The U, what about the Bucky's?

I am currently watching THE U, for the 30 at 30 special by ESPN that I can only hope comes out as a reasonably priced DVD boxed set with extras because it is very well done for the films I've seen. I got interested watching a video on THE U, or the University of Miami for those of you who know nothing of college football. Every college football program has interesting ups and downs and moments and it got me to thinking that every college should do something similar. Obviously THE U had more talent and controversy follow them than any other team through the 80's and 90's, but Wisconsin, for my HOMER example was not even close to a respectable football team until the early 90's. My dad went there in the early 70's and witnessed 4 wins in as many years, all of them in his senior year. Now Wisconsin packs Camp Randall every game and had a great run of Rose Bowls under Barry Alvarez. I'd be very interested to have Alvarez interviewed about turning the program around and some of the early players who aided in the turnaround.

This goes for any school for the most part as well and I think student filmmakers should jump on the opportunity to make a film about the rise or falls of their schools football programs. I use football programs because it'd be pretty rare that any other sport anyone would care about unless you're at a basketball school. Anybody wanting more in depth writing on The U read "The Cain Mutiny". That's on the reading list for me behind "The Book of Basketball", "Open", and "Instant Replay". Very similar to the Fab Five in terms of how a new crop changes the game SO much. The Fab Five is recommended reading to any sports fan about how 5 kids grew together and didn't let anyone else tell them who to be and how to play and invented baggy shorts and black socks in many people's eyes including my own. I can't imagine the money that Jalen Rose, Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King, and Ray Jackson made for merchandisers. College players should make some money I believe, but there's no good way to do that and if football players get paid, why shouldn't gymnasts or wrestlers get paid? Just because those sports operate deeply in the red, does that make the athletes less deserving? Interesting debates I'll save for when I torch Title IX for needing to be abridged in our current day.

Jersey Shore, seque into Obsessed

Jersey Shore is the greatest display of retarded douchebaggery and trashtacular mayhem ever. In it's honor I share this link http://warmingglow.uproxx.com/2009/12/snooki-gets-punched-the-most-gratifying-animated-gif-you-will-ever-see

If you have seen the show this will undoubtedly warm your heart and soul, don't feel bad, let the warmth overtake you.

Obsessed is a movie that is surprisingly good, mainly because Ali Larter is so GOOD at being bad. I would run into a light pole with my face if I could get her to act like she does towards the guy in the film. It feeds into our male fantasy that a gorgeous female co-worker will seduce us... FML. The movie isn't over yet, but I really thought it's going good adn worth seeing on-demand as I am enjoying it right now. It is keeping me away from Georgetown vs. Butler... So that's disappointing because I thought it started at 7pm, but I'll get over it.

I did want to see both teams because I always fail epically come bracket filling out time. A chance to see bracketbuster Butler face Georgetown, who I'm sure is ranked WAY too high, was a good chance to get a feel for some teams that will make noise in the tourney. Early favorites to go further than they should: UNC, I'm a homer but those kids can play and will ONLY get better. The Buckies: Yeah, I'm jumping all over the bandwagon after the Duke victory, but they are a quality tournament team that creates mismatches with big men that can shoot, and they don't turn the ball over, which bodes well. One of my friends LOVE TENNESSEE, but I feel that a Bruce Pearl team will fail in the tourney because they rely on turnovers via pressure, which good teams that take care of the ball will not fall for. They also lack guys that can pour in points, or more importantly 3's. I'm looking for a young Kentucky team to fold in the postseason, mainly because I feel it's too hard to mesh so many young players together in such a short time.
Those are some early thoughts.

I'm going to finish Obsessed and watch Beyonce and Ali Larter fight... I can't wait.
Editor's note: Beyonce can't fight/act for shit. Thank God Ali Larter's hot ass bailed this shit-show out. You'd think Beyonce could at least be taught how to fight since she has to dance out all her choreographed garbage, but you'd be WRONG. Thanks for trying to fight Ali, I can't believe they accepted these takes of that fight... Beyonce will never fight in a film again, safe bet. THEN SHE SINGS DURING THE CREDITS... FUCK THAT.

Tiger... Go fuck yourself, it'll be better for you

I can't remember such infidelity on such a large scale in my memories. A golfer playing the back nine on a lot of public courses. Nine women have come forward and nothing has been confirmed or denied, but Tiger is overwhelmingly guilty on almost all accounts from everyone I've heard anything from. If Tiger were an NBA player this wouldn't be very surprising, but our squeaky clean golfer committing infidelities with anything he can find... SHOCKING.

The best part is that everyone is coming out of the woodwork on this one. Perkins waitstaff members, a porn star, drunken skanks of all kinds. Tiger committing these acts while his wife was pregnant, on the road, at home, just simply being an enormous cheater and piece of shit. If you want a family, commit to it, but don't just assume you can have two lives, or have your cake and eat it too. Tiger will lose endorsements, get divorced and hemorrhage money from it. I can hardly wait for the brutal backlash that will cripple his golf game for the foreseeable future.

I can't figure out why I never liked Tiger Woods, but now I feel vindicated. Next on the list, finding out Roger Federer is a pederast and being vindicated again.

I can't wait.

College Basketball, yar betcha

College basketball swoops in to save TV after my favorite shows end their new seasons. ACC/Big Ten Challenge, AMAZING. College B-ball doesn't limp into the conference schedule and it starts out with awesome preseason tourneys like Maui and the NIT. Every night features a decent college B-ball game with either a "bracket buster" or legitimate top 25 teams lacing them up. I love UNC and just watching them jump out to a good start VS. Michigan State got me all kinds of jacked up. Fresh players and some coaching swaps add to the already immense drama to college B-ball. Things I'm personally looking for to pan out: UNC and the new kids defending the crown, Big East basketball. Calipari and Kentucky falling on their faces, the preseason top 25 getting shredded, Huggins not graduating a player from West Virginia continuing his excellence on the court and in the klassruom, the Big Ten season and how far the Badgers ascend past their #9 in the Big Ten ranking and Bucky making the Big Dance, John Wall and other freshman who are going to tear it up all year.

On a side note it's complete horseshit how Bobby Bowden is being sent out after all these years. OK, Florida State is no longer competing in BCS bowl games and are not a top-10 team, but Florida State wasn't on the map until Bobby Bowden got there. If he's losing games then help him out, don't just abandon him. 34 years at the same institution coaching football better than anyone not named Paterno during the time. Florida State was THE Florida team in the early 90's and succumbed to Florida now and when Spurrier was there, but they were always in the hunt. Bowden should not be forced until leaving until he says so. There's no way they can repay him for creating Florida State, or signing them to a multi-million dollar contract with Nike that helps pay his salary. Fuck whoever is spearheading this coup and it's totally shameful what's going on. He had some downfalls of having players that couldn't read play, and a few recruiting violations pop up. but 34 years of loyal service should be worth something. Service that took them from nothing to the top of college football more than once. Good fucking luck getting talent away from Urban and THE U without Bowden's name attached to the program. I hope he burns the house he built to the ground upon his exit.

I'm reading Bill Simmon's The Book of Basketball and am struggling with weeding through his very interesting stats and observations and his complete bias towards all things Celtics. Choking through the first chapter explaining his lovefest with Larry Legend and the Shamrocks is ok, but an entire chapter of explaining why Russell is better than Chamberlain? Not really necessary, though he does break down some statistics and refutes the view of haters, meanwhile not conceding the simple fact that Chamberlain put up the numbers but didn't get the wins. That's the only argument that's relevant. Everything comes back to that premise and defending it any other way is a waste of time that dabbles in lunacy trying to explain who had the better supporting cast 50 years ago based on some video and opinions. I'm hoping it improves from here because he clearly loves himself and the Celtics more than the game that consumes his life, and that's saying quite a lot. Namedrop, namedrop blup blup Celtics rule... It's better than that, but that could serve as an outline for some moments in the 740 or so page epic. In it's defense I did rip through 60 pages on the first night... more to come on this one.

Time to post something

I love Thanksgiving, 3rd favorite holiday behind Christmas and Easter for this guy. A holiday that has been broken down into just gluttony and football will always have a special place in my heart. First Thanksgiving I did not get my nap in, very disappointing.

Things I'm thankful for:
Family and friends. Can't imagine life without them.
The advancements in technology that allow us to never be far away from those we love.

What I'm not thankful for: Kurt Warner and Cedric Benson both giving up on me this week and having to play Matt Ryan who can't play with a stubbed toe the fucking East coast pussy. That just fucking ruined me this week.

Here something I don't often do, CD review? Five Finger Death Punch came out with a new album and it is phenomenal. The album art is amazing, but the music is VERY GOOD. It's not as hard as their first album, but they are more diverse. They re-do Bad Company and that is my favorite song on the album. Highly recommend purchasing the album if you are a hard rock fan of any kind. I firmly believe they are the best hard rock band these days.

I'm going to watch Zombieland at some point this week and I will let you know what I think about that one. I've heard it's pretty good, but my hatred for movies like that may blind me. So cheesy I could choke is what I'm guessing.

My Jaguars took a complete dump against San Francisco and are now in a VERY murky spot at 6-5 in the AFC and it's not looking purty. There are a lot better 6-5 teams is what I'm getting at.

Duke comes into Madison this Wednesday and I want nothing more than to be able to scream pure hatred at the players and coaches. I will not get the opportunity, but I'm sure others will pick up the slack.

I just recently re-found Amazon.com and bought Open, the Andre Agassi biography, The Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons, and the classic Instant Replay written by Jerry Kramer and Dick Schaap. I'll be reading those with great vigor. I'm reading a biography of Al Pacino written through various interviews done with him through the years by his friend Lawrence Grobel. Al Pacino is simply amazing in the fact that though he lacks formal education past I want to say the 8th grade he reads literature with more gusto than anyone I've read about. He regularly quotes Shakespeare and could without a doubt hold his own vs. any pretentious intellectual ass clown in a debate about it. His view on the craft of acting is amazing and he's an incredibly impressive human being. Was not a bad six dollars spent.

Sons of Anarchy woshipping

Anticlimactic episode before the season finale has me hurting, but there is hope for redemption in the finale. It is without question the most badass show on TV. FX has that, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The League, and Nip/Tuck. I can't imagine FX doing any better for itself on this one. The League is just hilarious and pairing it with IASIP you have a POWERHOUSE Th. that will be ruined by Thanksgiving. That's right, I'm complaining about their greatness being interrupted by the 2nd or 3rd best holiday there is. One of pure excess and gluttony. Family, football and food to the Nth power. Luckily we have a great Sunday night football game to pull us through, but I will sorely miss those shows, the Office, and the Community plaguing my Thursday.
If anyone has the first season of Sons of Anarchy please let me know because I have some serious catching up to do on that.
College basketball has started and that means there will always be a decent game on TV once conference starts. I can't wait for the Big Ten/ ACC challenge because this is the year the Big Ten takes it. Bucky gets to bring Duke in and show why Big Red is rougher than the so-called Crazies. A punch of pansy, rich east-coast kids don't know how to heckle like drunken Wisconsinites. I really believe if I were front row I'd make Jon Scheyer cry. I'd be screaming awful things I don't feel comfortable writing until my vocal chords fill with blood. Lots of interesting story lines, but the one I follow the closest and has the most potential to blow up in my opinion is Calipari jumping ship to Kentucky and taking a slew of recruits over to the Wildcats essentially performing a coup on Memphis. He left that team to bleed, but they have the best recruiting class coming in despite Johnny's slick-ass hair. I can't wait to see this season come to fruition with all the new freshman coming in to replace the old folks who are younger than me...
Watched the Informant over the weekend and Matt Damon is amazing as always. He's hilarious at times in a real limited role (think Fargo, only not as strong of a supporting cast, or as good a story, or accents...) It has some funny moments and I'd say it's worth a screening only because it's based on a very interesting true story. One of my friends from high school even works for the company in question in the film. Hilarious narration from Damon for the voices in his own head, and Scott Bakula.
Bottom Line: 6.3 out of 10. Rent it from NetFlix sometime, or wait for Showtime to pick it up in a couple of months.

Badgers, Packers, and Bucks????

So... Wisconsin sports just had a kick ass weekend the likes of which we've never seen in recent memory. I turned down $50 tickets that would've enabled me to watch Jennings drop 55 on Golden State, but I did watch some of it on TV and that kid can play the game. If Redd comes back he better just realize his role will be to stand on the 3-point line and wait for Bogut or Jennings to dime him, because he is no longer option #1, or even #2 with Bogut running the screen and roll as well as they are.

The Badgers will get overrated and play in a crappy bowl against probably some SEC team that will smack them up, but for now it's pretty decent to have only 2 losses. They done pretty well for themselves and John Clay is a legitimate stud, so there's hope to be GOOD next year. The Big Ten is down this year, but I feel no shame in taking advantage of that into a gaudy 8-2 record.

The Packers stomped the Cowboys in the most awful game I've sat through for an extended period of time. The defense was back in preseason form, probably due to the ENORMOUS game from Charles Woodson. When Kampman comes back they better not stop blitzing like possessed steroid enraged demons.

I'm so happy that nobody has praised the Yankees to no end about buying the World Series. Fuck them and their lavish ways. I hate a team that spends like Trump's recent divorcee's.

I watched Observe and Report this weekend and it was SUPER dark, but had a few funny parts that made it watchable. I would absolutely not recommend the film, but it was surprising and if you are a sick sadist you might find it to be hilarious. It was probably Seth Rogan's worst film and Anna Faris does not have a very large role AT ALL. I can't recommend this thing, but if it's on cable you should turn it on for some weird and sadistic laughs.

Bottom Line: 5.8 out of 10. It's just fucking crazy and I'll leave it at that.

Also watched Punisher Warzone and it was gore, violence, and action to a crazy extreme. Some of the acting it respectable, the villans are all just simply terrible at everything acting related. It starts out insane and ends similarly, but the middle is plot-filled and worthless and boring. It's entertaining enough if you like to see bodies splattered and destroyed in horrific ways.

Bottom Line: 5.5 out of 10 and only watchable if you enjoy horror movie gore disguised as an action movie with plot-like elements.

All Aboard the Brandon Jennings Wagon, I'm Driving

I just watched some of Jennings 32 point 9 assist explosion against a seasoned Nuggets team and was just blown away. How often does a 19-year old rookie demand the ball in the 4th quarter of a big game, though it's clearly early in the regular season, versus Chauncey Billups? Jennings has been given the reigns to the Bucks and has responded by replacing Michael Redd as high scorer, as well as Ramon Sessions & Ridnour. He could be the most talented prospect the Bucks have had since Sean Respert. In all seriousness I don't think anybody knew what to expect from the kid who jumped to Europe to play for cash instead of a year of seasoning in college. The Bucks have lacked an exciting player since....................... WOW, Vin Baker before booze? I wouldn't even put him near the class of Jennings in terms of talent. Scott Skiles is a pretty good choice for a coach to teach a young point guard since Skiles with limited athletic ability held down the position for ten years.
SIDE BAR: The Bucks drafted Skiles in 1986 and he had cocaine, pot, and a DUI in his senior year of college. He also dropped 30 dimes in a game, but WOW, character issues anyone?
I was nothing but blown away by Jennings and it gives hope to our lowly, sad franchise. If Redd comes back healthy it's entirely possible the Bucks could maybe be ranked as high as 5th in the craptacular Eastern Conference. I was actually a little impressed by the Bucks tonight and will be watching a little more of them this year I have a feeling, since I'm a pretty big fair weather fan for the Bucks.

What's with the Suns kicking so much ass? Is Shaq equivalent to carrying 330 pounds of garbage around the court every night?

South Park this season has been just phenomenal at going after really big douche bags. Tonight's episode wasn't too good, but it made fun of Glenn Beck, and in my eyes every yelling idiot who just throw's unfounded jabs at the government, and that NEEDS to happen.

FYI the League is hilarious with a lot of funny characters who you've seen before, but couldn't really name. Impressive ensemble cast with a funny subject that we can all relate to. Good call putting it on after It's Always Sunny in Philly as well. Two GREAT adult humor shows after the sophomoric Office is a pretty excellent Thursday lineup.

The NFL is crazy

week 9 has been really confusing and has clarified some things for us.

The Packers and Bears will not be in the playoffs so jump off the wagon.
The Cardinals are still an offensive juggernaut slowly awakening.
The NFC is respectable this year for sure and after the Eagles/Cowboys game the playoffs will be a little clearer with the winner of that game and the Falcons having the inside playoff track.
The Packers are not good.
The Saints are still undefeated, wouldn't have bet on that one to start the year. (Same goes for the Colts without Bob Sanders, who spends more time on IR the on the roster.)
The Giants keep losing games that they should win, finger-pointing to start next week.
Update your resume: Jack Del Rio, Jim Zorn, Tom Coughlin (What have you done for me lately?), probably Spagnuola (whoever coaches the Rams, like it matters.), Tom Cable, and I'll throw in the favorite target of Wade Phillips and Dick Jauron.
The Bengals are tough, that's a fact.
The Ravens D is not as good as in the past, but with Ngata in the lineup they are much better against the run. I hope they make the playoffs.
The AFC wild card will be a very tough out for whoever plays them in the first round.


The Brewers just traded JJ Hardy for Carlos Gomez and anyone who thinks the Brewers didn't get robbed on this one should really run into a wall face-first. Hardy is going to produce for the Twins and play near Gold Glove defense and hit .270 with 15-20 HR's and 80 runs and RBI's. Making room for Escobar is fine, but JJ is only 2 years removed from being an all-star, we got cents on the dollar for JJ considering he's such a fine shortstop and good shortstops are kind of hard to find. Maybe Gomez will play Centerfield everyday and become a poor-average leadoff hitter at best... awesome.

NBA?

So the NBA started and I have no idea what's going on. I do think the Celtics are going to be absolute beasts of the East this year and will carry that into the NBA Finals for another war with the Lakers, who I fucking hate to reiterate from last years ramblings. Early line: Celts in 6, go Bahstan.

The Yankees can go fuck themselves.

I lost by one point in fantasy football because Peirre Thomas scored 28 points, so fuck him.

The Jaguars are utterly useless and GOODBYE PLAYOFFS. I just watched Vince Young beat them like like they stole something. Here's a thought, give Maurice Jones-Drew the damn ball. He only had two 80-yard TD runs, so maybe throwing the ball 40 times makes sense.

Brandon Jennings in flourishing and Alexander has a one-way ticket to play elsewhere next year, so things are looking up for the Bucks. It's early, but Jennings is the lightning quick playmaker that a worthless, low-scoring NBA team needs to compete in a crappy Eastern conference for the right to limp into the playoffs and get shit-rocked by the Cavs or Celtics.

That pretty much catches things up I'm thinking. Hockey started, but I'm not paying any attention to that until MAYBE the playoffs.