The Wire, SOOO GOOOD

I've been ripping through the Wire season 1 like Lindsey Lohan through dime bags. I really don't think I've ever seen a show this solid. It has the scariest character ever in Omar. Omar runs through the projects with a shotgun and everyone clears out. He's the best character I have ever seen. The show is a portrayal of a crime organization who runs drugs in the projects of Baltimore. On the flip side is the Baltimore police and a special unit designed to catch Avon Barksdale, the man who runs everything, but nobody knows anything about. A rock solid ensemble cast, some of whom get re-used by HBO to this day (OMAR= Chalky White). It's a real drama that has great enough characters for you to care about what happens to them. Too much talent encompass this with greatness. The show sheds light on the flaws of police, junkie, dealer, and officials alike. It shows humanity in all aspects of people, even a dude named WeeBay who shoots people often, yet has 8 fish tanks he cares for like children. I've ran through ALMOST all of season 1, and I'm pretty much hellbent on ripping through all the seasons ASAP. Looks like I'll take a few remaining vacation days to just rip through a season a day. Simply the finest drama I can think of, right on par with Sons of Anarchy, only I REALLY like how it shines light on the police aspect with much greater intensity, but it's also on HBO, so F-bombs and murder rain all over it. The realism is unparalleled. WATCH THIS SHIT OR I'M SENDING OMAR AT YOU.

Hey Basketball, WHAT THE FUCK?

I watched a top ten last night with like 4 fucking soccer highlights. I normally love soccer highlights, but these were fucking weak. It had to have been the worst top ten that I've ever seen. I didn't know what was going on, but I knew that I did not enjoy it. I just realized that without basketball, and with baseball ending very soon, I am going to be watching perhaps hockey, but more likely I will watch no sports at all until college basketball fires up. I was just accepting the NBA as a good league again. Lots of young, incredible talent. Some parody going on in the league. Defense being played somewhat, though it still sickens me how slanted the rules are to promote offense. They shit on a lot of goodwill and momentum building from last season. I don't understand how any player can sit out for a year. A 50/50 split between owners is a shitload better than it should be. Where's some compromising to get things rolling? Why are the players fine with throwing away an entire season? Why is this a good time to strike, AGAIN? Basketball has 12 guys on a team, not 25 like baseball, or 53 (though it's blurry) with football. Sign the current deal to a one-year extension and fight this out during the season and next offseason. Don't throw away everything earned by normal people giving a shit about you again.

Harry Potter: It's Over

I finally watched the last Harry Potter movie, The Deathly Hallow part II. I was a fan of how the movie did it's best to pull everything together in a quick, concise manner, but the ending was just weak. In this epic battle of good and evil how were there not mountains of corpses happening? I was disappointed in the overall lack of death and how quickly the nice little bow was wrapped around the whole thing. SPOILER ALERT: Voldemort dies and everyone becomes regular ass old people in 3 minutes. That's not how you end an 8 movie epic series. Voldemort needed to have a crazy, painful death that was a huge spiritual moment for Harry instead of WHOOPS, he's gone now. Also, how can you show grown up Harry, Ron, Hermoine, and Jenny as just regular ass people? It was basically like, Harry's an accountant now, SWEET. Ron is a janitor or some bullshit and they don't do anything cool. It was total bullshit in my mind. I needed at least one main character to die saving the rest, or SOMETHING. There was so much to work with there and I felt like all the shockers and amazing plot twists were just thrown out there and now it's time to end things quickly all of the sudden. Great movie, except there is a LOT of room for improvement in the last 30 minutes to make me not SOOO disappointed with how quickly the ride was over.

Bottom Line: 8.3 out of 10. It's really good, but ends so quickly and unsatisfyingly that it left a bad taste in my mouth.

Breaking Back: The James Blake Story

I recently bought Breaking Back, James Blake's autobiography to get free shipping from Amazon.com on Topspin 4 for PS3. I knew it was a book I wanted to read because Blake, similar to myself, lost a parent to cancer. I thought my interest in tennis, and primitive knowledge of James Blake would be a perfect match. The first thing you will notice is James Blake is extremely well read and versed. He is after all a Harvard student of four semesters. He's one of the smartest athletes you will ever meet. His lifelong love of education passed to him by both of his parents. He's a very interesting person, he just doesn't really dig deep enough in this for my liking. He does talk about the different things that happen to him: Reaching top 25 ranking, fracturing a vertebrae, losing his dad to cancer, having a zoster that paralyzed half his face and cost him most of his athletic abilities for a few months. It's all spoken in mainly generalities and he really doesn't let you into his most intimate thoughts and feeling is what I thought. It's well-written and a good memoir for his personal records, but I didn't really feel like it was personal enough. You learned some of his fears, but you could've guessed them yourself. It was nice shout-out to his friends and family as well, but once again it just scratched the surface I felt. You don't get to KNOW any of his friends or family, they are just mentioned along with a few attributes/characteristics. It's interesting and you learn a lot about James Blake, but his failure to capitalize with a major, or be a major player on the international stage also hurts the feel-good aspect of the story. It is almost a miracle he is on the professional tour and he has accomplished and overcome a great deal, so KUDOS and hats off to James Blake. You end up having to cheer for him, but he's already old for the pro tour and in the twilight of his career, but perhaps he's got another run at the U.S. Open in him to remind us of the brilliant and athletic brand of tennis he is capable of. Anyone who was a witness of the U.S. Open match in the Quarterfinals against Agassi in I think 2006 knows exactly what I'm talking about.

Bottom Line: Read if you are interested in James Blake, or an athletes point of view on career, family, loss, life, and friendship. I'm not giving it a point ranking, that wouldn't make me feel good as a human being.