so I can’t really say which albums they were primarily playing off of but they certainly hit all their big songs, especially in the encore. The biggest crowd reactions were definitely for “Icky Thump”, which ended the set, and “Seven Nation Army”, which ended the encore. I haven’t been to many rock concerts but this was probably the best that I’ve seen. The Hold Steady were great but I really don’t know their music, or particularly like it. So, while that concert was incredibly fun, it’ll have to stay at number 2 on my list.  Also, Jack White can really rock, like me in Guitar Hero II caliber rocking.

While the concert was pretty great, I do have a sort of observational complaint (of course I have to find something to complain about). This is about the people at the concert. And I’m not talking about Drunkie McPuncherson, who managed to plow through the crowd like five times, or Sweaty Fat Guy, who slowly interposed himself between myself and my compatriots. These people are normal and expected at your average concert, so with them I have no beef. However, I do take issue with Textie McLamerson who stood directly in front of me and sent/received a text message every minute, and I’m not exaggerating in the least, for the first half of the White Stripes set. So essentially, this dude spent the first forty-five minutes of a concert, which he I assume spent at least thirty dollars to attend, not listening to the music and instead trying, and failing, to set up a booty call with some chick named Jessica (oh yes, I can read that text message over your shoulder and yes I will. Why? Because we’re in a completely dark room and you’re waving it in my damn face). Closely related to this putz, was the couple who literally spent the entire concert hugging. Just hugging. At no point was the girl facing the stage…so basically she payed for a ticket in order to stare at her 5′2″ boyfriends shoulder while music played. It just boggles the mind.

Sunshine

I saw the new Danny Boyle movie last week, and it was swiz-eet. So, the sun is dying and a crew of astronauts has to detonate a bomb inside the sun in order to save humanity. Needless to say, things do not go as planned and people start dying. The movie isn’t really anything new or revolutionary. It follows in that basic 2001, space paranoia/claustrophobic, path. However, much like 28 Days Later, Boyle takes the concept to another level with style.  I was especially impressed with how well Boyle (and presumably Alex Garland, who wrote the film) conveys the mindset of the astronauts.  Their mission is literally the most important in the history of the human race and they act accordingly.  All too often movies whose plot involves a world-saving expedition has its characters, even (and sometimes especially) the heroes, act in a manner that lies in their own self interested and not that of, you know, saving all of humanity.  There are innumerable examples of this in movies, from Armageddon to The Core.  Perhaps my favorite example was in the execrable Kurt Russel movie Executive Decision, where the terrorists are going to deploy a gas that would kill 40 million people but instead of simply shooting down the plane the government does some stupid rescue plan that succeeds at the last moment (of course).  Now I’m aware that if they just blew up the plane there wouldn’t be a movie, but 40 million vs. 100? come on.  In Sunshine, the mission means everything, if there’s only oxygen for 4 people, someone has to die.  The writing/direction really emphasizes this and I dug it.

A negative aspect of the movie is the Cillian Murphy’s face really creeps me out.  Otherwise, it was pretty awesome.

Ok, I was going to write about other stuff but I’m basically just stuttering along so I’ll do it tomorrow…

The Emmy Nominations have been released (here)  Notice anything missing?

Just the best show in the history of television, something that I say without any hyperbole whatsoever.  Outrageous.

I’m really looking forward to the Coen brothers’ adaptation of No Country for Old Men.  I’ve always been a fan of the Coens’ work and, although I thought No Country was one of his weaker works, I’m a big mark for Cormac McCarthy.  Plus bad McCarthy is still pretty damn good.

With this and Blood Meridian by Ridley Scott (although it’s a long ways off) it seems that McCarthy is getting a lot of play in Hollywood right now, possibly inspired by the acclaim he’s received for The Road (which was excellent).  I’m pleased.

Also, I managed to catch Black Snake Moan and Ocean’s 13 over the last week.  Moan was OK, maybe I watched it at a bad time but I just felt my attention wandering.  Although we do get to see Christina Ricci naked, so it’s got that going for it.  I’m not a huge fan of blues music either, so I think that detracted from my enjoyment of the film.  Ocean’s 13 was basically more of the same from that group.  It was decent, but you get the vague feeling that the actors aren’t really trying all that hard and that you’re part of some giant goof.  Plus the plot isn’t really spectacular, although it’s far superior to the steaming pile of feces that was Ocean’s 12.  I think my main problem with the plot was that there was no urgency to it, it was a revenge heist movie but the need for revenge didn’t seem particularly pressing.  Plus it didn’t seem to fit with the characters, they weren’t portrayed in the earlier films as being this incredibly tight-knit crew, but as a bunch of friendly professionals.  I dunno, it just didn’t work for me.  I wouldn’t really recommend it, just watch Ocean’s 11 again, it’s much better.

apple.com/trailers just put up a buttload of new trailers on its site.  So, having recently completed some mind-numbing cms work, I’m checked them out:

1-18-08 – This is the new super-secret J.J. Abrams movie.  It’s pretty hard to figure out what’s going on in the trailer, but it seems to be a Blair Witch-style monster movie.  I’ve always thought Abrams was overrated as a writer/director, but I must admit that the trailer intrigues me.

Margot at the Wedding – The Squid and the Whale Guy makes another quirky/funny/relationship movie with Jack Black, Jennifer Leigh, and Nicole Kidman.  I could go either way on this one.  Jack Black is funny, Nicole Kidman is beautiful, and I thought The Squid and the Whale was fairly solid.  On the other hand, it’s a relationship movie (read: chick flick) and the directory also made Kicking and Screaming, which sucked.  I’ll say moderate interest.

The Jane Austen Book Club -  I’m going to go ahead and say no.  A movie about a bunch of women whose lives revolve around Jane Austen (who, quite frankly, sucks) and fall in and out of love is not exactly my genre.

The Ten -  This looks like it has potential.  A comedy with 10 vignettes about the violation of a specific commandment.  However, it also looks like it might veer into that sort of “wackiness” of the Stella variety, which is patently and in every way not funny.  The fact that it’s directed by the guy who made Wet Hot American Summer does nothing for me either way.

The 11th Hour -  I dunno, I think I liked it better the first time when it was called An Inconvenient Truth and had Al Gore.

Introducing the Dwights -  Christ, is every independent film about awkward relationship stuff?  And I use the term stuff because it’s all sort of a mishmash that vaguely pisses me off.  Despite that, this movie actually looks kinda funny and I like British people.  So my interest is piqued.

I Know Who Killed Me -  Yeah? Well I know what you did last summer, and that was make what looks to be a crappy movie with Lindsay Lohan, who appears to have a split personality that is a stripper.  Anyone remember Freaky Friday with her and Jamie Lee Curtis? or Mean Girls?  Those were good movies.  Sigh.

Daddy Day Camp -  Hey remember that shitty movie Daddy Daycare that no one liked or watched?  How about a sequel?  Hurray!  Fucking awful.

30 Days of Night -  Holy crap this looks sweet.  Vampires + Alaska, I mean, come on!  I’m legitimatly excited about this, the graphic novel that it’s based on is pretty awesome and Sam Raimi is involved (although just as a producer and that can be misleading see: Tarantino –>Eli Roth).  So far it’s the trailer that got me the most pumped.

Vantage Point -  Wow, two good ones in a row.  This one is a political assassination thriller with some sort of convoluted “bad guys always one step ahead” plot.  Looks like it might be decent.

Becoming Jane -  What is it with Jane Austen?  Pass…excuse me sir…I said “Pass”

My Best Friend -  I dunno, I find it hard to judge foreign films without actually seeing them.  It looks cute.

The Wendell Baker Story – Looks pretty funny.  Luke Wilson and Owen Wilson are generally pretty reliable.  Plus, I like the kind of hick bad-ass that Wilson seems to be playing.  It’s kind of a trailer-park-boys/My Name is Earl thing.

Dans Paris – Another foreign comedy, again hard to judge, although my first impulse is that it doesn’t look all that great.  Yes, I am aware that these little blurbs keep getting shorter.

This is England -  At first this looked like an earnest little comedy, then it turned into a depressing skinhead movie.  I’m a little upset.  I wanted light and quirky not all sad and whatnot.  Despite this, it looks good, although I fear I may be culturally rudderless in a film about the 80s in England, which I know nothing about.

Goya’s Ghosts – This is, of course, the Natalie Portman nude/torture scene movie that made some waves during its production.  Besides that, it looks like it’s going to be a Good (capital G intended) movie, an Important Film (again intended).  It certainly has the pedigree, both in cast and in the people behind the camera (Milos Forman who did One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and Amadeus).  So, I’m fairly excited about it.

Finally, and holy shit is this list long, Lady Chatterly -  A French movie about an affair between a woman and a grounds keeper.  I really can’t get over how ugly the male lead is.  That nonwithstanding, the movie itself does not look particularly compelling, no matter how many “French Oscars” it won.  Note: I’m pretty sure that French movies are eligible for Oscars so “French Oscars” is basically like what? the Golden Globes?

Well that’s it.  I just watched like 40 minutes of trailers. *Phew* I’m tuckered out.

I finally got around to watching Breach yesterday, and I was really impressed with how good of a movie it was. It’s a tense little thriller that, despite good reviews, made a very small blip on the radar of American cinema this year. For those out of the know, it’s the story of how an FBI agent name Erik O’Neil brought down Robert Hanssen, who was one of the biggest spies in American history. Chris Cooper does a fantastic, Oscar-worthy, job as Hanssen, inserting all sorts of Catholic-creepiness into the role. Despite the fact that I enjoyed Breach, it’s not the type of movie that I’d watch again and again, and it certainly didn’t have many “wow” moments, which perhaps contributed to its failure to make waves in the box office. In this way, it reminded me a lot of Zodiac, which I also thought was good but have absolutely no desire to watch again. This type of film is basically a genre all its own. The type of movie that you catch on TNT in five years and think “holy shit, this is a really good movie”, having completely forgot about it in the interim. Perhaps the greatest example of this, for me, is Master and Commander, which despite garnering a bunch of Oscar nominations (and getting stomped by the juggernaut that was Return of the King) everyone forgets how awesome of a movie it actually is (well except for me who bought it like the day it came out on DVD). Every once in awhile I like to go through the video store and try to pick out these forgotten great movies, it’s a great way to re-familiarize yourself with some truly great cinema. Netflix and old top ten lists (from metacritic/Rotten Tomatoes or Roger Ebert or wherever) makes this process really easy, try it sometime.

Also I just re-watched The Departed again (for like the second time in a month), Christ that movie is good.

Hopefully Apolcalypto and Black Snake Moan later this week. Until then, keep on keepin’ on.

Also I changed the style of the blog so it’s easier to read…complaints/comments?

In today’s (well yesterday’s) bit of awesomeness the Bowdoin Robo-cup team won the world championships.  Yes, the WORLD championship.  The team has only existed for like 2-years; so this is quite the accomplishment (although not as cool as Div. II Regionals).  Of course, this team is run by everyone’s favorite former Stoned Clown captain and aquatic animal, SeaBass. The team also features such luminaries as Lampchop, Tucker, and Jesse Butterfield.  Rabbit is also a former member (and he writes about his feelings on being left out this year on his blog).  I know SeaBass and the gang killed themselves working on this so congrats all around.  Here’s the teams blog for more info/videos.  I especially was rooting for the team due to the great success of Dog Red #2 in winning me seven bucks during the scrimmage they had at the college two weeks ago.  Huzzah!

In between reloads of the Robo-cup results page, I’ve managed to busy myself with a few other things this weekend.

The first is the book Things That Never Were: Fantasies, Lunacies & Entertaining Lies by Matthew Rossi.  It’s a collection of essays on literally the most random and out there subject imaginable.  The best thing to compare it to would be the conspiracy theories spouted by Belbo, Diotallevi and Casaubon in Foucault’s Pendulum (one of my all time favorite books, read it), only weirder…like reptilian humanoids/immortal nano-technology Greek gods fighting Cthulhu weirder.  Added to all this is a healthy mix of bizarre fiction (such as Jack London’s odd-sci-fi-ish works) and bizarre historical anecdotes.  Needless to say this book has caused my to spend roughly seven million hours on Wikipedia in the last couple of days.  I’m about 3/4 of the way through it and honestly I have no idea what to really think, it’s kinda hard to formulate an opinion on some dudes stream of thought ramblings.  But anyway feel free to check it out if you’re in the mood.

I also finally got an opportunity to check out Ratatouille this weekend as well.  It was simply awesome.  I came in with fairly high expectations based on the reviews and the fact that the writer-director, Brad Bird, had previously made The Incredibles and one of my all-time favorites Iron Giant.   While Ratatouille wasn’t as good as either of those films (few are), it was certainly excellent.  One of the best films of the year thus far, although to be honest there haven’t been many super standouts. Looking back, the three films I’ve liked the most this year have been comedies: Knocked Up, Hot Fuzz, and Ratatouille.  None of the big budget summer flicks have been that good at all, (300 was kinda sweet but early for a summer blockbuster and I wouldn’t call 28 Weeks Later a blockbuster-type) hopefully The Simpsons, Bourne Ultimatum or Harry Potter can remedy this.  I basicaly want all of these movies to rock, although if Harry Potter didn’t I wouldn’t kill anyone and if The Simpsons continued the lack of quality of its television counterpart I wouldn’t be surprised.  Can you feel the anticipation?  The tension is oh so thick.

Finally, I just got my hands on a copy of Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards by Tom Waits (yeah, it came out last year but I’m going to review it now).  Although most collection albums tend to be kinda sucky, Orphans it pretty damn solid.  Each CD is different thematically, the first is the more blue-grass/rock album, the second the sad album, and the third is all sorts of experimental craziness.  The second CD is a bit too melancholy for me but the other two are really good, with the first being slightly more consistent and easier to listen to.  Now, I’m a big Waits fan, so I don’t know how seriously my opinion should be taken, but I’d recommend this album to any Waits fan and to non-fans.  Although starting with one of his “real” (as in non-collection) CDs might be a better way to break in (I personally recommend Mule Variations, as it’s the album that got me into Waits in the first place).

This week I’m going to check out Breach, Apocalypto, and Black Snake Moan.  So posts should be forthcoming.  I know you can’t wait.

I’ve been meaning to post for awhile now, life has been intervening.  So here’s some random crap that’s been floating around in my brain.

reviews:

Live Free or Die Hard

I’m basically just going to echo what most reviewers have said about the fact that this is emphatically not a Die Hard movie.  It’s just a regular old action movie, and a pretty dumb one at that.  I’m not saying that it wasn’t an OK flick it’s just that I have absolutely no desire to ever see it again.  You could certainly do worse things with your money, but then again you could certainly do better.  I’d wait for it on video.

Two Books:

The Pirates!: An Adventure with Scientists & An Adventure with Ahab:  I really and profoundly enjoyed these two little mini books (in the same volume).  Basically they’re just ridiculous comedic little adventures about some nameless pirates, who undertake a variety of anachronistic (and geographically impossible) misadventures.  There’s basically no way to read these books without emerging in a good mood, unless of course you are terminally uncool.  Probably the most enjoyably thing I’ve read all summer.  I strongly, strongly recommend it.

Celestial Matters: This was a fascinating novel which posits Ptolemaic astronomy was, in fact, correct.  Furthermore, it’s an alternate history where Alexander didn’t die (the POD is a bit more complicated than that but that essentially sums it up) and therefore his empire exists to this day caught in a 900 year war with China.  It’s well written and the premise is awesome so check it out if you’re looking for something unique.

Mini-er book reviews:

Woken Furies: If you’ve read the other books in the series, check it out.  Otherwise, meh it’s ok.  I’d read the other one first.  The character of Kovacs is just a little too nihilistic for me.

Armor: Unspectacular but decent Mil-Sf.

I Love you Beth Cooper!: Pretty good coming-of-age story, with a nice un-cliched ending.  Of all these mini-reviewed books I’d recommend this the most.

A complaint

Ultimate Frisbee is (essentially, I’m not going to split hairs over the observer system) a completely self-officiated sport.  How is it then that no one knows the damn rules?  The UPA has recently adopted the 11th edition, which includes some fairly important rules changes notably to the pick rule.  I’m talking about the change in the continuation rule which does not force the disc to go back if the receiver was directly involved in the pick.  So why in almost every game I’ve played in since the adoption of the new rule has there been an argument about the damn rule.  I think this is one of the core problems with Ultimate.  I feel that in order to play a self-officiated game it is the responsibility of every player to familiarize themselves with the rules.  Now, I’m not saying that everyone should be able to quote passage 11.3.2.3.2.33322.g11-9 BUT you should at least know how to interpret fouls, picks, stalls, etc…. The game of Ultimate, while a lot of fun, has a number of faults but this one is correctable, easily.  Knowledge of the rules would eliminate probably 80% of the arguments that make watching a game of Ultimate unbearable at times, especially for non-players.

A thought about football

So, I was watching the abomination that has become SportsCenter this morning and saw, in between execrable Who’s now? segments, a discussion of the first round QBs in this years draft.  And it reinforced what I’ve thought since before the draft: JaMarcus Russell looks like a sure-fire bust right?  I mean he basically became the number one pick in the draft because he had one great game against a terrible defense.  Meanwhile Brady Quinn fell to the 20s because of…what exactly?  According to Football Outsiders, the best way of predicting quarterback performance from college to the pros is looking at completion percentage and games started.  David Lewin, who developed this projection system points out why the system doesn’t like Russell:

Russell started only 29 games at LSU. Over the past ten years, collegiate games started has been the single greatest predictor of NFL success for early first-round quarterbacks. Since 1997 seven quarterbacks who started fewer than 30 games in college have been drafted in the top ten: Ryan Leaf, Tim Couch, Akili Smith, Michael Vick, David Carr, Joey Harrington, Alex Smith.

Uh-oh.  Check out his full article (which is a couple months old but real interesting) here.  It also discusses the other prospects, like Quinn.  I’m not saying that Quinn will be great or anything, but he just seems like the safer pick there.  Then again, I’m an idiot, so Russell will probably win 5 MVP awards.