One for all and all for one. Taking out M.C.'s with a big shotgun.
Quick Hitters and Random Thoughts
--Since I posted last Tuesday the U.S. team took us from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows. I guess that’s why we love and hate sports. In a split second worries give way to incredible joy or incredible nervousness gives way to utter disappointment. Usually it’s somewhere in between, but this hurt more than the usual loss for the team you root for. Landon Donovan’s miraculous goal against Algeria in the 91st minute was one of the most unbelievable sports moments I’ve ever witnessed. It was just surreal. An indescribable feeling on a did-that-just-really-happen goal. A feeling that I was hoping would be duplicated in the games to come. No such luck despite the fact I hit up Lucky’s to watch the U.S./Ghana game. I was there nearly 3 hours before gametime and the place was already packed and buzzing. By the time I saw Bob Bradley’s head-scratcher starting lineup I was buzzing myself. I mean really Bob? Ricardo Clark and Robbie Findley?! Huh?! Ghana pressed and we could hardly handle it. The second half was one frustrating minute after another until Clint Dempsey was taken down in the box leading to Landon Donovan’s PK. When he got it to go the place erupted into high-fives, hugs and beer showers. Crazy. First overtime a long clear by Ghana inexplicably led to its 2nd goal and that was that. Damn. It was a sometimes thrilling, sometimes excruciating, always unpredictable ride that I wish had lasted a little longer. Oh well only four more years until Brazil!
--Can’t hardly wait for Netherlands/Brazil and Germany/Argentina. I’m looking forward to those more than even Brock/Shane.
--The UFC would have trouble topping the top two fights in this Syfy movie. First Mega Python vs. Gatoroid. Second we have Debbie Gibson and Tiffany. I’ll parlay Gatoroid and Tiffany.
--Writing of fights, ummm…Fedor…ummm, that wasn’t supposed to happen. I was surprised the usually patient Fedor was so aggressive in jumping on Fabricio Werdum when Werdum went down. Seems like he would have been more cautious than going to the mat with a Brazilian jiu-jitsu guy the likes of Fabricio no matter how hurt you think he might be. Credit to Werdum and I can’t wait to see the fallout for Strikeforce, Fedor and Fabricio.
No miracle for Scott Smith this time against Cung Le.
And can’t we just start putting Cyborg up against men because she has nothing left to prove against women.
--Good news is we have a date on when the next season of Breaking Bad will air. Bad news is that date isn’t until July 2011. So yeah, Sunday nights next July I guess we’ll be getting Breaking Bad and Mad Men. Other stations should just cancel themselves that night. I think I linked to these before or maybe I just tweeted. Either way Funny or Die put together some what-if promos for Breaking Bad on ABC.
--If you were wondering how much the Lost: The Complete Collection was going to set you back, well the short answer is a lot. $280 for Blu-ray which is $50 more than the regular DVD set. 37 discs. I can’t wait to see that 12-minute epilogue with Hurley and Ben running the island. It comes out August 24th.
--Of course Patrick Duffy declared his undying love for Constance/Jane Lynch on Party Down. Hilarious. All the Constance/Lydia interplay stuff was great as was Alex Rocco’s performance as Constance’s brief husband. His heart attack was awesome. The only thing better was watching Roman trip with Kirby from Arliss.
“Either I’m going to die any instant, or I’ve been dead a while. If there’s anything that could be done to help me… you could put me in a life machine.”
Two really good couples.
--Patrick Patterson? Works for me. No trade up, no trade down, just a solid selection in the middle of the first round. Now let’s see what opens come July 1st. My guess is not a whole heckuva lot in terms of earth shattering moves for our boys.
--The Two Escobars surpassed The U and Run Ricky Run as my favorite 30 for 30. I was worried the drugs and guns craziness of Pablo Escobar’s life would overpower the Andres Escobar part of the documentary, but that wasn’t the case at all. Andres and the story of Colombia’s national team was riveting, particularly their play. Holy crap those were some great highlights they put in, but none better than the scorpion kick from Rene Higuita.
Maybe I’m remembering it wrong, but the film seemed to infer Higuita went to jail before the 1994 World Cup because he visited Escobar like so many others on the team had already done. I mean Pablo wasn’t even in a real “jail” just a place he said he’d stay. But looking elsewhere apparently Higuita helped broker the return of a kidnapped child and received money for it, but it’s illegal in Colombia for anyone to profit from a kidnapping. The film showed the good Pablo did and how much he did to help those faced with the hardships of the times. It also told the stories of how ruthless and maniacal he was. Andres was faceless to me all these years, but the doc gave us Andres’ story and gave that own goal so much weight that it can never be viewed the same once you’ve seen his back story. Here was a guy who had apparently done things the right way. A guy who had his whole life ahead of him. A guy who had offers from overseas including AC Milan. A guy who made a mistake on a soccer field. A guy who got into an argument with the wrong people. A tragic end for a guy who only wanted to help his country during an insane and wild time in Colombia’s history.
--C’mon America, macaroni and cheese is a reason to celebrate and come closer together with one another. Sadly mac ‘n’ cheese is tearing apart a family in Waterville, Washington. A 17-year-old girl was making mac ‘n’ cheese when her 21-year-old brother offered his advice. I have been conditioned to know better than to question a female about an ingredient or method while she is over the stove. The letters STFU come to mind. Anyway the brother asked her if she was using real butter or margarine. Aww hell, you know it’s on now! A furious butter vs. margarine debate ensued and only ended when the sister gave her brother the business end of a serrated barbecue spatula. Yeah, 4th degree assault charge for her. No word on how the mac ended up.
--I didn’t exactly build my Sunday night around Hung and Entourage’s premieres, but I did watch them. I won’t make those mistakes again. Entourage is about 3 or 4 seasons past its expiration date. And really all it does is prove the College Humor take on it still rings true. I’ve seen a couple reviews talk about how it’s a good thing that Vincent Chase is going to be more fully developed this season. Yeah, it’s the 7th freakin’ season!
Hung just has never done anything for me and I gave it multiple chances. It might just be that I hate his kids so much.
--Drunk of the Week comes to us from New Zealand. ‘Twas there Paul Sneddon went on a little bender after losing his job. So he mixed his bender with driving which was a bad idea. A corner screwed him up and he flipped his car onto its roof trapping himself inside. His lawyer with this money quote, “He had nothing else to do at that point, so he had another beer.” Sneddon was pretty honest to the cops too when he was asked how much he had to drink. Sneddon replied, “Plenty. I’ve been drinking for four days straight.” Yeah, he’s not allowed to drive for a while.
--Look Jason Bateman, just because you starred in Teen Wolf Too (Electric Boogaloo) and It’s Your Move doesn’t mean you’re better than those of us plebeians who have to actually stand in line to get things like the iPhone 4. Not all Jason’s bad though as he was in a line of about 2,000 people when an Apple employee noticed him and let him in before the madness began. I mean even if you consider your famous self a man of the people, when someone offers you a chance to cut in an Apple line you’re practically obligated to take it, right?
--Show I thought I might watch until I started hearing bad things about: Memphis Beat.
--Nothing like non-stop promos to get you in the mood to really hate a movie. Of course you already know I’m talking about Grown Ups. Let’s look around Rotten Tomatoes where Grown Ups is pulling a strong 8% rating:
Dallas Morning News: “Ever been around a group of friends who crack themselves up while you stand to the side and scratch your head?”
New York Post: “When Grown Up star and co-writer Adam Sandler repeatedly slapped Rob Schneider with a dehydrated banana, I was jealous of Schneider, who suffered less than I did getting slapped upside the head by this rotting fruit of a comedy.”
Brandon Fibbs: “Unless restrained, by another far superior creative force (P.T. Anderson, Judd Apatow), Sandler’s recent career is a cautionary tale in self-mutiliation.”
AP: “Shockingly inept even by the standards we’ve come to expect from a Happy Madison production.”
Chicago Tribune: “It’s a tiny bit better than Couples Retreat so that’s good.”
I’m sure Adam Sandler cut that last one out and put it on his fridge which I presume is made of gold.
--Jonny Lee Miller/Eli Stone added to Dexter? Works for me.
--Girls Busching Girls. Sounds promising sure, but then you see the Busch-y pictures and oh well. I’ll never get this little icing/busching phenomenon and I’m quite happy I won’t. I was witness to it a few times at Lucky’s. All I did was just shake my head and wonder where we went so wrong.
--Showtime is talking to Stephen A. Smith about his own show?!
--If for some reason you've yet to check out Eric Winston filling in for Peter King, here ya go. My favorite thing he’d change about the NFL is playing the Super Bowl on a Saturday. Hell yeah, though I’m always looking for another holiday so I’d just say make Monday our national football season is over day of mourning. But whichever.
--Looking forward to Louie Tuesday night at 10 on FX.
--In Seems Like It Shouldn’t Have Come To This news…(from Chronicle):
“A Travis County judge ruled today that Texas public schools are required to give students truthful grades on class assignments and on their report cards under a 2009 state law that 11 school districts were challenging in court.”
Apparently these school districts had policies that forbade teachers from awarding any grade lower than a 50 so kids wouldn’t get discouraged and drop out. Poor kids. Teachers making them do work and get a corresponding grade. What the hell kind of schooling is that?
Questions, comments or if you got engaged last weekend and now you realize setting a date that doesn’t conflict with a major sporting event or coincide with 95 degree hot is harder than you thought…
