wildyams

While I could give some commentary on this article I found on Fark, I think this quote from the article pretty much says it all:

New to the fair, held in a land that is home to chicken fried steak, are items such as fried Oreo cookies, fried candy bars, and fried cheese curds.

The candy bar is dipped in a batter, fried for about 30 seconds and served hot on a plate that quickly becomes saturated in oil. A calorie count was not immediately available.

I saw "The Ring" last night, and I have a question: am I a total wuss cause I thought it was really pretty scary? I was pretty scared while watching it, but not like it was making me jump, more like it was just making me uneasy; but afterwards I had a hard time not thinking about it. I even had a dream about the movie and then thought about it this morning when I woke up. I do wonder if it would have been scary to me if I hadn't watched it alone and on a TV screen. Its weird, cause looking back on it I know there were at least a few problems with it, things just basically unexplained (which made it reminiscent of an X-Files episode in that way), but for whatever reason it really just stuck with me, and I wanted to comment on it. I won't say anything about the movie for people who may not have seen it, but I just wanted to know if I was the only one who was scared by it or not.

Girl goes to the beach.
Girl goes in the water.
Shark's in the water, our shark.
Shark bites girl.
Girl sues city for not warning her there may be fucking sharks in the water!!!

Ok, in trying to stay away from anything movie-related this week, I found it was much more difficult to come up with contestants for this week's version of "What's More Terrible." But I thought long and hard about things that I think are truly terrible, and I think I came up with two good contestants:

Well its been a pretty eventful weekend, which of course is something of a rarity for me. Friday night I went to dinner with Dave and Jen, then we dropped Jen off and went to go meet up with The Neen, Steve-o, Juliet and some of her friends to see Cella's band play at Zen Sushi. It was a pretty mellow affair, as you could probably imagine music at a sushi restaurant would be, and it was nice to see everyone again, especially Cella, who I haven't seen in over a year.

The next day Dave was supposed to call me for lunch, but he got too busy so I slept in most of the day, then ended up going over to Dave's place that night for dinner. We went to a couple places to find somewhere to eat, but everything had a huge wait, so we decided on Fuddruckers, against Dave's better judgement, but I think it was pretty tasty. They were having some kind of car show in the parking lot with a bunch of cool old cars. No doubt because of that, Jay Leno was there at Fuddruckers also, and attracted a small crowd. It was kinda funny to see someone like him at a place like Fuddruckers though. After that, Dave and I went to Interact and I made my first two ever purchases from there: "The Ring" and "Run Ronnie Run". I got "The Ring" cause Dave hadn't seen it, and I wanted him to check it out; and I got "Run Ronnie Run" cause I've been wanting to see it, of course, because I'm a huge fan of "Mr. Show", but on Bob and David's website they have a disclaimer saying they had nothing to do with the editiing and how it turned out and advise against people getting it; so I figured getting it used would mean I could see it without the studio profitting from it. Anyway, we went back to Dave's house and after Jen went to bed we watched "The Ring", which I once again found to be very scary, as did Dave, then after that I went home. On an interesting note, on my way home I was stuck behind a guy in a white minivan with the license plate "SAMARA", and I found that to be a little creepy. So anyway, like I said, it was a fun and productive weekend

Ahhhhh... A Harry Knowles Photoshop Contest on Fark:

This is almost my first ever post about the Boston Red Sox, but today's a special occasion. The Red Sox pulled off a real nailbiter of a win in the deciding game of the Division Series, and are now off to face the New York Yankees with the winner going on to the World Series. For anyone who is unaware, the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry is almost surely the greatest rivalry that exists in sports, and its also arguably the most one-sided. The Yankees ALWAYS beat the Red Sox, or at least they have for the last 80 years or so. No, not in every game, but basically when it counts the Yankees have always won. And now, here again, are the Red Sox and the Yankees, playing each other for a chance to go to the World Series.

I am not much of a baseball fan. I mean, I know the rules, and tend to generally watch either the playoffs or just the World Series, or just some of both, but I would never label myself a big baseball fan. However, growing up I was more of a baseball fan, and have fond memories of watching the Red Sox (when I could, which was somewhat rare growing up in LA) because both my Dad and my Grandfather were huge Red Sox fans (my Dad still is, and my Grandfather no doubt would be, except that he's dead). I have very clear memories of the Red Sox in the 86 playoffs, and their miracle comeback against the Anaheim Angels, and then their eventual loss to the NY Mets in the World Series in what is probably the most famous blown play of all time when Bill Buckner let the ball go through his legs at first base. But as I said, I'm certainly not the kind of person to say I'm a big baseball fan or anything, when I know that I'm most definitely not. However, because the Red Sox are my team (or would be if I really followed the sport more), and because its Red Sox-Yankees, I plan on watching this series. If for nothing else then because if the Sox pull it out, it will be something that hasn't been seen in many, many, many decades. No predictions though. Lord knows the Sox have a big enough monkey on their back already.

So as you probably know, I've been really taken by "The Ring" after watching it last week. First I saw it after borrowing the DVD from Mario, and it scared me quite a bit, so then last weekend I bought the DVD and watched it with Dave, and that scared me quite a bit too (by the way, if you get the DVD, on the main menu navigate up from 'Play' and there is a pretty cool Easter Egg which plays the video that the movie is centered around, and during the movie all functions are blocked so you can't fast forward or pause or skip it and are forced to watch it or turn the player off; then after the video plays it goes to what looks like the main menu, but which is actually a piece of video, and you hear the sound of a phone ringing, I thought that was a nice touch). Then of course I saw the Samara license plate, and in general have just been freaked out by the movie for the last week or so. So naturally I've been doing research on the web about the movie and the Japanese original movie that "The Ring" is based on: "Ringu", and because of what I've read online about it, and because of Matt's urging I went out and bought it from Amoeba last night when I was over at the Arclight doing a little research. I haven't watched it yet, and might not watch it tonight either, I haven't decided yet. But if I don't watch it tonight then I'll watch it tomorrow night at the latest. Anyway, I wanted to share this photo I found online from "The Ring", enjoy:

Click the Pic

When I got home from work tonight I popped in "Ringu" and I have to say, while it was still definitely scary, to me anyway, it was not as scary as "The Ring". Now I know that "Ringu" was first, but both were based on the book "Ring", so the American version is not just a remake of a foreign film, but another adaptation of a book. While there are some blatant similarities between the two movies, there were a couple things that played better for me in the American version. First, they made it more believable why these people would believe in the whole thing, although maybe Americans are more skeptical of urban legends or superstitions or something, so that may be a cultural thing (honestly, I don't know). Second, I liked in the American version that I was scared through most of the movie, but until the very end I wasn't really sure what was supposed to be the scary thing in the movie, and that meant that not only was there a twist about how to avoid death after seven days, but also there was the twist about what was the real frightening thing about the movie. In the Japanese version I liked more how they found the well, and I liked the scene in the well more (even knowing what was going to happen, I found that scarier than when I watched the American version and didn't know what was going to happen). I liked the final scene with Samara/Sadako and the TV in both versions. I liked the fingernails touch and the eye on Sadako in the Japanese version, and I liked that they didn't cut away from the scene once it started and that gave it a very scary feel. However, in the American version I did like the effects better, I thought the music added a lot, and liked what appeared to be the use of reverse photography to give it an extra creepy feel. Overall, I think both are very good horror films, and anyone who is a fan of one should see the other one. I recently read that the book has been translated into English and I plan to read that soon so I can see how the movies stack up against the book.

For everyone who's sick of me talking about this, this will most likely be my last entry on the subject for a while, so don't worry

October 7th, 2003: a red-letter date for Californians for one simple reason:

It was the date of the Lakers first preseason game.

LA looked really, really impressive out there tonight. Payton and Malone are going to be HUGE additions to this Laker team. Payton in particular looked awesome out there tonight. Shaq had a huge 3rd quarter, scoring 14 points. LA's scrubs who are hoping to make the team looked good too, even against Golden State's starters for large parts of the game. Good balanced play by the Lakers on both ends of the floor had the Warriors down double-digits almost the whole game. The best thing about this game was the appearance of a fast break, which has been woefully absent for the last 4 or 5 years. That alone will make Laker basektball not only effective (as it has been) but exciting (as it has not been). Really I'm just salivating for the season to get underway. LA blew them out tonight without Kobe even playing, so I can't wait to see how dominant LA will be once #8 returns.

Final Score:
Lakers - 107
Warriors - 89

In other news, the Cubs lost in extra innings to the Florida fish, and there's a new governor, or something.

In honor of Steve-o taking his polygraph test today, I figured I'd share this classic soundclip of Moe from "The Simpsons" taking his own lie detector test, and I wanted to post a link to the script of one of my favorite "Mr. Show" skits: The Lie Detector. Good luck Steve-o, hope you pass it

In light of all the anger and frustration I'm hearing from the people who are not happy that The Wizard of Graz is now California's fearless leader, I would like to share a nice calming solution to everything that I found at IMAO.us:

Click the Pic

Maybe I'm crazy, but I'm up right now waiting for Koga to come by and pick me up so we can go get in line for tickets to see the Lord of the Rings marathon on December 16th. They're not allowing anyone to get in line till 8 am (or so they told me last night), and tickets go on sale at 10. They say that tickets will be $40, and what will basically happen is that they will show the extended edition of "Fellowship of the Ring" starting somewhere around 11 am, then break for lunch, then show the extended edition of "The Two Towers" then break for dinner, then show "The Return of the King" and all that will be over before midnight, so as you can see its an all-day affair, and I've already requested to have the day off from work to go. Tickets go on sale in person and online and over the phone at the same time, so I am hoping that by being there in person there is an advantage so we can get the best seats. Speaking of that, I have to get going

So after my last entry, Koga picked me up and we went over to the Arclight, hoping to see no line since it was only 7:30 am, and they said there wouldn't be anyone allowed on the premises till 8 am. However, as I figured, there was already a line of 30 people or so waiting on the sidewalk just off the premises, so Koga let me out of the car to go get in line while he parked the car. I got our spot, then he joined me shortly thereafter, saying that a couple of guys were trying to wait next to the doors on the premises, even though the line of people who had been there for a while was out on the sidewalk, where I was. The lady in front of us said that the security guards had been kicking people off the premises, and that they'd kick them off too. Well, a couple minutes later the three guys that had been waiting by the doors did get kicked off and when they walked back to the line, they picked a spot a couple people in front of us and said "well, this is where the line ended when we first showed up, so we'll just cut in here." Naturally we told them that wasn't going to happen, and that was the price they had to pay for trying to snake everyone else by cutting to the front. They argued for a couple minutes, but I think when I told them "you better get back in line before someone else comes and gets there and pushes you guys further back" they decided they'd just accept it and went to the back of the line. I figure since they had three people, if they weren't smart enough to have one guy wait in the real line while they tried to cheat their way to the front, then its their own fault that they didn't have a spot in line. So anyway, we sat there in line for the next two hours or so till they finally let us all in to get tickets, and it was kind of a madhouse trying to get them. They had about 10 registers open, and they were selling tickets online as well as on the phone, so everyone knew seats were gonna be going fast. As I said, we were only about 35 people back in line, but they allowed each person to buy 10 tickets, so I figured all the prime seats would be taken. When we got to the front, they said that the entire middle section of the movie theater had been sold out already, except for the front row. Now, at the Arclight's Dome theater, the front row is my favorite row, because the screen curves away from the seats, and the seats curve away from the screen, so as a result you are not very close to the screen even sitting in the front row. Plus you get the added bonus of having nobody in front of you, so you can stretch out (which for 3 movies of over 3 hours in length in one day is going to be very nice). We also got some seats further back in the theater and off to the side (Koga and I got 18 between the two of us, all spoken for too, so no extras "just in case"). By the time I got to work at about 11 am, the marathon had completely sold out, and I see on Ebay that tickets are already up for auction in cities around the country.

They said that the way the schedule will work is that the extended edition of "Fellowship of the Ring" will start at 1:30 pm, then when its over there will be a 45 minute break. After the break, they will show the extended version of "The Two Towers" then there will be another 45 minute break. Then at about 10 pm they will show "The Return of the King", which will probably finish at around 1 am, so it really is going to be a full day. At this point I'm very glad that I have not burned myself out on these movies, because I think I will be fully into both of the first two seeing them on the big screen again. I saw "Fellowship" three times in theaters, then once on DVD and saw the extended version once on DVD as well. "Two Towers" I saw twice in theaters, and once on DVD, and I will watch the extended version once when it comes out on DVD next month. Now that may sound like a lot, but for me, a guy who sees movies I like over and over and over, I am nowhere near burned out on these movies, so naturally I can't wait. Ahhh... December 16th seems so far away...

Thankfully I have "The Matrix Revolutions" to tide me over till then

Unfortunately the Yankees don't suck enough, they won Game 2, final score 6-2

Well, the Red Sox got one game in the Bronx at least, so hopefully the Sox can use the home field advantage of Fenway Park to win a couple more. Curse the Bambino!

Compliments of Fark, here's a pretty hilarious shampoo commercial featuring your favorite and mine, Ben Affleck:

Click for Video

After last week's terrible fiasco (pun intended), I figured this time I'd go for something a little more humorous . Since I already used that AFLAC shampoo commercial (which has to be the most terrible thing I'm gonna post today), I had to come up with two new candidates. After some long hard consideration, here is what I came up with:

I saw "Heartbreak Ridge" the other day (for the umpteenth time, its one of those movies that just NEVER gets old for me. I almost think I could watch it daily and it would never get old), and I realized that I should check and see if anyone's done a tribute webpage to Gunnery Sergeant Tom Highway (Clint Eastwood's role in the film), and if nobody had done it then I should. In searching for what would undoubtedly be the greatest tribute page ever, I found something that stopped the search short and made me abandon it for the time being (I didn't find a tribute page though, so I'm guessing I may have to make one, which would rule). What stopped the search was that I came across this page that a person had made listing the top 10 movie badasses of all time (Gunny Highway was obviously on it). I though that the list was fantastic, not so much for the list itself, but for the way they absolutely trashed and disqualified Patrick Swayze at the bottom for his role in "Dirty Dancing". Anyway, for anyone too lazy to go to the link, the list was like this:

#10 - Snake Plisskin ("Escape From New York")
#9 - Boba Fett ("Empire Strikes Back")
#8 - Blade ("Blade")
#7 - Gunny Highway ("Heartbreak Ridge")
#6 - Private Vasquez ("Aliens")
#5 - Nicky Santoro ("Casino")
#4 - Jules Winfield ("Pulp Fiction")
#3 - Clubber Lang ("Rocky III")
#2 - Conan ("Conan the Barbarian")
#1 - Lee ("Enter the Dragon"

Disqualified/#1,000,000 - Dalton ("Road House")

There are some definite badasses on that list, but I would probably have a different list (although its way too late to come up with one now). Ok, time for bed.

I didn't see "Kill Bill" this weekend, and as of now its not only the only movie by Quentin Tarantino that I haven't seen in theaters, but its the only one I really have had no interest in seeing. Its ranking pretty high on the tomatometer over at RottenTomatoes.com, and yet in reading through a bunch of the reviews (both good and bad), it just does not sound like my kind of movie. To begin with, evidently its very heavy into kung-fu, wirework fight scenes, samurai movies, and even anime; none of which I am a fan of at all. While I do like fighting in movies (or as Steve-o would say: "pushing and shoving"), and I do like films with an interesting style, or that just look cool or whatever, I do like it to all be because the story drives that, not the other way around. Most people I usually talk movies with would say the same thing, saying flashy special effects and intricate fight sequences really work best when there is a reason they are fighting in the first place. From all accounts, that is not the case with "Kill Bill", even from the reviews of people who loved the movie. Check out what Roger Ebert, who gave a "rave review" and 4 stars to the movie said in his review:

The movie is all storytelling and no story. The motivations have no psychological depth or resonance, but are simply plot markers. The characters consist of their characteristics.

While the people who really hated it called it "self-indulgent" or even "masturbatory", there was one legitimate complaint I read about which does sound pretty irritating:

Quentin Tarantino fans have been waiting six long years for the release of the director's follow-up to Jackie Brown. So what do they get for their patience? An incomplete movie, artlessly cleft in the middle. Cinema interruptus. A film whose editing and inelegant structure have been severely compromised by the avarice of the Miramax head honchos, who believe they can wring more money from viewers by splitting Kill Bill into two pieces and double-charging everyone.

So that is everything on the negative side, and that's stuff I didn't really take too much into account when deciding if I wanted to see the movie or not. The real reason I wasn't interested was because of the stuff that all the people who loved it raved about: that it was hot girls in hot outfits brandishing samurai swords and kicking the ass of everything in sight. To me this smacked a little too much of "Charlies Angels" or "Romeo Must Die" or something in that vein. My main question was what the hell was Quentin Tarantino doing mixed up in the middle of that kind of nonsense? Now I know that Tarantino is a huge fan of the movies that inspired things like "Charlies Angels" and has probably been a huge fan his whole life, and no doubt has done an infinitely better job bringing the stuff about those movies that he loved to the general public, but my question was really: if I wasn't a fan of those movies to begin with, why would I want to see a tribute to them?

On top of that, I felt like this seemed an awful lot like Kevin Smith's equally-masturbatory "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back", where the film geek-turned big time director is given free reign to make their own contribution to their favorite corner of fanboy heaven: Kevin Smith wanted to work with Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher, Quentin Tarantino wanted to work with Sonny Chiba and David Carradine. While I was excited to see "Jay and Silent Bob" (probably because Kevin Smith's interests are closer to mine than Tarantino's, what with Star Wars and Scooby-Doo and that ilk actually being things I watched as a kid, unlike the entire genre of kung-fu martial arts films), I realized after I saw it that it was really a big masturbation session for Kevin Smith that I paid money to see. Now don't get me wrong, I would say that I have enjoyed Quentin Tarantino's movies far more than Kevin Smith's, but they're really not all too different in where the filmmakers are coming from, with them both being fanboys who made it big. But odds are if Tarantino had done something like Kevin Smith with a kind of tying-his-own-movies-together kinda schtick, then I would have been more into it, because at least I've seen his movies, while I haven't seen any of the stuff he's referencing in "Kill Bill."

I don't want anyone to think that I was or am flatly refusing to see "Kill Bill." I think Tarantino has at the very least earned enough respect from me to not just completely dismiss something he did without ever having seen it. I do plan on seeing it (although I don't know if I'll go to theaters to see it or not), but I just wasn't really compelled to race out and see it like I probably would have been a couple years ago. I figured I would wait and hear what people said about it, and if it sounded like I was really missing out, then I would go see it. However, I've only talked to two people who saw it, and one told me that he loved it, but if I wasn't a big fan of kung-fu type movies, then it might not be for me; and the other one told me it was good, but it was kind of messy in that it seemed to run on a bit too long in parts and that the fact that the movie abruptly stops in the middle of the story is really jarring. I guess I'm mainly writing this to get more opinions on the movie from people who are not film critics to see if its really worth going to see in theaters or not. Anyone have anything good or bad to say about it?

PS - I know this entry is probably so long that nobody made it this far. Sorry bout that.

The Red Sox won last night to tie that series at 2-2. It's been a wild series so far, or at least, Game 3 was, what with there being a bench-clearing, well not "brawl" exactly, but skirmish at least, and with Don Zimmer (the 72 year-old assistant coach of the Yankees) charging Pedro Martinez and having Pedro throw him down by his head; and then also with the rumble in the Yankees bullpen with a Boston groundskeeper that has two Yankee players possibly being charged with assault and battery. I saw Game 3 on Sunday over at my Dad's place, but missed the Red Sox 3-2 win over the Yankees last night in Game 4, because after work all of us here went over to Hollywood to the Director's Guild of America building to see the short film of one of my co-workers, "Mail Gaze" by Josh Newman (which was quite entertaining and had the crowd laughing pretty much throughout). Before going there, Cookie and I stopped off for dinner at Greenblatts where we both got sandwiches (he had roast beef and I had mortadella, for all those wondering about that). After the screening, I went home and watched "The Matrix Reloaded" on DVD, because my officemate at work loaned it to me for the night. The movie looked great, and I really enjoyed watching it again for the third time (let's please not have a flamewar cause I mentioned the dreaded Matrix movies ). Then after that, I went to bed. Just another manic Monday I guess.

By the way, here's a pretty hilarious webpage I got off of Fark that is very reminiscent of my job. Its a bunch of screen grabs of an Asian release of "The Two Towers" DVD with really hilariously bad English subtitles onscreen. This one below is my personal favorite

Yesterday was hugely uneventful, except that it was my boss' birthday, so we had a nice cake in the kitchen. Otherwise, just work as usual, then I gave one of my co-workers a ride home because of the MTA mechanics strike. When I got home, inspired by the bad English translations on the "Two Towers" DVD that I posted about yesterday, I decided to go check out Engrish.com, and between that and the "Two Towers" thing I was laughing so hard I was literally crying. Then I stumbled across the comment on Koga's blog where he pointed out the cars with the "Powered by Vietnam" and the "Got Nos?" stickers and I went off into peals of laughter again.

Well, today could be the day that both of baseball's most cursed teams (the Red Sox and the Cubs) get eliminated from the playoffs. Steven here at work has made a big point of letting me know how much he is hoping and praying the Red Sox season comes to an end, but he's pulling for the Cubs, as is Cookie, of course. Naturally I have accepted the inevitable truth that the Yankees will win it again (you get what you pay for in baseball, that's for sure). What a boring series Yankees-Marlins would be. I doubt I'd even watch it

Ok, improbably the Red Sox won Game 6 at Yankee Stadium with John Burkett (the Red Sox 4th pitcher in the rotation, and in this his only game of the series)starting against Andy Pettitte (who has won a bunch of world championships pitching for the Yankees, and is their second best pitcher). Even more amazing, the Red Sox came from down 4-6 to win 9-6 (which considering the Red Sox are cursed and are playing their nemesis, really is remarkable). This sets up what will most likely be the most anticipated Game 7 in a League Chapionship Series in a long time (and that includes the Cubs-Marlins game going on as I type this). Roger Clemens and Pedro Martinez will face off, just like they did in the now-infamous Game 3 matchup from this past Saturday (that involved the bench-clearing semi-brawl, and the brawl in the bullpen that has two Yankee players facing assault charges), and its in Yankee Stadium, "the house that (Babe) Ruth built" as the Red Sox do their damnest to stare down the "Curse of the Bambino." Now I have to say that I am approaching this Game 7 pretty much the way I approached this whole series: expecting the Yankees to win, not just because they had the better record this year, but because they ALWAYS crush the Red Sox hopes of ever winning. In that way I'm much like Randy Quaid's character in "Major League 2" (yes I saw that ): rooting for my team to win, but believing and almost expecting them to lose. The game will be so big that if the Red Sox win, it will go a long way to reversing all the "Curse of the Bambino" stuff and will in many ways get a HUGE monkey off the backs of the Red Sox; however, if the Yankees win it will not only be just another instance where the Yankees crushed the hopes of the Boston faithful, but will probably be the biggest example of them doing so, especially if it's a close game. The things to hold out hope for, as a Red Sox fan, are that the Red Sox couldn't ask for a better pitcher to be pitching for them tomorrow, they seem to be pretty hot offensively right now, and Roger Clemens does sometimes have a reputation for not being his best in the biggest games.

But having said that, I'll believe it when it happens.

The Cubs just lost to the Florida Marlins, after being up 3 games to 1 in the series, and after having a 3-0 lead in the 8th inning of Game 6, and let me tell you it is a very bad feeling for me. I'm not and never have been a Cubs fan, but being a guy who has rooted for an equally cursed team, the Red Sox, it is painful to see the Cubs come within 6 outs of making their first World Series appearance in 58 years, and having a shot at their first championship in 95 years. My heart goes out to all Cubs fans, but mainly to Steve Bartman, who will no doubt end up having to move out of Chicago as a result of the Cubs losing, and him no doubt being blamed for it. I would like to hope that the people of Chicago realize he is a fellow Cubs fan and was not trying to hurt the team by interfering with the foul ball that he took away from Moises Alou in Game 6, but considering Bill Buckner had to move out of Boston back in 1986, and considering Mitch Williams got death threats after giving up a World Series-winning home run in Game 7 back in 1993, I'm sure life is going to be extremely hard for Mr. Bartman if he does stay in Chicago.

Naturally, its not hard for me to project that myself and Red Sox fans everywhere tomorrow may be feeling the same dejection

Yesterday in Colorado, Kobe Bryant had the second half of his preliminary court appearance for the sexual assault charges he has been charged with, and there were some pretty major revelations in this preliminary hearing, almost all of them in Kobe's favor. For those who hadn't been following this case, let me sum up what came out in favor of Kobe:

First, it was discovered that there was almost no bruising on the alleged victim on or around her neck, and Bryant had no marks on him at all as you can see by this quote from this article:

Bryant had no marks on him when he underwent an exam on July 1st and his accuser had just a tiny bruise on her chin -- a bruise the lead detective in the case didn't even see while interviewing her. Moreover, even though prosecutors say Bryant held the woman by the neck during their encounter she apparently had no bruises on her neck.

Second, it was disclosed that the person accusing Kobe had sex with an ex-boyfriend two days before the alleged rape, as you can see in this quote from this article:

she had consensual sex with another man on June 28 and used a condom, backing earlier defense suggestions she was sexually active before her encounter with Bryant.

Third, it was discovered that a person who worked with the woman accusing Kobe who talked with her after the alleged rape and who had her count out the cash register said she did not look upset at all, as you can see by this quote from this article here:

She says she does not believe that the alleged victim was assaulted; that the young woman did not look or act as though there had been any problem. In fact, the auditor told investigators that the young woman finished counting out her money drawer before leaving.

Fourth, (and these next two are the real big "bombshells" Kobe's defense team dropped) it was discovered that the accuser not only had semen from someone other than Kobe in her panties when they did the rape test on her (and keep in mind, as noted above, the sex she had with her ex involved a condom), but they also discovered pubic hairs from a caucasian person other than the alleged victim, meaning they could not have come from Kobe; as you can see in this quote from this article:

the underwear the woman wore during a hospital examination July 1 contained sperm and semen from someone other than Bryant. Pubic hair samples from the woman also turned up hairs from a white person that could not have come from Bryant

Finally, in what is probably the most damaging testimony for the prosecution's case, the lead detective investigating the case, Eagle County Sheriff's Det. Doug Winters, not only said that the accuser did not tell Kobe "no" at any time, but that when she resisted, Kobe stopped, as you can see in this exchange from this article:

Winters said that the woman never told Bryant "no" during five minutes of sexual intercourse in an Edwards, Colo., hotel room June 30. When the woman resisted, Bryant stopped, Winters said.

"Correct," Winters said.

All of this adds up to the following: according to the accuser's story, she stayed late after to work to meet privately with Kobe, then once she was alone with him she consented to making out and pulled some articles of clothing aside to show Kobe a tatoo, but then said that he bent her over a chair by holding her by the neck and raped her, while not allowing her to leave the room through the door she came in. However, there were no marks on her consistent with this, and the minimal amount of vaginal trauma that was found was concluded to be something that she could have incurred during sex with one or two other people in the days leading up to her meeting with Kobe. She apparently never told Kobe "no" and when she resisted, Kobe stopped. After leaving Kobe's room, her co-worker says she did not seem distressed at all. Then she showed up to be examined for evidence of rape and had semen and pubic hairs of someone other than Kobe in her panties. Really, as this quote below from this article shows, it's questionable whether there is enough evidence for this case to even go to trial, but even if it does, it is looking like they have a very weak case against Kobe:

the common sense angle to all this doesn't seem to help prosecutors. Why didn't the young woman lash out more at Bryant during the assault? Why didn't she immediately tell the night auditor about what happened? Why didn't the guests in the hotel room just above Bryant's hear anything that night even though their windows were open? Why didn't the alleged victim try to leave through the two other doors in Bryant's room -- the sliding doors to a ground-level patio? Is it possible that the young woman had sex with someone else just after the Bryant incident? If so, what does that say about her state of mind? If not, how did that other man's semen get into her underwear? Some of these questions likely will be answered to the district attorney's satisfaction at trial. But all of them? Not likely.

Maybe I'm tempting fate with this, but considering that Pedro Martinez is pitching against the Yankees today with a chance for the Red Sox to eliminate New York for the first time in god knows how long, I wanted to post this quote:

"I'm starting to hate talking about the Yankees. The questions are so stupid. They're wasting my time. It's getting kind of old ... I don't believe in damn curses. Wake up the damn Bambino and have me face him. Maybe I'll drill him in the ass, pardon me the word."

- Pedro Martinez - Wednesday, May 30th, 2001

GO SOX!

So the Red Sox blew a 5-2 lead in the bottom of the 8th inning by letting Pedro Martinez stay in the game longer than he should have. Five outs away and three runs ahead, Pedro gave up 3 runs in the bottom of the 8th inning to tie it up and eventually send it into extra innings. It stayed 5-5 as the Red Sox had runners in scoring position a couple times and came very close, but on the first pitch of the bottom of the 11th inning Tim Wakefield, a starter who had gone 2-0 in this series but who was in for relief, gave up a home run on the first pitch of the inning to Aaron Boone (in his first at bat of the game) and that was all she wrote. Really, should I have expected anything else?

Not that it's much consolation, but in other sports news, tonight the Lakers defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers, who were featuring the most highly anticipated rookie in the NBA in the last decade or so, LeBron James. Naturally I missed a lot of the game, but I did catch most of the second half, and Karl Malone and Gary Payton really looked good in the win. Shaq and Kobe didn't play, with Shaq nursing a sore heel and Kobe still trying to get strong enough to play after rehabbing from offseason surgery. Both Shaq and Kobe should definitely be ready to go by opening day on the 28th against Dallas though. Since baseball is now over, I am just gonna focus all my sports attention on the Lakers; and with the Kobe Bryant sexual assault case looking like its a lock that Kobe will be vindicated, it should be nice to finally just focus on the basketball aspect of the Lakers, rather than all this other extracurricular stuff. With Malone and Payton to go with Shaq and Kobe, the Lakers really should have a team for the ages this year, and it should be a lot of fun to watch.

Ok, I think I can hopefully put all the controversy behind us that we've seen in the previous couple weeks' versions of "What's More Terrible" cause I think I've got a good one. While I did speculate about doing a What's More Terrible between this weekly "What's More Terrible" thing I've been doing and John's "Top 5" which he (hopefully) plans to do every Monday, pitting the squabbling of "Terrible" against the sparsely commented on "Top 5", I decided against it because the "Top 5" got some comments, albeit belatedly, and so hopefully John will keep doing it. Because of this, "What's More Terrible" would have won the weekly "Terrible" crown in a walk, and thus I decided on something else, and hopefully something better. If you were to make a list of formerly popular directors who at one point could seemingly do no wrong, but who have done almost a full 180 and now can seemingly do no right, you'd have to put Steven Spielberg and George Lucas near the top of that list. And if you were to ask what their most egregious blunders were, odds are that tinkering with movies that were basically classics decades after they were released by inserting CGI, and most disturbingly, making them less controversial by removing certain elements. So I came up with two of the most clear cut examples of this, and thought they'd make good nominees for this week's award, so here you go:

In the original version of "E.T." there were a bunch of government agents who were out looking for this alien that had landed on earth, and naturally, not knowing what they were dealing with, they were carrying guns. Spielberg later thought that this was too extreme, especially considering the people they were mainly after were a bunch of kids, so for the 20th anniversary release in theaters and on home video he used CG effects to turn all the guns into walkie-talkies to appear less threatening.

So what do you think? Which one is more terrible? I will give my answer either at the end of the day or possibly tomorrow depending on when I have time. Have a happy terrible everyone.

So Friday night my fantasy basketball league had our draft, and I think I did ok. I took a couple gambles, but if they pay off then I am going to be in good shape. Not that there is anyone even remotely interested in this, but here is my roster going into the season:

Van Exel, Nick (PG-GS)
Bryant, Kobe (SG-LAL)
Terry, Jason (G-Atl)
Stackhouse, Jerry (GF-Was)
Stoudemire, Amare (PF-Pho)
Szczerbiak, Wally (GF-Min)
O'Neal, Shaquille (C-LAL)
Mourning, Alonzo (C-NJ)
Richardson, Jason (SG-GS)
Butler, Caron (SF-Mia)
Kittles, Kerry (SG-NJ)
Garrity, Pat (PF-Orl)
Brown, Kwame (FC-Was)

Notice I got Shaq and Kobe in there? Those guys are both gambles, considering what Kobe is going through with his legal problems, Shaq is always a concern because of injuries and effort, and now with Payton and Malone, you have to wonder if Shaq and Kobe's production will be down this year. Shaq does appear to be in great shape to start the season though, but then again, Kobe does not, at least not yet. I'm more concerned with how those guys will contribute to LA just winning games, but its better to have the guys you like on your fantasy team, so you make sure you root for the right guys. If Shaq and Kobe do their usual thing this year, then I got them both at a steal. Anyway, I'm sure my lineup at the end of the year won't look anything like it does now, but hopefully I'll do a good job and bring home first place this year.

I'm sweating literally and figuratively. I'm literally sweating because here it is, about a week from November and its NINTEY-SIX DEGREES outside right now! At least, according to Weather.com that's the temperature, and they say that will be the high for tomorrow. We generally don't get any semblance of fall here, but hopefully winter will start earlier than it did last year, as I remember the extreme heat even lasting into December of last year. As to why I'm sweating figuratively, well they're supposedly going to announce whether Kobe's rape case will go to trial "any minute now" (although they've been saying that since this morning), and I've probably just got my hopes up that it will actually get dismissed, even though most experts say it will go to trial, although it appears to have no chance of bringing a conviction against Kobe. As a Laker fan, I really just want that madness to be over with so I can root for my team without worrying if one of them is going to jail for life. I've contended since the beginning of the whole Kobe thing that if he did it, then they should lock him up, but based on what happened with the preliminary trial the last two weeks, it seems extremely remote that he did in fact do anything illegal, so I'm hoping it will all just be over soon. Ok, back to sweating...

Just FYI, the Judge decided to bind the case against Kobe over to trial. Here's the PDF if you want to read it.

A picture is worth a thousand words...

Man, its been a slow week here on Ye Olde Blog. I haven't had much to blog about I guess. Work has been pretty average I guess. It's not slow really, but it's certainly not busy like it was a couple weeks ago either. Just enough work to keep me busy I suppose. I haven't really done anything of note after work either, just hanging out here at home or sleeping basically. Tomorrow after work we're having a kind of "Fright Fest" with a showing of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" as well as a horror trivia contest and a "who can wear the most orange" contest (which I'm gonna lose cause I don't have any orange). After that hopefully I'll catch the end of the Lakers last preseason game as they matchup against the Sactown Queens in a rematch of last year's game where Rick Fox kicked Doug Christie's ass (if you think it was the other way around, you're just wrong ). Anyway, I gotta take care of some blog maintenance, so that's enough for now. See you soon with some terrible-ness.

Guess what? Another movie-themed version of "What's More Terrible!" Never saw that coming, right? Ok, since I haven't been overly chatty on the blog this week, why start now, so without further adieu:

Has anyone else noticed how disturbing the end of the movie "Working Girl" is? I mean, the whole movie is about this woman who is a secretary for a big corporation and who is trying to rise above her station in life and get a big important job with her firm, but, even though she's very intelligent, nobody will take her seriously because she's a secretary. So she undertakes a risky plan that eventually pays off and she comes out the winner. Anyway, the last thing in the movie is her calling one of her secretary friends to tell her that she's finally made it and is calling from her new office, and the music comes up and the final shot in the movie is this dramatic pull-back shot from outside her building looking in at her grinning on the phone through the window, and the camera pulls back to reveal all the rest of the windows in the skyscraper she works at and the city of New York behind her, then the credits roll with the inspirational music over it all. Now this movie was done in the 80's, so I'm sure it was intended to be an uplifting message about how the extra work and effort can help you get ahead in life and about not judging a book by its cover and stuff like that. But the final shot of movie almost made me think it's like saying "I made it! I'm out of the secretarial pool and now I'm a drone, just like I always wanted to be!" The final shot showing how her advancement has simply moved her from a desk in the center of the building to a window that matches hundreds of other windows in a building that matches hundreds of other buildings is just not an uplifting message. I can't help but think this was not the intended message, because otherwise it would really just undercut the entire movie, and I doubt that was what they had in mind. Really that's the effect it has on me though.

No, I don't mean "Kill Bill Vol. 2". I mean this is the sequel to my other rambling piece of drivel. Ok, well I wasn't interested in seeing "Kill Bill Vol. 1" unless I heard it was good, and I've heard enough good reviews from people who's opinions I respect to raise my interest, so I went tonight, and here is my review. The short version, if you're into the whole brevity thing, is that I uh, liked it. I liked it enough to where I will go see Vol. 2, and I'll go opening night if I can find people to go with me. Ok, having said all of that, I'm still a little confused as to why some people have gone so crazy over it. It was enjoyable and fun, but it definitely was not a perfect film, not by any means. For one thing, I tend to value originality over almost everything else when it comes to "art". There is no originality whatsoever in this movie, but that's ok because it is unquestionably an homage to a whole bunch of movies I've never seen before. Also, as I had been warned, there was almost no characterization and no story to speak of, and while the movie was most definitely a lot of fun, I can't help but think how much better it would have been if there had been more time spent making us care about any of the characters, or by placing them in any kind of a story. That probably wouldn't have been consistent with all the films this one was paying tribute to, however, so instead most of the time is spent making us all aware of what badasses each of the characters are. This makes for a fun time and a good romp, but not for a great movie. I'll say it again though: I would reccomend this movie to anyone, at least anyone who is not put off by the sight of blood, because there is a lot of it, although it is shown in the most comic-book fashion.

I think I figured out what initially put me off about this movie though. See, when I was in high school I noticed that there were two kinds of "cool" people. Some people are just effortlessly "cool" and those people just tend to draw everyone around them to them. Then there are people who try really hard to be "cool" and generally are not nearly as well liked. The former people are much much rarer than the latter, unfortunately. Anyway, one of the things I really liked about Quentin Tarantino's movies is that they seemed to be cool just by him doing his thing. He was making movies just the way he would make a movie, and they just happened to be really cool. With "Kill Bill" I get the impression that he is now trying really hard to make a cool movie. I think he succeeded, and that it is a cool movie (because it probably would have been anyway, even if he didn't try so hard), but it's somehow less genuine I think. I dunno, maybe I'm being too overly-analytical. In fact, I probably am. Maybe he's going the complete other direction and isn't trying at all, and is just being a film geek and making whatever came naturally to him and just wanted to make the same kind of movie he grew up on. Who knows. The bottom line is I liked it, and would see it again and will see Vol. 2. I just wish it was more on par with the other movies Quentin did and that he had focused more on what are his strengths: characters and story. But I guess with Quentin Tarantino I'll take what I can get.

Unfortunately, I see Quentin is slated to star in Vol. 2, so it looks like that's what I'm gonna get

If I can get serious for a second here, I'd like to send all the good vibes I can to Steve and Koga who look like they both could be in danger of losing their houses to the fires that have engulfed Southern California. These are the worst fires in LA that I can remember being here for (the bad ones ten years ago happened while I was at school). Unfortunately these fires will most likely mean even more devastation a couple months from now when we no doubt get the ensuing mudslides everywhere because all the foliage that normally would help secure dirt on hillsides when it rains will no longer be there. Whoever set these fires (and from what I hear it was most assuredly arson) sure picked the absolute worst time to do it, what with all the record heat lately and with the Santa Ana winds kicking up like they have been. My understanding is that all the fires were started spread out in a way that would thin out the fire departments' resources so that none of the fires would be able to be dealt with adequately. My heart goes out to those that have lost their homes or their lives with these fires, and my hopes go out to those that are in danger of losing their homes. Having two of my closest friends being in danger of losing their homes to these fires really worries me and brings home how serious this catastrophe is.

Man a lot has happened since my last entry, some good, some bad. First the bad stuff. It is beginning to look like Steve's house in Big Bear most likely will be consumed in the fire heading that way (at least that's according to him, but let's hope that's wrong). Steve was evacuated from Big Bear on Tuesday in what was a very trying day for me emotionally. Work has been really really bad this week, beginning with Tuesday, and really continuing through today. I won't elaborate though, but this has been one of the worst weeks I've had since I started working here. So on top of work being bad and one of my best friends facing the real possibility of losing not only his house but his employment opportunity for the winter (Steve is a ski instructor in Big Bear in the winters), the Lakers have been having problems as well. The other stuff puts anything basketball related into perspective though, to the point that it doesn't bug me that much right now. Basically Shaq and Kobe have had a huge feud in the media trashing each other, fueling speculation that Kobe may get traded. This will be bad if that happens, but like I said, the other more "real" concerns in my life have me not really caring about that too much. For the meantime Steve is staying with Juliet, his girlfriend, down in Manhattan Beach and does seem to be holding up ok. I give Steve a lot of credit, he seems to handle adversity better than almost anyone I know.

Ok, now for the good news. First, Koga's house apparently has been spared by the fires and should be ok (at least according to him, and let's hope he's NOT wrong). That is really good news. Second, one of my best friends from college, Jeff (whom I have not seen in over 5 years) came into LA Tuesday night and stayed with me till this morning when I took him to the airport to fly to Hawaii. Jeff is a referee for a woman's lacrosse league (or LAX, as hipsters in the know call it) and they are having a tournament in Hawaii this weekend, so he gets paid to go out there and referee. He drove out here from Denver, where he lives, and stayed with me for two nights; then he will be back here on Monday night and will stay till Thursday morning when he'll begin driving back to Denver (after a few stops in San Diego and Phoenix and who knows where else). Jeff got in and immediately wanted to go to In-N-Out, so we went there, then went back to my place to catch the tail end of the Lakers opening game against the star-studded Dallas Mavericks. Kobe wasn't playing for this game, but it hardly mattered as LA really laid the wood to the Mavs and blew them out 109-93. So even though LA is having their problems, they look like if they can quit being babies they may really kick some ass this year.

Yesterday I took the day off from work, and Jeff and I went down to meet up with Steve and Jon for lunch. Jon was having a really bad day and couldn't stay with us for too long before having to rush back off to work, so Steve, Jeff and myself all went to Venice and walked along the beach in front of all the weirdness there (I got some choice photos I'll probably put up at a later date). After that we went back towards Jon's work and waited for him, then met up with he and Juliet for Mongolian BBQ for dinner (which was really fantastic). We had a nice long conversation, then Jeff and I went back to Jon's for a bit before heading back home. We went to sleep as soon as we got home since Jeff had to be at the airport this morning at 7:15 for his flight to Hawaii, and I had to give him a ride to LAX (the airport, not the sport). After fighting the traffic out there and dropping Jeff off, I fought the traffic back to work only to find out that all hell had broken loose at work yesterday in my absence, but hopefully everything is all better now. I am completely wiped out physically and emotionally though, and am really looking forward to this weekend. Starting tonight I'm going to be housesitting for my Dad till Sunday, and am probably not going to do a whole lot if I can help it. I guess Saturday I will be going to some pre-wedding party for Bob and Becky, but other than that I plan to take it easy for a couple days.