Disembodied head

Disembodied head
Eventually I'll have to scan in my floating head that appeared in the new fantasy insert of the magazine this past week. Hey, I actually beat a couple of my NU colleagues in the office in getting my face in the mag. That, and some nice promos for the other blog.

Unfortunately, my fellow alum Luke Donald couldn't overcome the Tiger juggernaut, but I'm trying to figure out what's weirder -- one Slam wonder Shaun "not HBK" Micheel finishing second or that John Kruk had to do some PGA highlights during the Yankees-Red Sox rain delay.

I didn't watch the final round, in between scouting out places to live, I also caught World Trade Center, a solidly produced film. Not as powerful as United 93, but a strong film nonetheless.

So now I've seen NFL preseason games at three different stadiums, adding Giants Stadium to the mix for this ho-hum nationally televised contest. It was probably only about half full, and about 10% was left by the fourth quarter. But after all these years, I've finally seen my first NFL game at the Meadowlands. On the other hand, you can tell it was the preseason when the pee-wee game at halftime was more entertaining.

All in

I didn't post much off the recently completed World Series of Poker main event, although it's good to see ESPN turning it around into shows starting next week. It was interesting following along on-line, mainly because other outlets started making money off it.

Anyways, the one thing I found sorta intriguing about the final table is that there was plenty of support for the one true "pro," although the eventual winner did have a decent backstory to him. It's a major opposite from a major golf tournament like the U.S. or British Open, where an amateur doing well against the pros gets extra support (Matt Kuchar while he was at Georgia Tech, for example), while here, the pro is the sentimental favorite against a bunch of amateurs.

I suppose that says something about poker today that if a big-named pro survives to the final table at the main event, it's almost an upset, whereas an amateur winning it all is now commonplace.

As for something completely different, the silly gimmick of putting stars of an upcoming TV shows in the crowd of major sporting events has shaken down to regular-season Yankees game hyping the new MyNetwork TV. Instead of Sammo Hung at the Final Four or the cast of That '70s Show at the World Series, we get guys (not even the hot women) from this new show and this other new show "found" in the crowd. Kinda silly really, and I definitely feel for Michael Kay having to do those promos this evening.

Silly cinema

Silly cinema
Sorry for the lack of posts. A rapidly declining laptop at home, combined with regular updates at the work blog has kept me from randomly spouting off on stuff here.

Two movie-related things that needed to be posted here:
1. I went to the Netflix Roadshow screening of Clerks in Red Bank, down the street from the original Quick Stop where the movie was filmed. Kevin Smith has his own brief report of the night on his site -- I got there just before the movie actually screened so I missed the Q&A and only got a quick glimpse of Silent Bob, his wife as well as Lisa Loeb (who did some hosting, I think).
They did bring back some of the cast as well. Dante made a brief appearance that I missed, but Veronica did stick around after the film. Even funnier were the appearances by the roofer in the Death Star/contractor discussion and the little girl who bought a pack of cigarettes. Thankfully I didn't geek out completely and get autographs (they were just signing Netflix cards anyways
The Roadshow idea is pretty cool, especially since three of my favorite films are part of this year's tour. While all the Clerks stuff was gone before I could get to it, I did snag this poster, this poster and an Unpainted Arizona t-shirt.

2. I did rush out to see Talladega Nights and thought it was pretty funny, although not on the level of Anchorman -- at least not yet (when a ton of lines spring to the surface after multiple viewings). I will say that the oddest cameos in the film can be summed up in the line: "Is that Elvis Costello and Mos Def?"
Oh yeah, and was I the only one to think this actress was in the film when it reality it was this Oscar nominee? The previous has connections to two of the main stars, but hey, when you can increase the Oscar nominees in the cast to three, why not?