Credentials for Comments.....

Do you really need to have any to give any? That question refers to the statement in my title. I ask this because I have been perusing my good friend's blog which is mainly music based. He is a great-music mind and knows more than I ever could hope to know. I only bring this up, because he was talking about Leonard Cohen who wrote "Hallelujah." And I swear to god it's the only song I have ever listened to where I thought the vocals were reminiscent of livestock raping each other. Everyone is entitled to their opinion about certain subjects. And certain people are much more qualified to speak about said subjects. So if Nate has good words to say about him, then I will believe him. But god damn, I hate that song.

I'm really excited for the new Tonight Show. Only because it is the first time in TV history where we may see an actual coup on stage. I know the crowd always acts excited, but you know some groups of folks who love Conan will infiltrate and destroy. It's that conniving and vengeful spirit that TV, and for that fact our country was founded on. And how bad is this? Usually when a "new" show starts they pull out all the stops to get big time celebs and stars to come on the show. They released the goat-chins lineup for the first week. On day 3 his guests are the cast of Jersey Shore and Avril Lavigne. That's day THREE. I'm sorry NBC, was Milli Vanilli busy on Wednesday afternoon.

Lastly, I've been a big fan of Olympic hockey this week. Not just because of the US involvement. But the WIDE OPEN play. These guys showcase what the game should be: grace, speed, stopping on a dime and changing direction. I really hope that the NHL considers getting rid of fighting. The game is much more beautiful when guys take hits and checks, but the enforcer can't come in and bash some one's brain in.

And oh yeah, take that Russia. Favorite for the gold just get absolutely bum-rushed by an angry Canadian team. 3 goals in the first 9 minutes. Ridiculous. My guess is Canada beats the US for the gold, but you can always hope for and underdog...

Goodness....

Leave it to Sean Hannity to whisk up into a hot lather. Actually, it isn't anything he said. It is essentially what he doesn't say. I have said numerous times on this blog that I tend to stray toward the liberal side. It's a combo of my family upbringing, where I lived, and then what I personally came to believe. But though I see Hannity as insane, I can see the staunch liberals as insane too. Nothing would really satisfy me more than having Sean Hannity and Michael Moore enter a cage with a hungry lion. They are both certifiable. And I have an explanation to show why, and how far down we are as a country.

I caught a little of Hannity's radio show today and a listener posed an interesting point to him. A little background first. Conservatives have been crushing President Obama for a gaffe in a speech a few weeks ago. He mispronounced the word "corpsman" and focused on the dead corpse part. He said it three times, off the teleprompter, and conservatives have been saying how this happens when you are a robot and read a script, and also do not have a military background. I personally say honest mistake, by a probably really tired guy.

Fast forward to when Sarah Palin wrote something on her hand before giving a speech. Liberals ripped her for being unprepared and not having her facts straight. I say it was a last minute thing, and she truly just did it to remember a couple of main points.

Both of these things, in my eyes at least, were harmless. So today a woman called into the Hannity program and asked him what the difference is between conservatives ripping Obama and liberals ripping Palin. She said what he does to the President is just as bad as what the liberals do to Palin. He skirted the issue and talked about how he is just showing the "naivety" of the President. But the caller has a point.

Political talk shows are helping kill our government and political spirit. They would rather be catty and focus on unimportant things than bring up issues that really matter. That is what irks me. These two instances got press time, and for that mater, a lot of press time. Let's focus on the real issue kids.

We wonder why two-term Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana up and said he wasn't running for re-election this week. He said he was fed up with government and partisan politics. Maybe we need more people like this. He said he wasn't getting anything done, so maybe a new elected official would.

I wish we could all just get along. And at the very least, quit the bitching about minor things. Seriously, is what Sarah Palin has written on her hand crucial to national security? Is a mispronunciation on the part of President Obama going to push back a possible health care bill getting passed? No, but complaining about these things constantly bogs down the process. So knock it off.

Madness....

I just had to share with you the results of this weekend's box office. I have called the choices of this week's movie-going public "deplorable." The Top 5, with their money and aggregate Rotten Tomatoes scores were

Valentine's Day 52 Million 16%
Percy Jackson 31 Million 49%
The Wolfman 30 Million 30%
Avatar 22 Million 82%
Dear John 15 Million 28%

Those numbers are absolutely dumbfounding. The reason I like Rotten Tomatoes is it takes all the reviews it can find, puts them together, ranks them fresh or rotten, and then divides by the total. Simple, effective, and a large enough sample size to have a good representation. For example the movie with the least overall reviews is Percy Jackson and it still has 84 reviews. When you exclude Avatar, and put the aforementioned 4 movies together they had a combined 126 fresh reviews to go along with 303 rotten reviews. Which leaves them with a staggering 29% rating. That means that if you polled people walking out, you would be damn lucky to get 3 positive reviews out of ten. And what's worse? Those movies made a combined $128 million.

I guess I just don't get it. People like what they like. I am not immune to this because I just watched Transformers 2 for the third time this weekend. It scored 20% on RT, but I like it, so there are always exceptions. But most likely if a movie is not at 60%, I won't even consider seeing it. One review is an aberration, 5 reviews is a coincidence, but 10 reviews is a trend.

Why does America watch these things and reward filmmakers that do this? I have no idea. I have always thought that my $10 and two hours of my time is too valuable to be misused. Does that make me snotty? I don't think so. I think it makes me smart, and shows I have an expectation for value. I have always been one to look forward to movies because of the director and writer, not always the actors.

So I realize I'm a little different. But I don't want to sit there and waste my time, watching something awful. That is why I have Netflix. So I can pay 9 bucks a month and watch whatever I want. But when it comes to going to the theater, that is somewhat sacred. It is an experience that I do not take lightly. I can name on one hand the films I have seen in theaters this year. One. Avatar, and it was awesome. Granted the year is only a month and a half old, but this is the only movie released in those parameters worth seeing. Until Friday when Shutter Island is released. And if it makes less money this weekend than Valentine's Day, then I will officially have proof that there is no higher power.

Oh yeah, as of Monday, Shutter Island is tracking 88% on RT. I don't think that is a coincidence either.

Float Like a Butterfly...

I just read a magnificent article on ESPN.com about the 20 year anniversary of the historic Tyson/Douglas fight. The fight was 2/11/1990 and the place was Tokyo. Tyson at the time was the heavyweight champ, undefeated, and the baddest man in the world. The odds on Douglas were 42-1. Douglas won via a ten round knockout and Tyson was down. Needless to say Douglas didn't do much with the title. He held it til October of that year, when he got a $25 million payday to fight Holyfield. Holyfield knocked him out in three rounds and Douglas retired. You can really say it was a man who was focused on one thing, and when he accomplished that feat, it just went to hell.

The point of my little history lesson is that upsets in sports are awesome. And this week we probably get to hear a lot about the two greatest. The one I just described is probably number 2. Number 1 is the US Hockey team beating the Ruskies in 1980. And it is not just the greatest because it involves the US. Just look up the wikipedia page for the Soviets from 1980. They were considered amateurs, but were highly regarded as just insane players who had beaten NHL teams 5 times that year in exhibition games. Well, the US with their collection of college players won against Sweden and then beat the USSR 4-3 in just the semi-finals. The US then defeated Finland to win the gold. It is hard to comprehend how much better the world was at hockey at that time. But I truly think it would be like the US soccer team winning the World Cup now by going through Italy, Spain, and Brazil.

So it's been 30 years since Miracle on Ice and 20 years since the Knockout seen round the world. What else is in my Top 5? Well I'm glad you asked.

#3 is NC State winning the Basketball title in 1983. They needed to win their conference tourney to get in. They beat a Jordan-led Carolina and a Sampson-led Virginia to get in. And then they beat Drexler and Olajuwon to grab the title. That's 3 teams led by 4 hall of famers.

#4 is Jets over the Colts in Super Bowl III

#5 is George Mason's run to the Final Four as an 11 seed.


So there you have it. My top upsets. you kids have at it.

Irrelevancy....

Not sure if that is a word, but it will apply to something that I have to talk about. That my friends is the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition. It has been delivered to homes the week before Valentine's Day for nearly 50 years. I wonder if they also delivered some KY and tissues to those homes as well. I digress with masturbation jokes, but my point is the Internet has made this issue, and for that matter visual magazines, irrelevant. I saw a commercial for it yesterday on TV and they were talking about the big "unveiling" of the cover model.

First off, anyone who knows anything about sports and or modeling knew that Brooklyn Decker, aka Andy Roddick's naughty time partner, was about a 5:2 favorite to make the cover. Secondly, you know what I did today? I just went online to SI.com and right on the front page were the articles, the magazine cover, and then links to EVERY picture in the magazine. I did not look at a single picture, however that doesn't mean i didn't have thoughts about the magazine. And my thought is why have a hard copy and then put all the content online. Sure some people will buy it, because it is frowned upon in many workplaces to pull your pants down, but why even shell out $3.50 for something you can get for free.

So I guess my point is that computers have killed magazines. Or at least picture magazines. Newspapers are dying, but at least with them you have to read. Some people will always buy newspapers because they like to feel the paper between their fingers, and enjoy the feeling of accomplishment once you have paged through the respective sections. A picture based magazine however should just never be printed. I know it is big ad money, but when was the last time you went out of your way to buy a magazine, or get a subscription. I go to at least 5 websites a day that have actual publications, and I don't pay a dime. And you know what, I get 98 percent of the same content. And that is something I can live with.

So what's my point. I really don't have one, except why buy something you can see online. And if I were SI I would make the Swimsuit "Issue" completely digital and get my sponsors that way. Clicking through a gallery and a Coke ad pops up. Easy as pie.

I watched Zombieland over the weekend and it was highly enjoyable. I'm a big Jesse Eisenberg fan and get very angry when people talk about Michael Cera. Mainly because Eisenberg has been in 5 movies I have really liked and Cera has been in none, yet he gets the pub. Hollywood whore machine. None the less, movie was very entertaining. It walked the line between funny and gory really well and those elements played well off of each other. The only thing I didn't like was the fact the stupid video store printed the name of the actor who had a cameo in the movie. That pisses me off like nothing more. I hate it. If I know what actors are in a movie I will wait and watch until I see them, and it loses any luster it possibly could have had with the element of surprise. So knock it off Hollywood and stupid-ass video stores.

I haven't seen anything in theaters since Avatar, but Shutter Island comes out in a week and a half. And I'll be there on Friday night, waiting for Leo. Wearing a diaper....

Sweatin' to the Oldies....

Been working out a bunch lately and seriously contemplating getting a membership to the local gymnasium. I've been able to get done with work and then work out and still get home by 6:30, which I think is a manageable ruitine. Not really looking to lose weight or anything like that. Just want to work out, and be able to do a run on our vacation in July. The run is 6 miles along the Massachusetts coast and I am told very beautiful. So that is the new goal. Be able to run 6 miles straight in the next 5 months. The way I see it I can do it in an hour if you run between an 8 and 9 minute pace, which is very doable.

Not much else going on, except I did begin watching Californication. Netflix is wonderful with their seasons of TV shows on demand to watch anytime. Well, the show is interesting. It is always interesting to see a main actor that you saw for 10 some years on network tv, go to cable. Duchovny is pretty good in the role and pretty much sleeps with anything that has a pulse. If you are a fan of the female form, you will see a bunch of it in this show. I can only imgine what those casting calls are like.