Penn State- YICK

I stand on the outside of this for the most part because everything about this pisses me off. I am one of the few that finds the blame heaped on Joe Paterno as unwarranted and unfair. I will throw about some arguments that you may or may not agree with, but I feel without question his departure was unceremonious and unfair. Before I argue for him he spent 46 years at that University making it something. He donated over $5 million dollars in the last 10 years to build a library and hospital. I really think Paterno has done more for Penn State than any other man has done for any other University in history. On to the uncomfortable stuff.

Paterno is a head football coach and at the time in question he was 70-something years old. A graduate assistant says, with NO conviction or specific graphic language, that your colleague and probably close friend of over 30 years was doing something in the shower with a boy. Paterno goes to his A.D. & the campus police with the knowledge, which underwent two investigations that NEVER became a case tragically, and when nothing becomes of it that's the end for him. He's not a detective, crusader, or anything besides a 70 year old football coach. McQuery deserves the most ire for his failure to better portray what he saw into something meaningful. He's the witness, the person who actually saw a sexually perverse act, but somehow failed to convince anyone of it's seriousness. His wholesale failure is the issue. The scorched earth policy of condemning other people is a bullshit cop-out by the University to distance themselves from something they completely failed to deal with. Universities will try to handle things are their own instead of jumping to the police, my sister explained that to me about the situation following her three years stint as a Hall Director & her husbands experience with campus security. Paterno went up the chain of command, passed his limited knowledge to those in power to do their jobs. Paterno is the biggest name, so he gets the biggest blame.

A group of trustees and gutless assholes decided to use this to finally get him out the door. They wanted him out in 2004 but Paterno refused to resign. His life is so intertwined to Penn State I feel like he can't live without it. He's given more years of his life to Penn State than anyone reading this has lived. To think he'd do anything to bring shame to the school makes no sense. I don't understand how anyone could want him to do more than what he did. He took the limited information he had to the people he was supposed to and they failed the victims, just like McQuery failed the victims. Paterno has no reason to get crucified on this. There were 50 other people who have more blame than Paterno, but this gets heaped on him to force him to stop coaching football to save the University his salary, but to lose their souls. Penn State is fucked either way, now they are fucked and without honor or loyalty. Rolling over on Paterno solves nothing and proves nothing. Salinsky will still burn in hell and prison for the rest of his days, Penn State will suffer in recruiting and enrollment for the foreseeable future, and Joe Paterno will still be involved in trying to make Penn State better even after it threw him on a grenade that they pulled the pin on.

The Rite- It's Alright

Being a fan & genuinely frightened by exorcism and demonic possession (and Anthony Hopkins) I felt like I needed to give The Rite a shot. The central character is a non-believer going through school to become a Priest because it's a free education and what his family (Dad) wants it. He has a creepy past of working in his dad's mortuary and it's creepy. He questions God & his purpose, but with a few threats from the Montsenior he goes to Rome to learn about exorcism. While in school the friend of the Montsenior sets him up with Anthony Hopkins who is a living legend of exorcism. He starts treating patients suffering from demonic possession, most notably a pregnant lady probably raped by her father. Young guy thinks she not possessed, but psychological trauma is causing her problems and Hopkins refutes that by having him witness crazy shit. It's pretty decent effects and creepy acting. The mood and setting is great, good use of lighting. Pretty good acting, Hopkins is excellent. The movie hits a fever pitch when Hopkins is possessed and pretty much terrifying. His possession is the best part, but WAYYYY too short. It ends way too quickly rather than reaping the benefits of a crazy Hopkins who is genuinely scary.

Bottom line: 6.4 out of 10. I'd recommend it. I watched it On Demand and it's totally worth it for Hopkins alone.

Ides of March

Ides of March is a story about the political machine in America. Trying to elect a man President involves shady back-dealings and side deals. Ryan "Baby Goose" Gosling is the up and coming superstar in campaign planning. He's #2 to the wise old hand of Phillip Seymour Hoffman. George Clooney is the can't miss Democratic party candidate who is running neck and neck with some other schmuck. Other schmuck is lead by the craft Paul Giamotti and political dealings and and craziness ensue. All mixed up in this is the cute intern played by a pretty blond chick I'm too lazy to look up. Gosling is doing mad work for Clooney who should be doing great, but the Republicans are voting for the other schmuck so they have a better chance to win the upcoming election. Things take a crazy turn when Giamotti attempts to seduce Gosling to his campaign calmly telling him that he's on the wrong team and that they will win Ohio and NC, wrapping up the election. Gosling starts banging hot intern, hot intern bagged Clooney and got knocked up in an amazingly short timeline by him. Everything goes into crazy tailspin mode and it's pretty good. Very solid acting all around, but the story is frankly pretty boring and lacks suspense and action. Certainly worth watching when it's nice and cheap/free for you.

Bottom Line: 7.3 out of 10. Very solid movie through and through. Big fan of Clooney directing and the great ensemble cast he put together.

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.

Moneyball the Movie- Brad Pitt Rapes Baseball

That isn't fair, but I really didn't like this movie because I read the book and Pitt completely dominated the film, where in reality Billy Beane did nothing close to what he was projected as doing. It was a much larger effort than Beane and Paul Dipodestro, who refused to have his name associated with the movie and is Paul Brand. The story is the 2002 Oakland A's and how they overcame losing Jason Giambi, Johnny Damon, and Jason Isringhausen off of a great, young 2001 club who lost in the ALDS Game 5 to the Yankees (standard). It never gets mentioned the incredible pitching staff of Barry Zito, Tim Hudson, Corey Lidle, Mark Mulder, and Aaron Harang, just the incredibly GRITTY veterans with high OBP's who helped them win. I get pissed off when you get fed bullshit in a movie even if it isn't a documentary. That team was pitching based, fuck everything else. They had a great bullpen anchored by a great finds in Corey Bradford (especially), but also Billy Koch, Jeff Tam, and Jim Mecir. No need to mention that at all, only Bradford got even a nod in the movie where he has an entire chapter devoted to him in the book. I hated the dramatization of Beane's role in giving pep talks and advice to players, along with Jonah Hill acting as Paul Dipodesto. Scott Hatteberg gets shit on for playing bad defense, yet yielded a .994 fielding percentage. Bottom line is the A's never made it past the first round of the playoffs, but they play the Moneyball concept to explain how the Red Sox won the 2004 World Series. Johnny Damon is a Moneyball money pit, but he was the starting centerfielder, as was former A Keith Foulke as the closer, that was what Moneyball gave them. That team won because nobody could beat Schilling, Pedro, and Lowe/Wakefield in a 7-game series and David Ortiz played out of his fucking mind in clutch moments. It wasn't they walked a shit-ton, or only had cheap, high OPS players. They paid a shit-load of money for great players + a few guys who had decent OBP's, but Kevin Millar, Gabe Kapler and Mark Bellhorn were certainly NOT the reason the Red Sox won the World Series.

Sorry, I couldn't judge this movie solely as a movie because I read the book. It totally got in the way, so I really can't give an accurate ranking, but here's what I thought.

6.2 out of 10. An attempt at a feel-good baseball movie that really just scratched the Moneyball surface. Really just a Brad Pitt vehicle with baseball and arrogance sprinkled in. See when it's free, so don't pay $10 FUCKING DOLLARS to be disappointed, per usual.

SNL- The Written History

I just completed a book on the entire history of Saturday Night Live up until around 2004 and it was phenomenal. It's really interesting because it's written from the perspective of all the former cast members, writers, and some producers/creators. A great mix of talent and interesting perspective on an incredible force of pop culture and American culture. Interesting facts and opinions are abound in this essentially autobiographical recollection of a great THING in America that's been around longer than most of us have been alive. 1975 ushered in the most talented cast in SNL and TV history and it's gone up and down since experiencing highs and lows, failure and success all intertwined throughout the last 36 years. Highly recommend it and I am super excited to read the book the authors did about ESPN. Lorne Michels is for the most part incredibly respected, but there were more than a few people who flat out did not like the man in any way. The amount of fun facts I can't even describe, but it is SUPER interesting. I went out and bought season 4 for $15 from Best Buy, the last season the entire original cast (except Chevy Chase) and I'm very excited to watch it and enjoy. So much talent walked through those doors it has almost defined comedy in America for the last 35 years through the actors and what they went on to do on and off the show. DAMON WAYANS was even on for 1/2 a season. Chevy Chase was only on for 2 years, another shocker.

The Wild Bunch

I took a flier on The Wild Bunch, a 1968 western that introduced violence and gore to the western genre, and really American cinema, the likes of which we've never seen. Ernest Borgnine and Sam Peckinpah are the stars of a mixed cast a badass men who rob and outlaw for a living. The movie starts with them attempting to rob a bank in a small town that gets shot to shit because the railroad hired bounty hunters to wait for them and execute/capture them in any manner possible. Only the four main characters escape to move on to the next big job. They are picked to run guns for a Mexican dictator/ general from the USA for big money. It falls apart in spectacular fashion and really is a fun, interesting, good movie from credits to FIN. I was amazed what was all in the film in terms of violence and content. It's not the reason you see the film, but it had to be groundbreaking for the time. Stronger acting that expected and a great story makes this a VERY good film.

Bottom Line: 8.1 out of 10. Highly recommend seeing this film. I'd be amazed if you'd be disappointed. There is a lull in the middle, but it's really well done with character development running rampant.