NCAA fun time

You have to love an open field like we're seeing this year. Is it too bad that Cornell played the best game of their lives vs. UW? Yes, it sucked. Watching Kentucky go 4/32 from the Land of 3 vs. West Virginia had to suck for Wildcat fans and Ashley Judd. It's been a wild, wacky tourney that has produced great games and more buzzer beaters than I remember in a single year. Here's what kills me, NO LUTHER VANDROSS "One Shining Moment", it's now sung by Jennifer Hudson. I can't possibly get as pumped for Jennifer Hudson as the great and soulful Luther Vandross. Can someone please explain to me why they took Vandross off? He's only been the voice of the tournament for 20 years. It's a fucking recording, it's timeless. Why try to re-invent the wheel on this one? I can't make sense of it. It's CBS, not NBC. Why fuck this up so badly?

Stupid bullshit comment

I just watched Danny Ainge make a simple statement that Kevin Garnett isn't the same athlete as he used to be and he'll have to make adjustments to his game, more specifically to keep players in front of him because he lacks the explosiveness to catch up. Bill Simmons has been harping all year Garnett is playing on one leg and it slower, noticeably, than he ever has been. Garnett had major knee surgery, and contrary to popular belief, knee surgery is far from a perfected art form that results in people being 100% afterwards. Garnett isn't "The Kid" anymore and he shouldn't have to endure a bullshit clip package of Luis Scola getting a couple of buckets on him just to prove all this shit. It just pisses me off how he gets put on a cross finally for not being "The Big Ticket" anymore. Can I get a clip montage of all the times Shaq gets ran around and dunked on? I have 4 hours to blow.

ESPN, can't live without it, but I just hate how they feel the need to be whistle-blowers on absolutely everything.

Madness is Marching

Great games for the last two days remind me of why it's such a bummer to usually have to work during the great event known as March madness. This has been a spectacular year, not for my brackets, or anyone else's I imagine, but the games have been just amazing. Not every year do we get the treat of a 14 & 13 seed knocking off a 3 & 4 respectively. CBS does a good job, but they allow you to watch any game online for free, so there's no complaining from this guy on that front. It makes me want to take off work Th/Fr. of next week to continue this trend of sitting around watching great college basketball.

South Park came out with another classic episode that was hilarious. Season 14 and the show has transformed from 8 year-old kids swearing like drunken sailors for laughs into a show that rips apart current issues and sheds a comical, and normally correct, light on them. I constantly have to tell people that South Park is incredibly topical and simply the best show on TV. I can't understand how people who aren't offended by the topics and language DO NOT like South Park. It blows my mind how people just call it a stupid cartoon and can't appreciate the genius of approaching complex/touchy issues with cartoons to give themselves a free pass to do whatever they want. They were out of line by making Elin Woods ugly, she is a DIME.

Went to the Brewers home turf for spring training and watched Suppan get shit-rocked for 5 earned in the first inning. There is NO WAY that man can occupy the 5th starter role for the Brewers. We're just going to have to eat his salary and release him, or keep him around for long relief/ only play if we are up or down by 6 runs or greater. He just has nothing special and anything he leaves up in the zone gets destroyed by OK players. It looks like batting practice for the most part. I honestly lose sleep knowing how much he gets paid to suck ass.

I'm reading Juicing the Game and the book does a great job of explaining the steroid era, even digging deeper into the strike/labor issues that I was too young to really know about. I'm really enjoying reading up on it on the flight/ before I go to bed/ in the bathroom. It's nice learning about a topic that everyone has an opinion on, but probably knows nothing/very little about.

Spring Training

I'm in AZ and I can't actually explain in words how great it is to be a part of 65 and sunny all the time, every day, no clouds in the sky. Spring Training is just awesome. You are SO close to the game and the players are forced to jog right past you. You can talk to them, some sign autographs after the game, the interaction is phenomenal. It was 6 dollars to sit 2nd row on the right field line, think about that. It's just great weather, decent baseball, and a great experience. Corey Hart will flash how many outs there are and occasional respond to incessant yelling in his direction, which I appreciated. He does wear sunglasses, but not at night, contrary to popular belief.

Now I am enjoying the first round games and I already am loving the Notre Dame upset. I will have to make it a point to take off of work for these days the rest of my life.

Youth in Revolt

I saw Youth in Revolt on Friday, you're Mike Cera vehicle to be an adorable, loser, skinny youth. He's a 16 year-old with a really messed up family that provides Zach Galifinakis some screen time, never a bad thing, as his mom's live-in boyfriend. Steve Buschemi, Ray Liotta, and Fred Dillard round out a very solid cast. Cera finds the love of his life and soul-mate in a small trailer park on vacation. The film is his quest to win her over and get closer to her through being kicked out of his mother's house. He creates an alternate persona who provides most of the humor in the film. It has some funny parts, but really is more of a romantic comedy than it would lead you to believe in the trailers and ads. I thought it was funny at times, but not too special. Worth a watch if you're bored and it's on cable.

Bottom line: 5.6 out of 10. You'll probably laugh a few times, but that's about it.

Serious time

I attended a cancer benefit for AJ Raebel. I went to college with him and we were friends with the same friends, but never really knew each other. AJ was most well-known for being an AMAZING football player who ended his career with the all-time career lead in tackles and solo tackles in WIAC history. AJ was diagnosed with testicular cancer and this benefit was to raise money for the various cost his family will endure during the very tough stages of treatment and chemotherapy that are sure to follow. Cancer is a horrific disease that we really haven't gotten much better about in 40 years. Conventional wisdom is to douse yourself with chemotherapy, which is poison. Theory being cancer cells will consume more of the poison than the rest of your body, therefore the cancer will get the worst of it and die off before the chemo kills your good cells. That's why survival on cancer is so dependent upon early detection.

If you know me you may or may not know my mom was diagnosed with cancer when I was in 8th grade. My mom was insistent that something wasn't right, and working at our local clinic she had a lot of opportunity to be tested. The standard mammogram showed nothing, and after convincing the doctors to do further testing, she was finally given a biopsy. A biopsy is a sampling of tissue from the site in question. The biopsy revealed nothing. My mom wasn't insistent enough, but eventually got more biopsies that revealed a very aggressive cancer. My mom was in remission, or something similar, for a little over 5 years before the cancer returned, and a few days before my 20th birthday she passed away. You know yourself better than a doctor and despite years of school, never forget that if something is wrong, something is wrong. Be insistent if you would like further testing. If that isn't working, go to a different doctor. Doctors are for the most part incredibly knowledgeable and obviously smart people, but you can question what's going on with your body. AJ has a great chance to beat this, but once again early detection played an enormous role.

Bottom line: Keep AJ in your prayers and if you know something isn't right with yourself, don't stop until all options are exhausted to prove you are healthy. Trust yourself when it comes to yourself. I'm also not trying to destroy the credibility of doctors, I just want to point out everyone is different and trust yourself.

Zen Master Wisdom

I finished reading "The Last Season" by Phil Jackson finally. I was astounded by how simply he makes the game seem. He puts so much faith in his players I felt like their losses had to be his players' fault. Kobe is portrayed as the complete and total fuck I have no doubt that he is. He may have gotten better, but I refuse to believe that things have changed that much. I'll bet you everything I own that there isn't a player on the Lakers who would take a bullet for him. Getting back to the Zen master, he really seems like a puppet master and genius, but constantly seeks improvement. He consults with a psychologist for things to help his players, and at times himself. Searching for new ways to reach players and get ideas across. He has wisdom and knowledge he freely shares that astounded me. Playing X player for X minutes to ensure they don't wear out. Looking towards the playoffs during the regular season and playing rookies to get experience in pressure times, because he's always looking at the Championship, because anything else is failure. If you enjoy basketball, Phil, the Lakers, hate Kobe, want to know about behind the scenes stuff, then you simply have to read The Last Season. I completely forgot that he retired and had Rudy Tomjanovich (no idea if that's the correct spelling and am entirely too lazy to look it up) take over for a brief period. It reminded me that Kobe not only drove Shaq out of town, but also the greatest NBA coach ever.

Favorite excerpt: "Tim, why don't you just play basketball and quit bitching all the time" I said. "If you want to be a referee, get a fucking whistle and come out and be a referee." He stared at me, perplexed. "You know what the hell I'm talking about." That's Phil head-hunting Tim Duncan for pining at the officials constantly. Though he commends how he stands up for his teammates and how his constant bitching could be enough to get a huge crucial call later.

The book is a true eye-opener on why I always hated Kobe Bryant. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Phil Jackson is incredible in his insight.

Big Ben, WOW

So regardless of innocence or anything two sexual assault stories in under 12 months is not acceptable. I'd like to think Ben is innocent, but it also is scary there have been two similar reports now. I would prefer my franchise QB to be like Peyton Manning, married and spending every waking hour watching film, but what can't happen is to have troubling stories like this pop-up every six months. $102 million is sunk into this kid. Do what Dale Earnhardt JR. does and build your own club/bar/ghost town to drink at with people. You can't just go to random clubs and bars and get wasted anymore when you're a celebrity like that. Go to your super-clubs where you can kill hookers and do drugs and they'll cover for you. Don't go just anywhere and not have some enormous entourage to have your back in cases like this. I really hope Big Ben is innocent, but you can't put yourself in situations like this anymore if you're someone of his status.

I'm liking the fact we're about ready for some March Madness. I think all teams from the Big Ten will be a tough out this year. Kentucky is going to be a monster with Wall on his biggest stage ready to showcase for the NBA. Syracuse is going to be tough, but a hot shooting or good passing team will always beat a zone D in my opinion. I can't wait to see the bracket and get to gettin' on picking my brackets.

I watched Slap Shot again last night and that movie is just excellent. It's loaded with random humor and the actors can play hockey well enough for you to believe they could actually be semi-pro hockey players. If you've never laid eyes on this film it is highly recommended as the funniest sports movie ever. Vulgar, well-acted, and very unique.

Book readin'

I just cracked open Juiced, the steroid book and was already disappointed by the intro. It already has taken a stance of defending Bud Selig talking about how the senate hearings were basically an ambush on him. If you are running a company and your top sales person gains 50 pounds of muscle and can no longer wear batting helmets unless they are made for gorillas and you weren't asking questions, you'd be a shitty boss. I remember making fun of McGwire for being a roid' freak, it was common knowledge. There have been no real victories over steroids. There are now policies in place to prevent the sins of the past, but the past is the past. The harm is done and now sacred records are destroyed by undeserving people. The game was changed and now who knows if these players are "Hall of Fame" worthy because the writer's have a vendetta to fix these problems themselves by not voting anyone involved with substance abuse into the Hall of Fame. There's a lot of room on the soap box to preach, but nothing is happening beneath it. Nothing like perjury as the new joke from the steroid era.

UNC

Not that I'm a fair weather fan, but I will not be addressing North Carolina basketball for the rest of the year. Duke, take solace in shit-kicking a team that's barely .500, but keep in mind they've won 2 titles in the last 5 years and you've failed to make it past the Sweet Sixteen. Shove that up Coach K's ass and smoke it you FUCKS.

AARON KAMPMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Jaguars made a VERY rare, correct personnel move by signing Aaron Kampman. The Jaguars have made horrible decisions regarding their league worst D-line. They recorded 14 sacks as a TEAM. That is 3 less than league-leader Elvis Dumervil. That's correct kids, 3 less than one GUY. This is compounded with the fact they traded up to get under performing DE Derrick Harvey and Quentin Groves in the draft two years ago with the sole purpose of being able to rush the Quarterback. I was so disappointed when I saw that draft pick hit (Ask my friend Zach) that I really looked like I just got stabbed. Kampman will provide a great pass rusher with unlimited energy to a defense in sore need of both. With Kampman they will double the sack total of last year no doubt. This will also take pressure off of a weak secondary with former all-pro Resean Mathis and Reggie Nelson as the only note-worthy players. My bad, they do have former Badger Scott Starks still... FML.

Side note: Watching just the end of Schindler's List because it's on cable. Simply put if you've never seen this film you need to watch it. It is the most powerful film-making I have ever seen in my opinion. I can't imagine a film doing a better job of showing the horrors of World War II, yet showing you the greatness of one man's work to save human lives throughout. I have no shame admitting that Liam Neeson's speech at the end of that film never fails to bring on the waterworks for me. It's really a movie that transcends that label and becomes more in my mind.

Bottom line: GO WATCH IT NOW IF YOU'VE NEVER SEEN IT.

Brooklyn's Finest (Not quite)

I just watched Brooklyn's Finest with a slew of stars that I will list: Don Cheadle, Dick Gere, Ethan Hawke, Wesley Snipes, Ellen Barkin, Vinnie D'Onofrio, and Will Patton (COACH YOST). Great cast and acting, story was a little spread out and disappointing. It intertwines three main stories of different police officers dealing with their life issues that invariably effect their work. Don Cheadle is AWESOME in my opinion, as is pretty much everyone else. There's a lot of violence and story to cover with all the characters, but it left me not really caring about any of them. Everyone does a good job, but I really just never felt invested in any character. You should really route for Hawke, who is trying to provide for a HUGE family with a police officer salary that is not sufficient for his family of soon to be 7. He's Catholic, so birth control is out of the question, so you should REALLY be rooting for the guy. It just didn't happen for me.

I liked the movie, but I really wouldn't recommend it highly for any particular purpose. Sidenote: Nice to see Wesley Snipes back in the game. To quote my friend Ryan "I wonder how much money the IRS is getting for this one."

Bottom Line: 6.7 out of 10. Entertaining and well-acted throughout, but there just isn't enough story because your time is constantly divided by 3.

Shutter Island and your standard random thoughts

I really, really liked Shutter Island. I was completely engrossed throughout the film and actually turned down walking into Cop Out for free because I was psychologically and mentally not ready for another film. This better not become commonplace.

Shutter Island follows Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo, two US Marshall's investigating "Shutter Island", a mental facility off the coast from Bowston. I emphasize the "W" instead of "R" because you get some solid south accents to enjoy. DiCaprio works the hardest to uncover the secrets of the island, as well as some clues to his own personal tragedy. I would highly recommend this if you enjoy thinking movies, as I do. Superb acting in all facets of the movie really make the whole thing work for me. Bit roles are filled with solid actors like the guy who played Casey Jones in Ninja Turtles and Jackie Earle Hayle, the guy who is going to be Freddy Krueger. If you don't like thinking, don't see it or you'll just piss everyone else off.

Bottom line: 8.8 out of 10.

Archer is a series that intentionally tries to just piss everyone off and does a hilarious job of it. Archer is a sexist, racist, idiot of a secret agent who is simply hilarious. The situations they put him in to fail are hilarious and if you aren't offended easily, I can't suggest the show enough. The first 7 episodes are on-demand.

The sucker punch today in women's basketball highlights why women's sports aren't as entertaining as men's. She absolutely sucker-punched the other woman who was not looking and failed to even knock her to the ground. If a men's player pulled that move the other person would be dead, or receiving serious facial reconstructive surgery while in some sort of coma. Just not very entertaining, even at the failures.

Random Props

My random props are getting thrown out to USA hockey, timely I know. Ryan Miller especially deserves to be showered with glory, praise, money and fame for the bets Olympic performance from a goalie since Hasek and Khabiboulin carried inferior teams to golden glory. USA played with hustle and heart to make up for the lack of talent and experience. Special shout-outs as well going to Brian Rafalski and Ryan Suter. WI boys logging serious minutes in the 3rd period to make it a game for the US. I'm pretty sure both men played all 20 minutes of the 3rd saying fuck this whole line-change thing. Kane, Parise, Kesler, Kessel, Jack Johnson, there are some seriously talented kids for the USA team that bodes well for our future. The polarizing moment of USA hockey for me was Kessler just plain out-hussling some Canuck to poke in a diving empty netter to put the USA up 5-3 the first time we played Canada.

I decided to read Sporting News articles about the Olympics and the USA was put sternly behind Canada, Russia, and Slovakia. Nobody expected anything out of a group of youngsters with little Olympic experience. No offense, but Jamie Langenbrunner was our team captain, not exactly a fearsome man in the world of hockey. I hate to say this, but this was what I needed to get off my hockey malice and start watching in time for the Stanly Cup run. Maybe I'll grow a playoff beard...

I had a friend bring up a point how against fighting he was because the goons just muck up the game and waste time and space. I also enjoyed the extra 15' on the sides to create a little more space for the skilled players. I still go back-and-forth on the fighting. I like retribution and having someone on your team be allowed to beatdown the other guy who just cheap-shotted your ass. It does slow down the game and take away a possibly skilled player off the ice for an "enforcer". Some enforcers can obviously play hockey and aren't just goons who can't use a stick for anything but performing malicious acts. Playoff hockey, I can't wait all the sudden. Olympic hockey was way better because there were a ton less commercials as well. Mike Emerick needs to be at every hockey game televised as well, it's just that simple.

Last House on the Left, Miss March, Sparatcussin'

So I took a look at Last House on the Left and some other stuff over the weekend and knew the world is hanging on my every breath.

Last House on the Left- Typical horror movie where you refuse to believe how dumb your heroes and villans can be at various points. A girl and her parents vacation at a lake house in the middle of nowhere, add escaped convicts and one teenage boy who "lures" two girls to hang out with him and you have the movie. The convicts rape/murder the girls, but one survives a GSW to swim home and her parents unleash unholy hell on the bad folks. Looking past the stupid shit you refuse to believe can happen (example missing two people sleeping in bed from 5 feet away with a gun and letting them get away to only have to be killed later) it's a pretty gritty film not for people who don't like violent acts. The acting was better than most horror movies and the setting is decent, but I'm not going to recommend watching it unless you are a BIG horror movie fan. Nothing is really scary, there is some suspense, but nothing too interesting.

Bottom Line: 6.3 out of 10. Horror movies and me don't usually see eye to eye.

Miss March- It was on and I lowered myself to the written/produced/directed/acted by some guys from The Whitest Guys you Know group I think. It had some funny parts, especially if you like really stupid characters. I just get pissed off with the old shtick of really dumb guy who is so stupid he constantly makes mistakes and is a complete fucking moron. Premise is a high school kid and his gorgeous girlfriend have "saved" themselves for each other on prom night where the guy gets drunk, falls down some stairs, and is in a coma for 4 years. She has moved on to become Miss March in Playboy and he needs to go find her because he's still in love. Best character is Horsedick.MPEG played by Daryl from the office (Craig Robinson). He's an insanely vulgar rapper who is a great over-the-top stereotype who plays it VERY well. I'd see this movie if you want cheap, stupid laughs. It's really only 1.5 hours long and flies by.

Bottom line: 7.2 out of 10. Funny, but nothing special.

Spartacus Blood and Sand is on Starz and I am a HUGE fan. The story is loaded with twists and pure evil. It makes me want to check out HBO's Rome, but this will do. It's just murder, orgy, betrayal, murder, wash, rinse, repeat. Lucy Lawless is awesome, as are most characters actually. I'd recommend checking it out if you enjoy shameless sex and violence and enjoy the gladiator settings of ancient Rome. I'm a big fan needless to say.