wildyams

The Shield: The Beginning of The End

2008-09-03T22:57:32Z

Last night the final season of The Shield began on F/X, and I felt like I should say something about it. Well, not the particular episode last night really, but just about the show in general, because The Shield is really the show that genuinely got me interested in watching television. Of course I'd watched TV before The Shield, but prior to The Shield I hadn't actually been a fan of any TV show since I was maybe 10 years old (give or take) and liked watching Knight Rider. Growing up my parents were very opposed to my sisters and I watching any TV at all, and the only times we were really allowed to do so was Friday nights, Saturday mornings (before they woke up), Saturday nights, and then for maybe an hour or so on Sunday nights. Because of that, even back then it wasn't like I had a bunch of shows I watched, and instead I just ended up watching whatever was on during those times (which was basically Knight Rider on Fridays, some cartoons Saturday morning, some kind of movie on Saturday night, usually on Elvira or something, and then some kind of family programming on Sunday night). When I was in high school my parents relaxed a bit on when they'd let us watch TV, but by that point I was really more interested in hanging out with my friends than with sitting home and watching TV, so I really didn't do much of it. I did watch movies in HS, but never really latched on to any TV shows (my sisters were way into 90210 though). In college there weren't many TVs around, so I never had any real regular shows I would watch there either, mainly just a lot of Simpsons re-runs here and there whenever they were on. In college I definitely was just hanging out with friends during most of my spare time. Then after college I discovered the internet, and spent my spare time usually surfing the web, watching movies on TV or watching the Lakers (which I greatly missed doing in college). Eventually I came to adopt a fairly adversarial attitude towards television shows as an artistic medium, thinking that no idea is that interesting that it needs to be explored for some 20 hours per season for 5-10 years or whatever; especially not when there were so many great movies out there that could deliver the goods in around two hours. I became frustrated when people would talk about whatever shows they were into, and detested the idea of scheduling my time around some show on TV and couldn't understand how people could do this. I became even more annoyed with TV when Reality TV first started to become popular, as I couldn't fathom how people I respected could sink to such a lowest common denominator level of entertainment, even while they were aware that they were doing so (I still feel this way, btw). So I never watched any shows, and even flatly refused to give anything a chance. Well eventually through my job I was forced to have to view a couple episodes of various TV shows here and there, and they almost always confirmed the contempt I had (Joss Whedon's crap, the X-Files and Star Trek being the most frequent shows I had to watch which reinforced my dislike for TV). However, eventually I had to watch a couple episodes of The Shield and The Wire, and I actually was impressed. These were episodes I had to watch that were right smack in the middle of some episode so I didn't really know what all was going on, especially with The Wire (which is an extremely complex show, and is virtually impossible to just pick up in the middle like that); but even without having seen these shows right from the first episodes I could tell that these were both good shows. The Shield definitely was much easier to pick up in the middle of a season like that due to it still taking somewhat of an episodic approach that The Wire really does not; so eventually when I got tired of just getting movie after movie on Netflix, I decided to give Season 1, Disc 1 of The Shield a look. The result of that was that I just whipped through that show, watching the first 3 seasons' worth (all that was on DVD at the time) in a little over two weeks. I was really blown away by the quality of everything on the show, especially the writing and the acting, and I just gobbled it up. By the time I finished the 3rd season on DVD, the 4th season had already aired, but we had yet to do the discs, so I was stuck in total frustration of wanting to see what happened next but being unable to. When Season 4 finally came to the office, I volunteered to do the whole season alone just to make sure I got to work on it, and I ended up being paid to watch every episode in order (which of course was awesome). A few months after that the Fifth Season aired, and for the first time since I was a kid I had a show that I actually tuned in for each and every week (aided by Tivo at this point). After starting with The Shield on Netflix, I got The Wire and found myself almost as impressed at first (and ultimately moreso as that show went on - The Wire is hands down the best show I've ever seen). After The Wire I got into a couple other shows: Deadwood, Entourage and Battlestar Galactica. In that time Deadwood has since been canceled, The Wire finished airing all the episodes the creators wanted to make, and Battlestar Galactica has entered into its incredibly long, drawn-out last season. And now The Shield has begun its last season as well, with it being the choice of the creators to end it now rather than waiting till it became crappy or the ratings fell causing the network to pull the plug on it. Watching the first episode of Season 7 last night was great, it was definitely like seeing an old friend who I hadn't seen in a long time. I'm so happy it's back on the air and I can't wait to see how they wrap it up, but of course I'm sad that it's almost over. I intend to cherish it while it's still here.

Disturbing Behavior

2008-09-02T17:36:53Z

I was watching the movie Disturbing Behavior last night before I went to sleep (I turned it off about halfway through it cause it was getting late), and wanted to write a few things about it. First, odds are most people probably only vaguely remember this movie, if at all, even though it's only 10 years old. Second, it's probably right that most people wouldn't remember it, cause it's not a great movie or really remarkable in any way other than it stars a couple people who are arguably bigger stars now than they were then (but it's actually tough to make that case for sure, since the stars are Katie Holmes, James Marsden and Nick Stahl). Despite it not being very memorable or all that well done, it's one of those movies that I've found over the years is very rewatchable when it's in regular rotation on cable. I don't watch much live TV anymore, thanks mainly to DVR/Tivo and my AppleTV, but before I had any of that my typical TV viewing habits would be to scan the pay movie channels for something that looked interesting (something I'd usually seen before), that I could put on and sort of half-watch, half-listen to while I was surfing the web or something; and then I'd do the same thing when I was watching TV in bed or eating in front of the tube, except there of course I'd give what I was watching my full attention. Anyway, since the way they program pay TV is sort of like a radio station where they have what is essentially a playlist that only gradually rotates you end up seeing the same movies on all the time, and for someone like me who doesn't really watch TV shows I've found there are lots of movies here and there that, while not being great or even good movies, are still plenty entertaining to watch over and over. Disturbing Behavior is one of those movies. For those who have forgotten this movie and what it's about (i.e. just about everyone), it's the story of how the parents in an affluent northwestern suburb turned to some mad scientist guy to brainwash their troubled adolescents into being goody two shoes, conformist, non-rebellious teens. The unfortunate side effect for all involved is that the kids essentially become like robots and occasionally lash out with uncontrollable violence, even killing people. But at least they're not wearing Marilyn Manson T-shirts I suppose. Anyway, James Marsden and his family are the new people in town, and Jim quickly makes friends with Nick Stahl and Katie Holmes (who broods and frowns so much in this movie she almost edges over into Michelle Rodriguez territory). Nick tells Jim his theory about the stepford students, which Jim dismisses as paranoia, until Nick gets "recruited" (brainwashed) and joins the robotic student elite. Then Jim and Katie investigate further and find out what's happening and eventually put an end to the whole mess (except for the "twist" ending which sets up a potential sequel, which of course never happened). I remember seeing this movie on DVD when it first came out, all those years ago, and because it was so long ago and DVDs were still relatively new to me (and to everyone, I guess), I actually watched all the extras on it, which were basically a long list of deleted scenes with commentary from the director. It's been a long time, but I do remember essentially the director having a somewhat beaten down tone to what he was saying, talking about how he was forced to cut all these scenes by the studio because he was a relative nobody and they wanted the movie to be really short in length. Basically he was apologizing for how crappy the movie turned out as a result of it being pared down to the bone the way it was. In retrospect though, I doubt the movie would have been much better if it had been longer, and the really fast pace for such a mediocre movie worked pretty well as I found myself last night wanting to get to the next part and always finding that it was right around the corner. In any event, the main reason I am blogging about this (other than killing time at work) is because there's a really funny thing that runs throughout the movie which I felt I had to comment on. For whatever reason the filmmakers (or the studio or somebody) decided they would try to coin a new hip phrase or saying with this movie, and clearly assumed it would just take off and people would look back on this film as the origin of this word being used this way. It's very reminiscent of that girl in Mean Girls was was "trying to make 'Fetch' happen." Anyway, throughout Disturbing Behavior the characters keep saying the word "Razor" as though it's a common slang term, and it's quite funny every time they do so. Like they'll say "I hope you've got a totally razor plan for this" or "What do you say we get some beers and hang out tonight?" "Sounds razor." So anyway, if you ever do find yourself watching Disturbing Behavior, keep an eye out for the repeated use of that word, while also keeping an eye on Nick Stahl's great overacting and Katie Holmes' brooding bitch routine. But just remember, if you do watch it and find yourself saying "This movie stinks, what was he talking about?" keep in mind I only said it is mildly entertaining upon repeat viewings, at least in comparison to many other movies. Don't rent it or catch it on TV if you're expecting a great night of moviewatching.

Gmail FTW

2008-08-05T19:54:10Z

I'm gonna try to get back into a more bloggy kind of mood around here. The cobwebs are everywhere, but blogging will help me at least kill some time during the day, and lately there's been a lot to kill. Things at work are really up in the air and kinda all over the place, as they've been shuffling us all around a lot, and creating new positions and such. As a result I sometimes feel like a lot of things fall through the cracks and I get a lot of spare time, which I've been filling with just surfing the web. However, yesterday they sent out a company-wide email saying they're going to do a web usage audit of everyone because apparently there's far more internet surfing going on here than they'd like, so I'm now looking for ways to occupy my downtime during the day. Writing some entries here will definitely help to fill some of that time. I'd like to tell anyone reading this that Gmail is the coolest thing ever when it comes to email. I've had Gmail for a while now, but only recently began to realize what all I could do with it. For the last 6+ years I had an email address here at this site as my main email address and I was using Thunderbird at home as my mail client, and generally I was very happy. The only problem was I couldn't use it at work, although I could still check my email online by going through the company that hosts my site to check it. Doing so was a very slow and somewhat annoying process, but if I really needed to check something I could. Because of this I generally just used my work email for most daytime communications, as I'm sure most people do. I got Gmail a long time ago mainly just because back then it was this cool new thing that promised much more online storage space than places like Yahoo or Hotmail did, even though I didn't use either of those services just because I was content using my work and home emails, and because I was content using my other emails I generally didn't use Gmail. A couple months ago, however, I began to get annoyed that my emails were in two different locations, and that if someone sent me an email at work and I was out sick or off on vacation or something, I wouldn't see it till I went back to work. I decided the best solution was to just tell people to email me exclusively at my Gmail account and that would take care of it, and that's what I've been doing ever since. But then about two weeks ago I learned that I could use Gmail to handle emails from non gmail accounts, and set about making my wildyams email address work through Gmail as well, and it is fantastic. I can now send and receive emails from my wildyams account without having to use an email program, and I can now use that email address from any computer that has an internet connection. In addition, I discovered that someone made a program a few years ago that will import all my old emails that I have on Thunderbird (over 6 years' worth) into Gmail so that I can have all my emails located in the same place! It's a farily lengthy process to import all those emails and it went all night and didn't finish importing them till this morning, but it is really great to have that all set up. Anyway, not the most exciting blog entry, but it did help me kill some time.

The Dark Knight

2008-07-23T15:55:23Z

Been a while since my last entry, and since I've had a couple requests for a new one I figured I'd give my thoughts and review on The Dark Knight. Where to begin? I want to first say that the money this movie is making is unprecedented and I think this is the first movie to really have a legit shot at breaking Titanic's box office records. Other movies have had huge opening weekends before (although The Dark Knight just broke all those records), but the staying power of this movie has carried over beyond the weekend and into the week. Titanic was an incredible anomaly at the box office because it made its $600m domestically not based on a gigantic opening weekend (it only made $28m in its 1st weekend, as compared to the $158m that The Dark Knight just grossed), but rather because it just stayed around forever. Will The Dark Knight have that kind of staying power? No, absolutely not. Titanic was still making good money in theaters five months after it was released, back when DVDs were a brand new medium. Five months from now The Dark Knight will probably be on DVD in stores. It might last 2-3 months in theaters, but that's about it. And it'll be facing much stronger competition at the box office than Titanic did because it's out during the summer rather than late winter and early spring the way Titanic was. So it remains to be seen what kind of legs The Dark Knight will have, to see if it really has a shot at what Titanic did, but consider this: in 5 days The Dark Knight is already over a third of the way to Titanic's total, and by this time next week could be well over half of the way there. Enough about the money its making though, lemme talk about what I thought of the movie itself. Back in 2005 I saw Batman Begins and wrote a review of it in which I basically said I loved its pragmatic approach to the comic superhero genre, and thought it worked so well as a "real world" approach to the character that it was almost disappointing once Bruce Wayne showed up in the Batman costume. I felt like in the same way that Tim Burton's Batman redefined comic book movies by using his flair for visuals to present a real comic book-like appearance to everything, Batman Begins redefined comic book movies by presenting everything in as "real" a way as possible, and you see that more and more in comic book movies nowadays. The Dark Knight has taken this approach to a whole new level. The new movie has entirely ditched any attempt to look cartoonish and visually is the antithesis of what Tim Burton set out to do with his Batman movies. I've heard some comparisons with The Dark Knight and Heat, and the comparisons definitely have some validity to them. I've always felt that Michael Mann's crime movies (Thief, Manhunter, Heat, Collateral and even Miami Vice) always tried to ground themselves in as much realism as possible, and in addition to usually showing the sheer technical precision that must mark any successful high-end heist and/or real detective work, his movies are usually almost entirely humorless. Batman Begins took steps in this direction, attempting to show how Batman could do the things he did as if he was a real person, and what technology, training and real mindset he'd need, but the movie was still a fun ride and had a definite sense of humor about itself. In The Dark Knight the "fun" aspect is definitely toned way, way down in favor of a very dark, serious approach to everything, and in my opinion it works beautifully. The movie is an honest to god serious crime movie that, much like the last movie, only "breaks character" a few times with some of Batman's less believable gadgetry. One of the biggest (if not more subtle) visual shocks of this movie is the amount of it that takes place during the daytime. For me it really set the tone right off the bat as the whole opening scene takes place right in the middle of the day. There are, of course, many scenes at night as well, but how often do you see bright daylight scenes in a Batman movie? The daytime scenes give the city backdrop a much more "real" feel to it, much much moreso than there was in the last movie (which was already infinitely more real seeming than any previous depiction of Gotham in any of the other Batman movies). The characters in The Dark Knight are incredible as well. Heath Ledger's Joker is everything that Jack Nicholson's Joker was not, in that he is scary (rather than funny) and he most importantly makes you feel that Batman actually is the underdog in the fight, which after the last movie I would have thought would be pretty impossible. Jack Nicholson's Joker was a hugely entertaining spectacle onscreen, but his character was mainly a thorn in Batman's side because he stole enough money to match Bruce Wayne's spending abilities by having his own gadgets to try to rival Batman's. In this movie, Heath Ledger's Joker has the upper hand because he's more committed to what he's doing than Batman is, much in the way that a real terrorist is. He's a maniacal person with sadistic goals who has no regard for anyone's life (especially his own), and it takes Batman a long time to even be able to wrap his head around how you deal with someone like that. As a result the Joker is always one step ahead of Batman and not the other way around. For instance, in Tim Burton's Batman the Joker's evil plan was to use cash to lure Gotham's civilians to the streets so he could gas them with poison-filled parade balloons, but Batman was able to rather easily foil this plan by just showing up with his Batwing and flying off with the balloons. Even in Batman Begins Ra's Al Ghul's plan was to similarly gas the city using his own device, but Batman used the Batmobile to destroy it and save the day. In this movie there is no plan like that, and instead the Joker is more akin to John Doe from Se7en or Jigsaw from the Saw movies in that he simply sets up situations to challenge people's morals and in which his goal is just to create chaos through cleverly hidden and difficult to diffuse methods. In the end it is not Batman's gadgets or training which help him prevail over the Joker, but rather his commitment to his goal that does. I need to see the movie again and I am planning on going at least once more while the movie is in theaters, although it may be the kind of movie I end up seeing a bunch more times in theaters, and that's not something I've done with a movie in a long, long time. The movie was quite long at two and a half hours, and it was really packed with many characters and storylines and I feel like it probably needs repeat viewings to be adequately digested. The movie has really stayed with me over the last couple days since I saw it, and it was very enjoyable to watch, which considering how high my hopes were for it to me says a lot about how good it is. I don't know if the movie is for everyone, but it is currently sitting as the #1 most highly rated movie of all time on IMDB (by a considerable margin), although I expect that to fall back somewhat the longer its out and the more people see it; and it did get a 95% on the Tomatometer, so it does seem to be overwhelmingly well received (especially in combination with the huge box office totals). If you haven't seen it, by all means check it out, although be sure you watch Batman Begins first, as this is a true sequel to that movie, and much of what went on in that movie plays into what happens in this movie.

Greatest Sports Weekend Ever?

2008-02-04T05:20:15Z

The last 3 days have probably been the best weekend, sports-wise, that I've ever had. It started on Friday when the Minnesota Twins traded Johann Santana to the Mets. Why does this matter to me? Santana's the game's best pitcher, and it was rumored he would be traded to either the Yankees or the Red Sox. If he'd gone to the Sox it would have been good just cause it would have kept him away from the MFYs, but the Red Sox would have had to give up a lot and commit a lot of money to him, so it would have been risky. The best option was just that he would go to a team in the National League instead, and that's what happened. This means the Red Sox can go this year with the team that just won the World Series and it means the Yankees are still screwed with shitty pitching. So it's looking good for the Red Sox again. The next great piece of news was that the Lakers traded Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittendon and some draft picks to the Memphis Grizzlies for Pau Gasol. This is a trade that is already legendary in its one-sidedness. The Lakers traded their backup center (who's renown for being disappointing and frequently injured) and their 3rd string point guard (who is a rookie and who hardly ever played) for a guy who is not only an All Star caliber player (who's only 27), but who also fills a huge hole for the Lakers at power forward and center. The Lakers were already one of the top 5 teams in the league this year, and now they added an All Star basically for nothing. Once the Lakers are fully healthy they should have one of the best teams of all time out there, and all their key players are young, so they should be contenders for years. The final great thing that happened in sports this weekend was that the NY Giants just pulled off possibly the greatest Super Bowl upset in NFL history by beating the previously undefeated New England Patriots. Now I'm admittedly not much of a football fan, but my Dad is as big a Giants fan as he is a Red Sox fan, and he raised me watching Giants games. As I got older I kinda lost interest in football, and now mainly only watch when I go over to his place during the season to visit with him and eat dinner on Sundays. So I'm not gonna claim I'm like a superfan or anything, but on the occasions when I do watch football, I do root for the Giants. I don't have any other team I have any interest in. I have watched and rooted for the Giants in all four of their Super Bowl appearances, and remember them quite clearly. Watching tonight was special, because just like back in October, I was there with my Dad when the team he lives and dies with won a world championship. The fact that the Red Sox, Giants and (possibly) Lakers could all win championships in the same year is incredible to me as a sports fan :)

Connectivity

2008-01-28T23:15:12Z

I got in on the "cell phone craze" rather early. No, I wasn't one of the people who carried a huge, suitcase-sized cellphone around on a shoulder strap like The Dude, nor was I a guy with one of the "bricks" (the big grey cellphones the size of a brick), but I mean I was right on the crest of the wave that was the cell phone revolution which crashed upon society back in the late 90s or so. Really my journey with that type of connectivity began at some point in the mid-90s when I got a beeper along with my friends one summer and marveled at how great it was that my friends and I could locate each other with them when we were sitting around bored and trying to organize an afternoon of Frisbee golf. However, I quickly abandoned the beeper once I started working at an electronics store in 1998 where I discovered not only could I get a Nokia 5100 series cellphone for dirt-cheap, but I could also get an employee plan so it would only cost me $20/month or so to use it (provided I didn't go wild with it). I quickly became enamored with it, it was the most fantastic thing I'd ever seen. I'd never even stopped to think how useful it would be to have a phone on me at all times, how easy it would be to get in touch with my friends, or to let them know I was downstairs in the car and was waiting for them, or if, god forbid, there was an accident I'd have the ability to reach out for help with little to no trouble. My friends could call me if they needed me, and all was well with the world. Anyone reading this knows exactly the feeling I'm talking about, because cellphones are so ubiquitous now that I don't know anyone who doesn't have one. Things were different back then though, back when the people who had them were truly rare indeed. I found I frequently had to have conversations with people where I had to justify exactly why I felt I needed a cellphone. I found if I got a call in public, people would look at me with a puzzled and annoyed look on their face, just from hearing it ring. And lord help me if I answered it without rushing outside first to be away from everyone before doing so. Talking on a cellphone indoors around other people was absolutely inexcusable. While I'm sure what I just wrote probably sounds tinged with a sarcastic scoff by me about how people back then were too sensitive or something, the truth was I completely agreed with them. I was embarrassed if my phone rang just because I knew it was rude, and I never talked on it indoors in a store or restaurant or something because that was extremely rude. Now, of course, social norms pertaining to cellphones have changed so drastically that the person who throws the occasional annoyed glance at someone on a cellphone (even in a movie theater) is the rude one, and not the person who is actually using the phone. None of these things bothered me about having a cellphone back then, and I didn't see enough cellphone usage from other people at the time for them to bother me that way either. One thing I did begin to realize over time, however, was I didn't like how the cellphone suddenly became viewed by others who knew I had one as a way to get a hold of me at any time. This in and of itself wouldn't have been so bad if not for the fact that it was accompanied by them all knowing if they called and I didn't answer then it was almost surely because I saw they were calling and sent it to voicemail, as I would inevitably get the "why didn't you answer my call" question later. I began to really hate that suddenly I was expected to be available at all hours of every day, and realized I couldn't use the "I was out of range for a while today" excuse too often and expect people to believe it, so I eventually had to move to the more dramatic step of actually, really just leaving my cellphone turned off in my car at all times. Then I would tell people I didn't carry my cellphone with me anymore, so if they wanted to reach me that was a bad place to call. Eventually I got tired of spending $20-$30/month just to have it sit in my car, virtually unused, so I canceled my service and gave the phone to a friend. Naturally, as the cellphone revolution really took off, it became more and more incredulous to people that I didn't own a cellphone, telling me I didn't know what I missing out on, and how they don't know how they ever survived without one. This eventually segued into people just assuming the phone number I gave them was a cellphone number because it got to where nobody even had landlines anymore. Then people would inevitably tell me at some point "I tried to text message you but it didn't work for some reason" at which point I'd have to tell them I didn't own a cellphone. Almost a year ago I finally got another cellphone, but this time it really was on my terms. I got a prepaid phone from TMobile with $100 worth of minutes which would last me for a year (and they will in fact, I'll even have some left over I'm sure). The reason the cellphone is on my terms is because a couple years ago I ditched my landline for a VOIP phone through Vonage, and one of the great things about Vonage is that I can have any incoming calls simultaneously ring up to six different numbers if I want it to. This means that I have it set so if someone calls me it rings my home, but it also rings my work and my cell phone all at the same time, and whichever phone I answer from is the one that gets the call. This also allows me to turn off my cellphone when I'm either at work or at home because I'm already near a phone which will ring at those locations, so I have no need to have my phone on. I only turn my cellphone on when I need to call someone else or when I know I'm going to be away from a phone and will be expecting a call of some importance. Finally my cellphone works for me and not for everyone else I know.

Nevermore

2007-12-14T21:13:08Z

This crow kept landing on the window sill outside my office this morning so I took a shot of it with my camera phone. Exciting isn't it? It's been a while since my last entry, but in that time there was Thanksgiving and then my birthday, both of which were nice. The day after my birthday I went out with my Dad and my stepmom and they treated me to a very nice dinner at the Pasadena Chop House and then we went to see No Country For Old Men, which I really enjoyed. It's one of those movies that really sticks with you after you see it and I'm hoping to see it again soon sometime. Recently I bought a Slingbox through some online sale and I'm really rather enjoying it. If you don't know what a Slingbox is, it's a device you hook up to your TV (or cable box, or DVD player or Tivo), and that you then also hook up to your internet connection and it allows you to access those devices from anywhere that has a high-speed internet connection. The result is that I can watch my TV while I'm at work if I want, but it also allows me to bring up a window on one of my computers at home so I can have TV running there while I'm surfing the web. It's a somewhat frivolous piece of gadgetry, but it wasn't that expensive and there's no monthly fee or anything like that, so I'm enjoying the purchase a lot. I think I will get a lot of use for it during baseball season this year as I'm planning to get the MLB package so I can watch all the Red Sox games, and since they're an East Coast team most of their games start while I'm still at work. During this last year's pennant race and playoffs I really wished I could see a lot of those games as they were happening, and this year I'll be able to do just that. Not much else to report right now. Happy Birthday to Koga and Wendy :)

Remember the Fifth

2007-11-05T08:00:58Z

PS - Happy Birthday Grover :)

Congratulations Red Sox: 2007 World Series Champs

2007-10-29T18:49:38Z

After going 86 years without a championship the Red Sox now have won two in the last 4 years (this time breaking the dreaded Curse Of Relief Pitcher Curtis Leskanic). I went over to my Dad's place last night to watch Game 4 as the Red Sox completed the sweep over the Colorado Rockies. I don't have a whole lot to say other than it was great to be there with him this time when the Sox won it all (last time we talked on the phone immediately after it was over). The Red Sox are really threatening to become a dynasty having won 2 of the last 4 and with a ton of great, young talent. The other big news in baseball was that Alex Rodriguez decided to opt out of his contract with the MFYs which led to Yankee ownership basically telling him to get lost. As a Red Sox fan it's great to not only see another Sox Championship, but to also see the "Evil Empire" appear to be crumbling before our very eyes. Good times. Anyway, here's a funny picture of Jonathan Papelbon leaping in the air after recording the last strike of the year for baseball in 2007:

Red Sox ALCS Champs

2007-10-23T03:01:58Z

Last night the Red Sox completed another big comeback in the American League Championship Series by defeating the Cleveland Indians in Game 7 after falling behind in the series three games to one last week. While I was nervous after the Red Sox lost Games 2, 3 and 4, I did still have a fair amount of confidence that they had at least a decent shot of pulling it off for a few reasons. Josh Beckett pitched in Game 5 and it's getting to the point that whenever he pitches for the Red Sox it's almost a guaranteed win as none of the games he's pitched have really even been close and he is so consistently dominant that any mistake at all is really a surprise. So if the Sox could pull off another win behind Beckett in Game 5 then they would have recaptured Home Field Advantage with Curt Shilling pitching in Game 6. Shilling has the best winning percentage of any pitcher in MLB history in the postseason and is undefeated in elimination games so I liked the Red Sox's chances there, especially back in Fenway Park. If those two were both Red Sox wins then it would come down to a Game 7 in which the Red Sox could throw every pitcher out there if need be (Beckett included). So even down 3-1 I still had a lot of hope. Well it turns out I was right to have that hope and confidence because the Red Sox did in fact win the final three games by a combined margin of 30-5, sending the Indians off into the summer, and that's what I'd like to talk about. See, back in 2004 when the Red Sox defeated the Yankees to advance to the World Series, it was doubly sweet not just for finally beating the MFYs but for doing it in such a historic fashion that forever will have them labeled as the biggest chokers in the history of sports. The Yankees were up three games to none after having just beaten the Red Sox 18-9 in Game 3 in Fenway and were poised to add yet another notch in their belt, so to speak, with an assumed sweep of the Red Sox, the team they always beat. But the Red Sox became the first team to come back from 0-3 in a series and even force a 7th game, and then in that Game 7, in Yankee Stadium no less, they blew out the Yankees and celebrated on their field. It was, bar none, the sweetest thing that Red Sox fans could have asked for because finally the Yankees and all their arrogant fans got to be on the other end of a humiliating loss that feels like a punch in the stomach. But this time the victory is very much bittersweet because the Indians are most assuredly not the Yankees. In fact, the Indians are in many ways the antithesis of the Yankees. The Indians are really very much like what the Red Sox were back in 2003: a team that hasn't won anything in a long, long time. Now watching this series I certainly hated the Indians and didn't like hearing their first baseman, Ryan Garko, say that champagne would taste just as good in Boston as it would have in Cleveland (after the Red Sox won Game 5), and I don't have any sympathy for the Indian players who got to wake up today multi-millionaires and who probably only have any allegiance to the Indians as long as they're getting paid; but that's not really what this is about. Today, as good as I feel about the Red Sox making it back to the World Series for the second time in 4 years, I feel really horrible for Cleveland fans. See, Cleveland sports fans arguably have had more heartache in the last 50 years than sports fans in any other city, and while Bostonians may have been long-suffering Red Sox fans for decade after decade at the very least they had the Celtics (16 World Championships) to root for for many years, and more recently had the New England Patriots dynasty to help them with their problems. Cleveland, on the other hand, hasn't had a championship of any kind since 1964 and has had its most famous sports moments come to be known for their infamy. Things like The Drive (in which the Broncos mounted a last minute comeback to defeat the Browns) or The Shot (in which Michael Jordan nailed a season-ending jumper over the Cavaliers) are what have defined Cleveland sports for the last few decades; and now after blowing a 3-1 series lead this week reporters have decided to add The Collapse to that list. While I would never have considered myself a "long-suffering Red Sox fan", my Dad and my Grandfather most certainly were, and as someone who has seen that kind of heartbreak over and over and felt for those who had to endure it, I know how miserable that can be. So my heart really goes out to Indian fans. The only consolation I can give them is that Red Sox fans everywhere felt probably even more dejected following Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS, but look at how quickly fortunes can change. Thankfully the Rockies haven't even been a franchise long enough for anyone to feel sorry for their fans if they lose in the World Series to the Red Sox :)

The Red Sox Are Back in the ALCS

2007-10-12T18:59:35Z

I haven't blogged much lately, but really other than going up to Oregon last weekend for my cousin Matt's wedding (which I should probably blog about at some point), there hasn't been a whole lot going on other than me just watching a lot of baseball. Last weekend the Red Sox opened the playoffs against the Angels and swept them in three games and as such have been off all week waiting for the next round to start, which it will today at 4 pm against the Cleveland Indians. Games 1 and 3 of the first round were pretty resounding Red Sox wins with Josh Beckett being absolutely unhittable in Game 1 while pitching a Game 1 shutout and with the Red Sox trouncing the Angels 9-1 in Game 3 to close them out behind 7 shutout innings from Curt Shilling. Game 2, on the other hand, was very dramatic, and unfortunately I had to miss most of it because I was having a pre-wedding dinner with all my cousin's family and friends (which was great, btw). However, my Dad and I kept sneaking off here and there during the dinner to go check out the TV in the bar which had the game on, and luckily we were there in time to watch the whole bottom of the 9th inning, which was really the best part to see. The game was tied 3-3 and the Red Sox had already used closer Jonathan Papelbon for the last two innings, so they would probably have had to go to someone else if the game had continued into extra innings. The Angels didn't start the 9th inning with their closer in, but after Julio Lugo got a lead-off hit and was then moved to second on a sacrifice by Dustin Pedroia and a strikeout by Kevin Youkilis, the Angels brought their closer in to face David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez. The Angels ended up intentionally walking David Ortiz, which you can't really argue with because he's arguably the best clutch hitter in baseball in the last decade or two, but this gave them the unfortunate alternative of facing future Hall of Famer Manny Ramirez instead. They could have walked Manny to load the bases if they'd wanted, although that would have brought up Mike Lowell who led the Sox in RBIs this year, and with Lugo on 3rd it would have meant a wild pitch would have lost the game for the Angels, so they decided to take their chances with Manny. In retrospect this was a mistake. Manny hit the second pitch of the at bat 447 feet over the Green Monster in left field for the walk-off game-winning 3-run home run. A couple interesting things about this: This was the first home run for Manny since he came back from being injured for about a month near the end of the year (he hit another one in Game 3 showing his power is definitely back). This was the first walk-off home run of Manny's career with the Red Sox (during which he's hit over 200 home runs). This was the third longest home run hit in Fenway Park this year by anyone. Here's a short video of the home run as seen by the fans in Fenway: In other baseball news the hated Yankees lost in 4 games to the Cleveland Indians, despite the supreme confidence of all Yankee fans that they'd win that series and the fact that the Yankees spent three times as much on payroll as the Indians did this year. The Yankees once again had a phenomenal offense this year, but their pitching was awful all year and it really killed them against Cleveland, who sports two 19 game winners in CC Sabathia and Fausto Carmona. The Indians are going to be a very difficult opponent for the Red Sox because their pitching and relief pitching is so good (their closer is suspect though), and because they have a balanced offensive attack. The Red Sox have home field advantage and should be slightly favored though, so I'm hopeful that they'll be able to pull it out. They certainly seem to be peaking at the right time, although so do the Indians. Both of the National League teams shouldn't be nearly as good as the Red Sox or the Indians are, so whomever wins the ALCS should probably win it all.

Red Sox Clinch AL East Championship

2007-09-29T07:19:02Z

I haven't made a Red Sox entry in probably about 3 years, and that's mainly because I'm a pretty poor baseball fan, even though the Sox are technically my team. However, for the first time in my life I've really started to elevate my interest in baseball in general, and by extension, the Red Sox. It's probably no surprise that this has happened to me over the course of this season in which the Red Sox have had the best record in baseball for a lot of the year, being that since I'm not a die hard fan I'm essentially a frontrunner. In any event, for the last month or two I've really been following the Red Sox closely, and during this season I actually did watch all the Sox games that were broadcast thanks to Tivo. I even went to a game against the Angels with my Dad back in early August (which the Red Sox lost horribly). Lately I've been reading everything I can find about the Sox, from message boards to blogs to sites like ESPN, and I've even been following the games that aren't on TV out here on ESPN"s GameCast. I'm even toying quite seriously with getting the MLB Extra Innings package on cable next year so I can see almost all the Red Sox games and really follow them next season. Anyway, tonight was a real big night for the Red Sox and their fans as the Sox won the American League East pennant for the first time since 1995 (in 2004 when they won the World Series they were the wildcard team). The Yankees, or as they're known to the online Red Sox fanbase the "MFYs" (you figure it out), had won the previous 9 AL East pennants, due in large part to the fact that they have the highest payroll in sports, which they did again this year, topping out at over $200 million. Nevertheless, the Red Sox have put quite a team together this year and should be poised to make a serious run at another World Series win, but that's getting ahead of things. Tonight the Red Sox defeated the Twins in Boston, and then tens of thousands of Red Sox fans stayed after the game at Fenway Park to watch the Yankees-Orioles game on the jumbotron in case the Yankees lost, which would give the Red Sox the pennant. Well, it was looking bleak with the Yankees up 9-6 in the bottom of the 9th when ace closer for the Yankees, Mariano Rivera, blew the save and allowed the Orioles to tie it at 9 apiece and send it into extra innings. In the bottom of the 10th the Yankees allowed a man on and intentionally walked two guys to load the bases which set up a suicide squeeze from Jay Payton to give the Red Sox the division crown. When this happened the Red Sox players, who had been watching all this in the clubhouse, came back onto the field to celebrate with the fans, and apparently just got hammered drunk. The Red Sox ace closer, Jonathan Papelbon, was by all accounts the real standout drunk, as he was running around the field without his pants on while wearing swimming goggles and an empty Bud Light case on his head. Below are a couple pictures, enjoy: Good times for the Red Sox tonight :)

Further Clarification

2007-09-25T17:03:58Z

In light of my last entry I've been wanting to clarify something in case I come across as saying that people should just steal music (which I almost surely am). I do not support just blatantly stealing music; but I am in support of what Trent Reznor is saying because in my mind what he's advocating will hopefully bring about a swift deconstruction and reconstruction of the music industry, and that is something that I think is sorely needed. With Nine Inch Nails in particular, I have downloaded their last two albums online a few weeks before they were released simply because I was anxious to hear their new music; however, in the case of both of those albums I still went and purchased them the day they were released because I wanted to support the artist. To further support the artist, as I've detailed here on my blog, I went to see NIN five times on their last tour through the US and I joined their fan club for an annual fee; so it should be clear I'm not at all trying to say that good musicians shouldn't get paid, because believe me I appreciate what they do and am willing to pay to support it. Myself I really haven't downloaded hardly any music since the original Napster went down, although that is largely due to the fact that if I have a copy of something I'd prefer it was a pristine copy. I learned that when you download indiscriminately like that the versions you get are often either not full versions of the songs, or were ripped at a low bit rate or they could have a lot of blemishes and clicks in them. Really any downloading I've done in the last say 5 years or so was either to acquire some album which is not available any other way (some of the obscure soundtracks I've blogged about, like The Shining, Fright Night and Teen Wolf, for instance), or just to get an advance copy from a band I love, like NIN. There have been a couple exceedingly rare instances where I've downloaded a solitary song from an album I could have purchased, but there's probably been less than 20 of those in the last 5 years, and with those I've never used file sharing software (instead opting for trying to find the mp3 itself just hosted on some server online). By far most of the music I've acquired in the last 5 years has come from either borrowing CDs from friends or from buying used CDs, usually online. The reason for this is because if I can I try to avoid buying new albums simply because I know that doing so supports the RIAA and the music industry and that is something I absolutely don't want to do. I am really hoping and praying for the music industry to collapse and be reborn as something that makes more sense for artists and fans. There is a way for musicians to still get paid what they deserve while simultaneously not ripping off fans and also encouraging a return to better music with more to it, and that is to just get rid of all the people in the music industry who are just taking up space and collecting paychecks. Let the money the fans pay go to the artists or to people who work with the artists because they have a true passion about music and not to people who couldn't care less but just like being in the entertainment industry so they can feel important or get laid or whatever. In its current incarnation the music industry to me represents greed and bloat with most of the money spent by fans going to line the pockets of useless middlemen taking up space or to add to the coffers of giant media conglomerates who have no interest in music other than the fact that it helps their bottom line. These conglomerates who have in effect purchased the entire music industry in the last two decades or so have, in my opinion, completely eviscerated it by keeping CD prices arbitrarily high through collusion while simultaneously abandoning the process of finding truly talented musicians in favor of flash in the pan, bubblegum pop hit makers. They go after people who have looks and singing ability (sometimes not even that), but people who have no songwriting skill, and who even worse really put no heart or soul into their music. The state of contemporary music is as big a disaster right now as is the business end of the music industry. That is to say that the "show" and the "business" are both competing for which is worse off. So because of this, I readily welcome any kind of cataclysmic shift that can happen with music and the music industry and I welcome the imminent collapse. And hopefully the movie industry is next.

Trent Reznor Endorses Piracy of His Music

2007-09-21T21:03:19Z

The first band I ever really truly fell in love with was Metallica back when I was 12 years old. They were my favorite band from then through most of my HS years, but then their music began to suck and I kinda lost interest through the latter half of the 90's. The next time I really took much notice of them was when they came out against Napster and to me that was really a final nail in the coffin of whatever love I'd had at one time for the band. I still have their old albums and listen to them on occasion, but the band is dead to me as far as I'm concerned. Around the time I started to become disinterested in Metallica, Riggs turned me onto another band which has either been my favorite or second favorite band from then (around 1992 or so) till now, and that band is Nine Inch Nails. Well, imagine how happy I am to see that my favorite band is now on the flipside of the coin that Metallica was on a few years ago. Check out Trent Reznor this week telling the audience in Australia at a NIN show that since the record companies continue to charge outrageous prices for CDs they should steal his music:

The Big Blue

2007-09-21T00:37:12Z

I made a fantastic discovery yesterday: I finally found the score to the US theatrical version of Luc Besson's movie The Big Blue. I saw The Big Blue in theaters on Cape Cod when I was 13 and was fascinated and impressed by the movie. Years later I found the VHS tape of the movie for sale while in college in Colorado and I bought it and watched it a lot during my college years. Somewhere around 95 I was on Xmas break and was up in San Francisco visiting Cella with some friends because we were going to see Primus play there on New Year's Eve, and while we were acting all touristy during the day we went into Amoeba Records in Berkley and I found the soundtrack to The Big Blue and I bought it immediately because I was such a fan of the music in that movie. Well, to my displeasure it was not the music I was looking for, as I would later discover that in the French release of the movie (titled Le Grand Bleu) Luc Besson had used his since-frequent composer Eric Serra to score the movie, but when it came over to the US they trimmed down the length of the movie, gave it a "happier" ending (which is far worse) and gave it a new score from composer Bill Conti. At the time I'd never seen the French release, so I didn't know any of this, but instead just listened to the Eric Serra score on the CD I'd bought. Years later when the DVD finally came out it was the French release with the extended version and far, far superior ending. The only issue I had with it was that it was with the original Eric Serra score and not the Bill Conti score, which was apparently not available anywhere except on the VHS tape (which I no longer had). Well naturally I've long wanted that Bill Conti score, but I'd kinda written it off. Then the other day I saw a 2001 documentary on a couple free divers who were leaders in the sport and which had narration by Jacques Mayol (who apparently killed himself 6 years ago), and naturally that made me think again of The Big Blue. This prompted me to search around and see if there was anything out there about the original Bill Conti score, and that's when I found the whole thing, ready for download from this website here. Naturally I downloaded it right away and have been listening to it rather non-stop ever since and it is every bit as beautiful as I remember it.