Getting fitted for mouse ears

Yeah, it's been a while since I've posted here. Chalk it up to a part of being busy, another part of wasting time on Facebook and another part of being lazy/apathetic toward keeping this blog up.

However, that may change in one way or another soon. That's because I'm moving up to the greater Bristol area next month to be part of the fantasy edit staff up at the Worldwide Leader. I guess I'm not the only person to be poached in recent days, although I'm definitely not as high profile as some of the others mentioned in that story.

I'll be officially leaving SI next week after 10 1/2 years there, so it's weird to be moving on, but it also seems like it's about time for a change.

Maybe now with the change (as well as the end of the fantasy football season -- I did win my office league), I'll be freed up a bit to blog here again.

Power of celebrity

Been a while since I've posted here, as I've been doing more stuff on Facebook. Among the brief highlights of recent days is finally going to the U.S. Open, seeing Superbad (which really could use this blog's title as a subtitle) and The King of Kong (nerds are nerds, they just wear different stripes).

But a couple of incidents of celebrity or pseudo-celebrity really stick with me:

-- First off, one of my co-workers and I were part of some promotional event with Bengals rookie Leon Hall at a Macy's in Cincinnati last Thursday. Eventually some video of the event will be posted, but in a nutshell, I got to talk fantasy football on stage for about 20-30 minutes (also taking questions), then Hall got to talk about his brief Bengals career (although no Michigan talk, unfortunately) for another 20-30 minutes before he signed autographs. It's still surreal that they wanted me and my co-worker there to be a sort of VIP, but it worked out well. I guess I've got another career opening for Tiffany or even Robin Sparkles.

-- After being a "celebrity," I definitely got my taste of star gazing last night while celebrating my friend's birthday at a small dive-ish Mexican restaurant in Greenwich Village. We went because bingo was the activity of the night (not unlike all the karaoke or trivia nights I'm used to seeing).

At some point during the evening, two large groups of tables behind us finally filled up with a bunch of really good-looking people, including some model-types a bit too dressed up for a place like this. I didn't think much of it, as they were just drinking and goofing off playing bingo like the rest of us. Then I realized a couple of tables over was Jimmie Johnson, the reigning Nextel Cup champ. I guess he was the guest of honor at this party, but couldn't really figure out why his big entourage would be at a place like this.

Eventually, this article would explain a lot.

Q: You sound a little sluggish today, the day after your 32nd birthday. Feeling OK?

JJ: "Man, I am feeling rough. My head hurts, my body hurts. I'm burning all over. Not enough sleep at all."

Q: What did you get into?

JJ: "We went to this dive Mexican restaurant in New York called Tortilla Flats. You'd love the place. It has the cheesiest stuff you could ever imagine hanging from the ceiling, Christmas lights hung all over the place. And there's all kinds of crazy stuff going on. There's a singing Elvis. They had all kinds of contests taking place, a couple rounds of bingo. We just put a couple tables together and had a blast."

I saw a bunch of t-shirts around, not realizing it was a high school yearbook picture of JJ. Had I known, I would've tried to get my hands on one. Unfortunately, despite two members of our party having really nice cameras, we didn't get good shots of Jimmie and company.

We opted not to shadow their entourage the rest of the night -- we really wanted to get dessert and landed at this chocolate place. But before we left for good, we noticed Nick Lachey and Vanessa Minnillo pretty much taking over our seating area. Remember that this is a small quirky Mexican restaurant/bar, but somehow found ourselves among some pretty random celebrities. Welcome to New York, I guess.

Garden parties

It's always a hoot to watch MSG Classics on MSG Network, which is basically a bunch of old WWF matches from the Garden over the years. There's a huge sense of nostalgia -- for the old announcers, the old bad lighting, the evolution of TV graphics and of course the wrestling. Sure, there have been plenty of changes in the action over time. That's just how things have changed.

But it's pretty sad to watch some of these matches (in tonight's case, the first SummerSlam in 1988) and realize that many of the participants have already passed on. And it's not even the older participants like Gorilla Monsoon or Lord Alfred Hayes. It's often the wrestling talent who was at the prime of their careers when these cards originally took place (for instance, there was a Rick Rude-Junkyard Dog match). So many guys are dying relatively early that you almost can't blame guys like Dusty Rhodes and Sgt. Slaughter to occasionally put on the boots just to prove that they've stayed alive. Even stranger is that it seems like the guys from those 1970s Bruno Sammartino cards have a better survival rate than the those mid-'80s, early '90s cards.

Holy cow!

Just when I do a little obit scouring, now comes the passing of Phil Rizzuto, a fixture of my youth watching Yankees games and just New York area TV in general. His folksy way of calling games made him a beloved figure for Yankees fans for a number of years, and his Italian Catholic background made him a popular figure around my church and grammar school growing up. In fact, I remember signing a petition in second or third grade trying to get the Scooter into the Hall of Fame -- which would happen a number of years later (in 1994).

In a way, I knew the end was near soon when he wasn't at Old Timers Day, but instead sent a letter that was read near the end of the introductions. But while he hadn't been part of the Yankees broadcast crew for about a decade, his aura still loomed large over games.

To say goodbye, here's one of his Money Store ads, as well as an in-game promo for a mid-'80s Yankees game:

Dead pooling

Here's an interesting set of three celebrity deaths:
-- Merv Griffin. I still remember his talk show from long ago, not to mention Kramer turning his apartment into the old Merv Griffin Show set in one episode of Seinfeld. But his lasting legacy in the game show world is creating Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! Of course, only by adding those two factors together do you get the current outpouring of coverage of his death. (For instance, Mike Douglas didn't get nearly the coverage when he passed on recently, although everyone did trot out the Tiger Woods clip from his show when he was just a little kid.)

-- Brooke Astor. That she made it to 105 is amazing enough. It was just weird, though, that she made the news a couple of years ago not because she died but because of in-family squabbling over her care. But as a New York legend, she'll be missed.

-- Brian Adams. No, not this guy, but rather the latest pro wrestler to die somewhat prematurely. He had a rather interesting career with Demolition, although his Kona Crush days are the ones I remember most, even if they seemed to be the dorkiest of his gimmicks. But once again, it hardly registers now when a pro wrestler passes in his 30s and 40s -- unless it's a really extreme case like Chris Benoit. It almost makes you feel good for some of the old-time guys to suit up from time to time just to bring back the old days because many of their peers and many of the people who grew up watching them are no longer around.

Down with the geekness

Despite the fact that I grew up in central New Jersey, it was only last night that I actually saw a concert at the PNC (nee Garden State) Arts Center -- the reasonably-sized outdoor-ish musical venue in the middle of the Garden State Parkway. In this case, I took in yet another Weird Al performance, fully embracing my nerd cred, knowing full well I'd fit in pretty well in this crowd. (It's hard to feel you're "too cool for school" here, mainly because you've spent decent money and had to trek down the Parkway to get to this concert in the first place.)

And having seen a couple of his shows in Atlanta, I pretty much got what I expected -- a ton of costume changes (marked by his faux interviews of celebrities), accompanying videos to most of his songs and one really long parody medley set. Also got some Storm Troopers and Darth Vader for "The Saga Begins" -- to ratchet up the geek factor even more -- and the requisite Segway for "White and Nerdy." Despite the relatively fun set, I'm still a bit thrown that his encore song was "Albuquerque" -- but at least he'll actually be playing there at the tail end of the tour.

He's actually returning to the area to play at the Beacon Theater in Manhattan next month (probably a better venue for his act), but I'm amused at the venues he's playing right around the New York City gig:

Sept 19 New Bedford, MA Zeiterion Performing Arts Center
Sept 20 New York City Beacon Theater
Sept 21 Ledyard, CT Foxwoods Casino

Grand Slammed

In the midst of last week's conventions, I was able to catch the first couple of episodes of GSN's Grand Slam -- a pretty interesting show featuring a number of game show legends plus a few other random names. I'm intrigued by the fact that the game tests all sorts of knowledge skills beyond just trivia. It's been fun to watch, although I will admit that having Dennis Miller as a smarmy studio host-type is a very acquired taste. On the other hand, more than one person has said that Pat Kiernan has become the "voice" of game shows thanks to his work on the World Series of Pop Culture and as the disembodies "questioner" on Grand Slam.

If you want to see a little bit of the show, YouTube has much of the first game between Ken Jennings and Victor Lee. Here's one clip. The show continues on Saturday and Sunday for the next few weeks. (Also worth noting -- I've played against four of the contestants in the field -- Ken, Victor, Ed and Dave -- in assorted quiz bowl tournaments, plus Kevin has moderated a ton of my matches.)

Conventional wisdom

I guess I could consider my Vegas/Miami conference doubleheader a success. I got some business done in Vegas for FSTA with limited gambling damage (although I didn't get a chance to play a poker tournament while in town), and did a fair share of both networking and sightseeing in Miami for AAJA. Plus, it was good to reconnect with all sorts of people at AAJA after missing the past couple of conventions as well as finding even more of my fellow Wildcats.

I got a couple of trips to South Beach in, including a great dinner at The Setai on Friday night with an awesome deal for Miami Spice Restaurant month. But unlike most of my friends' dinner trips around the area, we got some amazing service, which I never really considered a whole lot until now.

The Miami leg of the trip also involved catching a preview of Finishing the Game, the latest Justin Lin film. It was a pretty funny movie in the vein of This Is Spinal Tap, but it was uneven and oddly paced. Still, I'd be interested in seeing it again when it comes out in the fall. However, I don't think it will generate the same buzz as Better Luck Tomorrow did after it was screened at the 2002 convention in Dallas.

Some pictures should be posted up sooner or later -- or they'll just be on Facebook, my newest form of Web crack.

On the road

I'm now part of the insane travel week, starting with Vegas for the next 24 hours or so for one conference before heading to Miami for another one the rest of the week. I thought I was going to encounter luggage issues with the way Continental handles its online bag drop, but all was good since I could check into my hotel while waiting for my bags.

Before I left, I did get to see The Simpsons Movie, and my feelings about it are much like how I feel about the show over the years -- it was a thrill to watch for most of the movie (the animation was impressive), but as it dragged on toward the end, it wasn't as much fun as I hoped it to be. But still reasonably satisfying as a whole.

I also got my first taste of Ring of Honor wrestling as it was playing literally a couple of streets down from my house at a driving range/mini golf/tennis court/roller hockey complex. In fact, they just plopped a wrestling ring in the middle of the roller hockey rink and added some seats around it and voila, instant show.

Not a bad show overall, as it was the tail end of special tournament (although one of the wrestlers in the tournament accidentally broke the trophy during his ring entrance; naturally he lost the match), and I did get to see most of the roster in some form. The guys all seemed to work hard, and there was decent action, even if I hadn't heard of any of them going in. In fact, the final match of the tournament between El Generico (great name for a skinny white dude with a Mexican wrestling mask -- the generic luchador) and Claudio Castagnoli (supposedly a Swiss guy who drew a lot of Fonzie "Ayyy" chants) was a lot of fun with a ton of near falls and high spots.

Greetings from Asbury Park

For the second time in just a couple of months, I got to check out Fountains of Wayne in concert -- this time at the legendary Stone Pony in Asbury Park. Unfortunately, Bruce did not show up, but I did see a handful of acts beforehand, as this was part of a daylong festival -- including Mike Doughty, April Smith and Drive-By Truckers. It was definitely a nice bonus to get to see DBT beforehand.

However, with a short turnaround on a small stage between DBT and FOW, there were plenty of sound problems during the Fountains of Wayne set. (Most of the time, acts alternated between the indoor and outdoor stages, giving some time for a sound check.) Bad feedback on a couple of the guitars, the lead singer's microphone deathly quiet on the first song, etc. Getting a spot about four feet in front of the stage made that much more obvious.

Otherwise, the set was nearly identical to the one at Webster Hall, except that they did "Red Dragon Tattoo" during an encore. Also, Smith came on stage to do some guest percussion work on "Hey Julie." (Actually, she crept in right in front of me during a song to get into position later, and I originally mistook her for one of the teenager-types milling in front of the stage before realizing who she was.) The band did as well as they could in spite of the errors, but obviously it wasn't as crisp as it could've been.

Another regret was not bringing my camera into the club (I'd been to too many shows lately where the no-camera things was strictly enforced.) to show exactly how simple the club was and how close I was to the stage for the final show.

Since the journey to the show involved a trip down the shore, I had to make sure to stop by Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash along the way in Red Bank to pick up a couple of trinkets. Actually, Red Bank is a very nice town, but for pop culture tourists like me, as well as a couple of girls I met who were on a concert road trip (the Police, John Mayer/Ben Folds were the other shows on the docket), the Stash is the main thing to see. That sorta irked another person I met who actually was from the town.

But at least I didn't ask the clerk there for directions to the Quick Stop, as a couple of people in the store were doing when I was there. That's another geek trip for another day.

Pop life

As I've mentioned before, I'm not eligible to play in the World Series of Pop Culture. However, I was eligible to play the Trivia Dome, an online component of the show run by VH1, and somehow won the last of their regular games and taking a nice cash prize in the process (although not anywhere close to the $250K that Twisted Misters won). I thought I was in good position to win $10K in the final challenge but got tripped up just a few questions from the end.

Come to my seminar

I've already noted before how amusing it was that early '90s infomercial legend Tom Vu is now a reasonably successful poker player. But at least now I know he's embraced his past as I saw ESPN showing clips of his old infomercials while he was part of the final table of one of the many tournaments this year.

However, I am still intrigued a bit by the weird-looking film ESPN is using for this year's tournaments. It's hard for me to place, but then again, I guess I haven't seen it in HD just yet (which is new this year).

Edited for time constraints

It's interesting that there are two World Series in the pop culture crosshairs right now.

First off, the World Series of Pop Culture has me and the rest of our office entranced for a couple of weeks. I've played against the Twisted Misters team (the young NYU guys) and they're good, giving my team one heck of a fight at TRASHionals this year. Plus, one of the Andrews clobbered us on Jeremy's audio round, and for that, he gets my respect, even if they are a bit loud and brash. Of course, if this is one of the better teams, you've got to wonder what some of us can do.

The game hasn't changed a whole lot from last year, although replacing Lisa Guerrero with the Cheetara girls is pretty much a push. It's solid for what it is, although if something like this could succeed, I wonder if a TRASH game could exist on TV as well.

As for the other World Series ... of Poker, once again it becomes very strange when a large part of the audience is rooting for the pro against a bunch of amateurs. In this case, it was Scotty Nguyen just missing out on the final table. I still think poker and golf have a lot of similarities in the spectator department, but with the rise of the game these days, the two diverge greatly when it comes to rooting for the underdog.

For instance, an amateur or a young, up-and-coming golfer will often get a lot of crowd support if he's in contention against a bunch of pros (although probably not Tiger Woods) late in a tournament, especially a major. In that case, he's bucking the odds since it's a nobody against a ton of pros.

In the main event, it's a bunch of nobodies against a few pros, so the ones who slip by and make it far will get far more support. Yes, the professionals are the underdogs against the average Joe. How many other competitions can you say that?

Jack off

Well, sorta. WCBS-FM is back to its oldies format, replacing the controversial Jack format that I actually liked. I did wish I did hear the final minutes of the format, which involved cutting off Journey's "Don't Stop Believing," stealing from the final scene of The Sopranos.

Both stations still lived on even when the format switch took place a couple of years ago, and something similar is happening here. The oldies format, which now has some on-air personalities, takes over the main airwaves, while Jack is now on WCBS's HD feed (where the oldies were, sans DJs) and can be heard here.

While there are plenty of people jumping over to satellite radio, there is still something to be said for local terrestrial radio, especially one that still seems to connect with listeners. WCBS' oldies format still clicks in the New York area, even though its core audience isn't recommending Nuts and Gum together at last. However, there are some concessions to the Jack days, as there is a smattering of '80s music with the '60s and '70s stuff (although the '50s and early '60s stuff is close to nonexistent now).

The Jack format is definitely a demographically driven format in that it captures me, square in that Nuts and Gum age group. And I really can see why some radio critics called it oldies for a new generation given the heavy '70s and '80s rock playlist but also a lot of '90s and '00s music, along with enough randomness to pretend it's "like your iPod on shuffle." So I'll miss it on the regular radio, at least a little.

It is interesting that within the past year, two New York stations have in fact restored their old format. Before WCBS returned as an oldies station, 92.3 returned to its K-Rock format, ditching the "hot talk" format that I've never really seen work anywhere. I guess K-Rock will pick up a bit more of the recent rock stuff that Jack has (a secondary feed is more "alternative"), while I'll have to jump to the classic rock station for that stuff now.

Unfortunately, it may be asking too much for WNEW-FM (where rock lives) to be resurrected. The numerous formats has been hard to track. It's currently Fresh FM -- young adult contemporary might be the best description. There was the recent '70s-'80s dance hits format, all-Christmas, etc. Now there's an example why people jump to satellite.

Viewer alert

It's a bit early, but it's a good time for you to at least find it on your dial, but apparently next weekend's Jeopardy! rerun will be my second episode (don't click if you don't want to be spoiled). You'll definitely have to check your local listings if you really care to see me on TV again.

Bronx time machine

It's hard to believe that the Yankees are the only team to still hold an Old Timers Day, especially with teams like the Pirates, Red Sox and Tigers all having lots of tradition to fall back on as well. Then again, when the Yankees first did this day to retire Lou Gehrig's number, you know they can do it right.

(As an aside, what would a Devil Rays or Rockies Old Timers Day look like? I guess you can trot out Wade Boggs, Fred McGriff, Andres Galarraga and Dante Bichette; but then again you'll also see Kevin Stocker and David Nied, I guess.)

The array of Yankees introduced is always intriguing. There are the really old legends like Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford; more recent legends like Reggie Jackson, Goose Gossage, Ron Guidry and Don Mattingly; and notable names from the recent run of World Series titles like Paul O'Neill, Scott Brosius, Jim Leyritz and even Darryl Strawberry. Bucky Dent's recent firing opened things up for him to show up at the game, and Bobby Murcer's appearance was really nice, given his recent health issues.

But with all the names from the past showing up, what in the world was Homer Bush doing in the ceremonies? Especially since he's 10 years younger than the starting pitcher for the Yankees on Saturday (yes, it seems fitting that Roger Clemens was starting on Old Timers Day).

Karma Ticketmaster

So after the sunburned experience on Saturday, I redeemed myself by going back to Yankee Stadium on Tuesday with the office tickets. However, it was a weird shuffle that saw me and a fellow co-worker giving our original tickets to another one of our cubicle-mates so she could go with her family and then getting another set from someone else. Hard to figure out, but instead of the $10 face value bleacher seats, I had a $125 face value ticket just behind first base.

The game itself was a lot better, and the celebrity factor was also amusing. For the second straight time I've gotten company seats to a game, I've seen this guy at the game, and for added bonus, we got one of his co-stars. But the real star of the night was everyone's favorite former Cincinnati mayor, who was a couple of sections over and was mobbed by people wanting to take pictures with him when he tried to leave in the eighth inning.

And as for July 4th, I got a sort of an obstructed view of the East River fireworks from my friend's place on Roosevelt Island. We could've gotten a better view, but we weren't willing to pay $18 to see it from the park on the south end of the island. Still, I was impressed by the layout of the whole island -- a weird slice of suburbia in between Manhattan and Queens.

Road trip at home

I guess I should fill in whatever leftover blanks from the trip reports from Mike and Craig . They've done a great job of wrapping up their long journey; I was just there for part of it, as well as serving as a home base for a good portion of it.

Wednesday: I actually worked on some housing stuff before a rather uneventful trip up to Hudson Valley. The one thing that struck me was the jersey t-shirt for Evan Longoria. Yes, he was the Devil Rays' top pick last year, and yes his name is that close to Gabrielle's (although they're not related). But as you can see from the stats, Longoria played all of eight games for Hudson Valley (hate that 'Gades stuff) last year. Is that enough for a t-shirt? On the other hand, I'm still interested in getting a Mike Piazza Marlins jersey or a Rasheed Wallace Hawks uni.

Thursday: It was disheartening to see the line for NBA Draft tickets wrap directly around Penn Plaza. Who said the NBA was dead? It was interesting to note that the NBA official who broke the bad news did say they asked to use the actual Garden instead of just using the Theater but were rebuffed. It also sparked one guy near us to ask, "Why did you bother advertising on the radio?" if there were only going to be a few hundred seats available once all the VIPs and entourages were taken care of.

While Mike and Craig were doing their Millionaire audition (oh yeah, I got the thanks but no thanks postcard today), Dwight and I took a quick trip to the Strand Bookstore where somehow I ended up selling out to the WWL by buying a handful of books all related to some of their talent.

We did a good job of ad libbing our way to some entertainment that night. I'd been meaning to go to Caroline's one of these days since it's right down the street from work, so it all turned out for the best, especially as we escaped the thunderstorms we all expected with the insanely hot and humid day in Manhattan (it's less comfortable there than the dry 100 degrees in Las Vegas).

Also, while I was impressed by my trip to the Stage Deli, it is notable that more than one person suggested I take them to Katz's, although it was a little out of the way from where we planned on being during the day.

Friday: Citizens Bank Park is a solid stadium, although the stairs to the upper level of seats were a bit interesting. I'm still unsure how I feel about all of the sporting venues located in one area, but there seemed to be adequate parking as well as a SEPTA stop should I need it. We did get cheesesteaks before the game, although at a pizza place down the street from the stadium and not at one of the landmark places. Still, it was a decent sandwich. Plus, it gives me more ideas for my own Philly trip.

I also finally got to a Somerset game, which is notable since the park is only about 25 minutes from my house. I thought I might actually run into people I'd know, especially since my high school did some big alumni gathering there earlier in the week. The funny part of entering the stadium was our assorted oohs and aahs when such former major leaguers as Quinton McCracken, Junior Spivey and Alan Zinter were announced in the starting lineup as we were walking in.

Saturday: I've had better experiences in the Yankee Stadium bleachers, but unfortunately this wasn't it, even if it was a nice sunny day. Then again, with Kei Igawa starting, it was going to be a long day. I just didn't think the Yankees would be one-hit that day. Hopefully I'll get those guy better tickets and a better experience soon enough. Maybe we won't have Carl complaining about the team. I did make a quick return to the Stadium already (more on that later).

Unfortunately, I don't know all of the places actual Rutgers students might go to, but I know enough of some of the areas now (specifically suburban South Plainfield/Piscataway) to find a decent diner experience before the lacrosse game. The Fountainbleau diner had some great meal deals, plus we had the requisite onion rings (no jukebox at the table, though).

Oddly enough, the MLL game had the most expensive tickets of all the games I went to on the tour, and that included two Major League Baseball games. But the entertainment was solid enough. I had no clue it was that close to home.

Now I have to knock a few more local parks off the list like Lakewood, Montclair, Sussex and maybe even Atlantic City and Camden.

It was fun tagging along for a good portion of this trip and at least see a little of the fun that I'd only heard about.

Sunday: While the rest of the traveling quizbowl circus hit Baltimore, I made the requisite trip to see Live Free or Die Hard. It had pieces of the other three movies but it obviously doesn't live up to the original, but much like Rocky Balboa, it was good for what it's worth. Very silly and it was a bit strange seeing Warren Cheswick/Mr. Mac trying to play a hacker. Oh yeah, Maggie Q kicks all sorts of ass as well.

A real U-turn

So the sad Chris Benoit story really took a turn for the worst as the rumblings of a murder-suicide were indeed true and very disturbing. And while the attention now turns to potential "roid rage," it is very interesting to see how the WWE had to switch gears after Monday's tribute show.

As mentioned before, the televised tribute shows for Eddie Guerrero, Owen Hart and Brian Pillman had a slight bit of planning. But more to the point, there wasn't the same mystery over their deaths -- Pillman and Guerrero had heart attacks in their hotel rooms, while Owen had the tragic in-ring accident. At the time the WWE found out about Benoit's death, it was assumed a similar tribute would be in order and could make good use of their extensive tape library. Unfortunately as the evening unfolded, the show turned out to be a bad idea given the news, although in some ways, you did want to have closure on his career.

So the ECW show did go on, with Vince McMahon apologizing once again for how it approached death. But probably once and for all, McMahon's "death" storyline will be trashed for good.

The more interesting aspect of this is how the WWE's Web site has been handling this story. It was obviously the first to the story, although they played it very gingerly for a while, dedicating as much time to tributes and career retrospectives as the news itself. But as the news unfolded, it became a primary go-to source for some of the more grisly details. More telling, all those retrospectives are gone. His WWE.com bio is gone, no merchandise available. The only main reference to him now is the story about his death, although the WWE can't completely delete all history related to him (like it used to do when failing to acknowledge past wrestlers' history in rival promotions for years).

I guess at this point, the show will go on up in Stamford. And unfortunately, Benoit will indeed go down in even worse infamy than almost all the wrestlers who died too soon.

Happier, trashier thoughts

Sorry for the two straight celebrity death posts. It just happens that way at times. However, I get another trash tournament title, teaming up with J-Kel, Adam Fine and last-second addition Tim Young (thanks to a well-timed phone call Saturday night) to win Maryland's event. If you're looking through stats, I'm Yuniesky.

The questions were relatively solid (must speak in general terms with the material still in play next week), although for an event aimed at a younger crowd, it still seemed to favor our group more than we expected. It did make for a couple of shootouts, and some insane combined total scores (690 out of 800 in one game).

My neg total was a bit high, although at least a couple of times I had the answer in my head but my mouth changed a last name. Given the way things went, I could play a little looser without causing much of a disturbance. But I think I still have the fastball, so I'll really have to find another tournament this summer.

The whole little experience was fun as I got to add yet two more teammates to the growing list of players over the years, plus catching up with some old friends once again along the way.

This is not an angle

Unfortunately for WWE, it has become too used to doing impromptu tribute shows on Raw for its stars who have died while actively with the company. Brian Pillman, Owen Hart, Eddie Guerrero and now, sadly, Chris Benoit.

This latest tragic story in the real world of pro wrestling thankfully did away with the silly "Mr. McMahon is dead" storyline that really pushed the limits of what today's wrestling fan will believe. Vince himself was in a middle of an empty ring to tell the viewing public about the death of Benoit and his family. Hopefully he's learned now not to walk too fine a line with angles, especially relating to death -- there is still a dose of reality in wrestling even if we know these guys are playing characters.

This tribute show was different than the other three mentioned above for obvious reasons. The other three wrestlers died the weekend before Monday Night Raw, with Pillman dying the day before a pay-per-view card, Hart killed during a PPV event. That gave the performers a chance to compose themselves and eventually set up some real "tribute" matches. (With that said, Benoit was supposed to be on Sunday's PPV card but no-showed due to a "family emergency.")

In the case of Benoit, the tragic news officially came about midafternoon Monday just hours before the show was to go on. The live show was canceled and a number of old Benoit matches were aired, introduced by the announcing crews for all three WWE shows (having all three brands represented because of the McMahon angle helped here) interspersed with messages from some of the current roster. It is worth noting that at least a couple of matches (ladder vs. Jericho; cage vs. JBL) had him losing. But Benoit was the type of guy who could put someone over without ruining his mojo. However, an old Japanese match in his Pegasus Kid gimmick vs. Jushin Liger was fun to watch. And it was really heartbreaking to see Benoit win the Wrestlemania XX main event and then celebrating with the now deceased Eddie Guerrero.

Unfortunately, Benoit isn't even close to being a rare breed of pro wrestlers to die young, although the circumstances beyond his death are so vastly different than Guerrero or other colleagues that his will really stick out for years to come. Let's hope many people (at least wrestling fans) will remember the Rabid Wolverine for his in-ring prowess than for whatever news will come out of his tragic end.

Truly a reality check

History isn't usually kind to the second or third person in history to do something, and so was the feeling when I saw the news that Frankie from The Real World: San Diego had died (the second former cast member of the show to do so). In many ways, she's very similar to Danitra Vance, the third Saturday Night Live alum to pass away.

Both shows actually now have a long list of alums, given their seemingly unending runs, but with their limited yet rotating casts, any death to a member of the cast is still notable. But obviously, some passings will get more play than others.

In Frankie's case, she passed on a few years after her original run on the show and many years after the well-publicized death of Pedro Zamora just as his San Francisco season had finished airing. In Vance's case, she died in relative anonymity many years after her similarly anonymous SNL run and more than 10 years after John Belushi's highly notable passing and five years after Gilda Radner's similarly tragic end. Frankie's Real World was season 14, Vance's SNL was season 10 -- by then, both shows were just part of the TV world, you know it's on, but it's not making much noise in the general cultural landscape (recent Survivor seasons are getting that way as well). So you had to be a really hard-core fan or a younger viewer picking up on the show late for both people to resonate in people's minds.

Even how they're often remembered on their shows is relatively similar. Vance was the first African-American female cast member, and while she had a couple of relatively notable characters (Cabrini Green Jackson, for instance), she definitely didn't come out of the show a star. Her lone season, 1985-86, was a transition one, but also produced such longtime stalwarts as Dennis Miller, Nora Dunn and Jon Lovitz.

Frankie was most known for having cystic fibrosis, which likely was the cause of her death, but also had her share of drama (a cutting incident, strife with her boyfriend, fear of working on a boat) and left the show before the end of the season. Like Vance, she had her moments, but in the long run, didn't necessarily seem to fit in with the cast -- especially physically While Frankie did have the cute alternative thing going, her other three female roommates from the show (Cameran, Robin, Jamie) were just off the charts -- all have done Maxim/calendar/bikini modeling gigs since the show's original run in 2003-04.

So rest in peace, Frankie, as you now become a notable footnote in TV history.

Vegas, baby, hoo-hah!

So I did catch my first real sequel of the summer season by watching Ocean's Thirteen, and it was definitely fun to watch, especially after coming back from Vegas. All of the actors seemed to have fun pretending to be suave as well as doing the basic comic capering. And guys like Andy Garcia and Al Pacino chewed up the scenery as usual, and Ellen Barkin was actually usefully hot; but I was also amused to see Super Dave Osborne show up again in a secondary role. Also, I guess the Pacino casino would be where that huge Coke bottle is on the Strip -- at least they picked out an area that's sorta in need of a mega-huge resort.

Throwing off the curve

Forgot to mention that I easily passed my Millionaire audition on Monday. The whole process surprisingly only took about 25 minutes, not including waiting outside the ABC cafeteria door. While I had some nice people at my table, including one of the eight or so people of the 60 who passed, I had a good feeling that I could've easily went on to the next round if the Scantron-scored tests were graded on a curve. Still, I had to hold my breath as I was the last of eight or so called out of the 60 taking the test to pass.

(Oh yeah, the test was 30 multiple-choice questions that seemed to ask more pop cultural stuff than academic stuff. I felt it was a breeze, but that's just me, obviously. After hanging around with a bunch of trivia and game show junkies, this was just a perfunctory part of getting to the second level of the quiz show casting process.)

Afterward was a quick Polaroid session followed by what seemed to be a version of speed dating as I talked with one of the young and relatively attractive PAs who at least was energetic enough to make me feel like I've got a shot at being in the audience pool. It definitely is a different experience compared to Jeopardy!, especially with the fact that you can try out multiple times in a year. Who knows what will happen.

Rockets and Bears

-- I did get to the Roger Clemens relaunch in the Bronx on Saturday, and it was a pretty fun atmosphere, although I was sorta surprised I could still walk up to get tickets just minutes before the game, especially with it being Cap Day, but I guess playing the Pirates didn't goose up the attendance (but there were decent smatterings of fans there.

-- And for a change of pace, I ended up at the Newark Bears game on Sunday, where there was about 1% of the attendance of the Yankees game the day before. It was "Women in Sports" Day at the park, which I guess is a nice idea, but the first promotion tied to it was a Brandi Chastain contest where a couple of guys wore sports bras and had to do their best post-goal celebration. So I guess we weren't serious about the concept, eh?

-- Finally caught my first movie of the summer movie season, and it wasn't a sequel in the exact sense of the term, but given the mix of Freaks and Geeks/Undeclared/40-Year-Old Virgin alums, it might as well be a Judd Apatow sequel. And everything really did seem like those projects mashed together. The celebrity cameos were fun -- including completing the "Freaks" reunion by adding James Franco to the mix. Plus, who knew Bill Haverchuck could look like Jesus?

-- Just watched the most recent incarnation of Last Comic Standing, and I was underwhelmed with the talent, although it was a good touch to replace the Tonight Show folks with LCS alums. So would Kathleen Madigan be Paula, Alonzo Bodden be Randy and Ant (plus toupee) be Simon?

-- While watching LCS, though, I got bombarded with the Mark Philippoussis reality show ads that were surprisingly kept to a minimum during French Open coverage. The one thing that kept sticking at me the entire time is what's wrong with women our age (Mark is a year and a half younger than me)?

-- I don't have HBO here at the house, so I didn't get to see "The Sopranos" finale, although I think I've pretty much watched it by reading the reviews. But after reading that only one network show beat the final in the ratings for the entire week, at least I can feel comfortable with the attention given to a show on pay cable.

Also, while everyone is going gaga for the use of Journey in the final scene, just remember that "Don't Stop Believing" generated even better iTunes numbers when it appeared on Laguna Beach and Family Guy. However, Craig had a good retort in saying that the fact that it was in the 20s just showed that most people already had the song by the time the finale rolled around.

Viva lost wages

So part two of the vacation had me in Vegas with family for a week or so. Finally did a few shows that I never get a chance to see in my previous trips, and I kept the gaming to an odd minimum -- assorted stops at a video poker or slot machines, a short venture into the world of Sic-Bo and a couple of poker tournaments, including just missing cashing out at a late-night one at Harrah's, where I busted out a woman who would be spending the next month and a half as a dealer at the World Series of Poker.

And speaking of the World Series, I actually got a chance to check out the opening of this year's festivities at the Rio, and it definitely was a hoot. First off, there were ridiculously long lines for people to register for all of the tournaments and satellites, but since I was just a spectator, no lines for me. Also notable is that it wasn't just WSOP events taking place in the gigantic ballroom used for the tournament, there were also random cash games going on.

But the big thing was actually being around for the cards going in the air for the first tournament of the WSOP, a $5,000 mixed limit/no-limit hold 'em event. With such a big buy-in, plus being the opening event, you couldn't help but stumble across all the notable names. I saw a few guys like Phil Gordon and Doyle Brunson just before everything started, and then when I got into the room, I spent my time just noting all the big names playing -- Gordon, Brunson (older and younger), Johnny Chan and Daniel Negreanu at the same table, Jesus Ferguson not too far away, an early table with Greg Raymer, John Hennigan and Andrew Black, Norman Chad wandering around the tables, Celine's husband at a table just below a small lounge area next to the ESPN table, Gabe Kaplan passing by me in front of that lounge, and Mike Matusow screaming within seconds after the first hand was dealt because of how awful the new cards were.

Surprisingly with all of the top players there, I wasn't paying that much attention to the actual poker being played. After stopping by a WPT event at Mandalay Bay the day before, I realized that watching poker played without the hole cameras and usually without a real clean look at the board can be a real bore. In a way, watching poker like this is similar to golf since it has a rail/gallery, but you can get a better look at a player actually hitting the ball. Just trying to pick out all the big names as well as matching names with faces became the most interesting part of watching the tournament.

Actually, another way to compare watching this event to golf is like my trips to the Tour Championship while I still lived in Atlanta. The nature of the event guaranteed a ton of the biggest names playing, and I was very star-struck to see all of these notable players all at once. And yet I had to tell myself that these people are just doing their jobs -- although the WSOP is a whole different monster altogether. While it was great to see a bunch of people I've only seen on TV in person, most of them really did just look and dress like the rest of us schlubs in the crowd. And of course, all they're doing is sitting down and playing cards, so the "action" shots (including my really crappy ones I may eventually upload) never look all that compelling, compared to even golfers making their shots.

So I finally have my first WSOP experience, albeit as a spectator. After seeing the mass of humanity all around me, I can definitely see why you're usually better off watching the chopped up highlights after the fact.

Radio songs

If there's one thing you can count on during Memorial Day weekend is a decent countdown-esque gimmick from some radio stations. New York's Jack FM station is rolling out their entire playlist in alphabetical order, as you might see here. From the small sliver I tuned into, I ended with three "It's My Life" songs.

Over on the Web, WOXY.com is doing their 18th annual Modern Rock 500, and this year they moved it to their main audio stream, which is a nice touch. If you have iTunes, you can find the radio stream with the added bonus of getting title and artist info as the song plays. I'll probably miss the end of the countdown since I'm off to Vegas later this evening, but I'll post a link to the list when it's ready and then adjust my playlists accordingly.

In the meantime, I've got the two things going on simultaneously, and having Greg Kihn's "Jeopardy" and Postal Service's "Such Great Heights" playing at the same time is messing with my head.

The Windy Apple

Back from a quick trip to Chicago for the NAQT High School NCT, which is just another good excuse to see some old quizbowl friends and faces from years past while also reading rounds in cramped hotel rooms (although I did get a nice suite for day 2). I'm always impressed by the level of play here, especially since I'd be toast on a lot of the stuff although there's always a few non-trash questions here and there that I know that the others don't. It's also fun being recognized by some of the teams as one guy said, "the awesome reader." I just do what I do, but then again I guess I just take my job for granted.

Unfortunately the rain washed out any chance of going to Dillo Day, but I did get out to Evanston on Friday afternoon and forgot exactly how long it takes to get from the O'Hare area to the campus via the El. The two-hour ride each way was about as long as my flight. Still, I did get to see a downtown Evanston that looks so much different from the last time I was there about 3-4 years ago -- yet I did stop by a couple of the few businesses that were around when I was there, Clarke's and Campus Gear. Hopefully I'll get more time to see the campus later this year.

A couple of additional travel notes: United is the latest to jump on the XM bandwagon, although it's a very limited selection and you don't get the program info like AirTran's fuller version of the service. But there were current season episodes of 30 Rock and The Office, so that was fine.

Summer of George

So if we plopped George Constanza into Las Vegas, would we get something like this? I actually use my trips to Vegas for some good exercise trying to go up and down the Strip. These people, not so much

And here's a version of anti-Coverville, thanks to folks at Retrocrush -- complete with many video links.

And if you haven't been fast-forwarding through commercials, let's just say that this is a perfect fit (pun intended), and that this where are they now ad is cute because she is.

Star struck

A few bullet points before my double vacation (Chicago/Vegas) this weekend:

-- I made my "Broadway debut" (so to speak) over the weekend as one of the audience spellers at The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. I pretty much thought I'd be a lock as a ringer for that part of the show, and I was the last audience member eliminated. It was weird watching half the play from the inside, but it was cool having Mo Rocca asking me to spell stuff. And there wasn't as much nervousness spelling on stage, given that I could barely see into the audience with the way the lights were and that if I wanted to take a dive on a word, I could.

-- If you're looking for content I wrote for work that isn't related to your fantasy team, here's my list of bizarre athlete product endorsements.

-- I'm not sure what it says about the NBA that I'm more excited by the draft lottery than the playoffs. And almost according to form, the Hawks keep the top three pick, but don't get one of the top two. But maybe they'll actually get a point guard this time.

-- I just got Guitar Hero 2, and let's just say that I can see how its most famous casualty could get injured playing it.

Nth degrees of separation

Obviously, I've come across all sorts of people of varying degrees of success in my business, considering how long I've actually been working, but there are things that still surprise me when I see it, especially when it comes to my time when the Web was such an experimental medium.

For instance, one of the few writers at the Trib's Web site during my time as an intern winning a Pulitzer. And now after catching a little CNN this afternoon, I just realized I interned with the anchor working the main desk. Just weird, although we had completely different responsibilities on the still nascent operations, so it's not really surprising our career paths went in different directions.

Fight night

While the De La Hoya-Mayweather fight was entertaining but a couple of steps below the spectacle everyone wanted it to be, I will say the best part was trying to find celebrities in direct view of the main ring camera. I spent much of the time seeing John McCain catching the fight, and later on, someone else at the party where I was watching it pointed out J-Lo -- and you can tell she was interested in the action, at least compared to Marc Anthony.

Party like it's 1959

So the top two sporting events this weekend are the Kentucky Derby and a boxing match. It's definitely an old-school weekend, and you don't even have to buy anything "retro" to celebrate.

Fitting into the puzzle

As much as I hate to admit, I'm very clingy to my past, and staying true/close to the alma mater is one major aspect of that. I've gone to my fair share of alumni events both in Atlanta and New York, and even represented the school at a college fair the other day. (By the way, thanks to the high school who put us next to another purple-clad college. And if this school that fit alphabetically were there, it would've been chaos.)

Anyways, so I ended up at a young alumni function in the city and realized just exactly so large a base the New York area has. People were impressed with the 200-plus folks there, and yet I only recognized about 10-15 faces, and half of them were from people I've met long after I left school. I know there are tons of people in the area, yet none were there. Strange, but not surprising.

But as these things usually go, I found someone I hadn't seen in 10-plus years and reconnected very well -- having some unique connections beyond just the typical school stuff will do that. Of course, stumbling our way to some tangential Cinco de Mayo celebrations helped make the evening.

FOW concert review

Got my first taste of Fountains of Wayne in concert on Tuesday evening, and as a recent fan, I came away more than pleased. I was surprised that tickets were only $20, odd I thought, but I guess besides "Stacy's Mom," it's still a rather cultish band. Webster Hall was busy but not really sold out, whereas lots of artists I've never heard of are packing the place.

(Side note: Webster Hall also hosted the first Iron Chef America specials, but I'm still trying to figure out how they got Kitchen Stadium to fit in that space. It's not the biggest of theaters -- at least on the main floor, there are lots of nooks and crannies where bars are set up.)

The crowd did cover a larger span of ages than you might expect, but there were probably as many 40-somethings as 20-somethings in the audience. It seems like there were as many early adopters as there were people like me, who picked them up at Welcome Interstate Managers. That also showed in the reaction to songs -- while "Someone to Love" and "Mexican Wine" went over big, so did "Denise" and "Radiation Vibe." And maybe given the slightly older skewing crowd, "Stacy's Mom" was just another song on the set (not even in the encore).

I was intrigued that it took so long between the opening act (Robbers on High Street -- very passable group) and FOW taking the stage, especially with a 20-minute soundcheck going after the supposed 10 p.m. start time. Maybe it had something to do with the lead singer's voice troubling him, not sure, but he did soldier on and didn't seem that much out of sorts. In fact, until the encore, it was the first time in a while that I could really pick out lyrics while at a concert.

Anyways, I was glad to finally see them in concert (and at a reasonable price, all things considered), next stop is the actual store. If you want more on the concert, Stereogum has a complete set list (except they forgot to add "Traffic and Weather" as the opener to the first encore), plus a video from one of the songs. My primary disappointment was that they didn't play "Red Dragon Tattoo." But that's just a minor quibble.

The other side of the table

Before I got into my TRASHionals roundup, I first have to note the passing of David Halberstam, one of my favorite authors -- although surprisingly the first thing I read by him was not any of the sporting books, but The Fifties, followed by much of his '60s-'70s history works for a variety of my classes. He will be sorely missed.

Now, on to the weekend, which was my first TRASHionals as a player after seven iterations writing/editing/administrating the tournament. I was both thrilled and slightly disappointed with a fourth-place finish, but in a field as loaded as this one was, I'll take whatever I can get. Besides, our team did hand the eventual champions their only loss of the weekend (congrats to Anne, Mike, Joe and Craig for winning back the belt).

Karma seemed to bite me briefly in the tournament as after I moved away from the South, I ended up losing to two squads full of players I faced regularly at Charlie's UTC tournaments. In fact, after losing that second game (in a row after winning the first seven straight), I thought we didn't even make the top playoff bracket before a surprising upset in the same round got us in there. Of course, we then lose our first playoff round match to the defending champs, which would eventually doom our chances at making the finals despite sweeping the rest of our matches. I'd like to say the bullpen failed us (much like the Yankees this past weekend), as we had leads going into question 16 of all three losses (including two leads of at least 105 points) before falling.

But as with many of the tournaments I attend, it's as much the people as it is the competition. And a big shindig like this was going to draw in lots of people I usually just see once or twice a year. Having a bunch of DC-based people coming out of the woodwork was a nice touch.

But to my surprise, I got to meet a bunch of Jeopardy-related people (including two past TOC winners -- too bad Mark Dawson is now in L.A. to make it three at once) I didn't realize were going to be at the tournament until the last second. That was a thrill matching up even more screen names to real people (in many cases, I'd already matched up faces thanks to their appearances on the show). I was also thrilled to meet the guy who runs Coverville, and even got to square off with him in my teammate Jeremy's audio theme round -- although the entire field got steamrolled by a guy from NYU. Finishing second was as much a badge of honor.

The tournament logistics were solid, and I'd like to think it's due in large part to the blueprint of the event I've tweaked over time. Maryland was a great host, and it helped to finally have good weather to help with the mood (even if we were inside for much of the two days). It was also nice to make a reasonably short drive to the tournament instead of flying, but that's just me -- I still had to make airport runs to get the rest of my teammates.

The questions were pretty good, but like any event, there's room for improvement. Some of the sports questions did border on the overly obscure (although not on par with the Littlejohn Flowers one at Trashmasters a few years back), and there was a bit of an age skew in some places -- although I was counting on my teammate Mark, who's two years younger than me, to pick up a lot of the older movies and TV questions. However, I'd like to think the addition of more video games and comic books helped to balance things out. In the end, younger players rightfully will have a beef over some of the older-skewing questions, while older players rightfully will have their issues over the video games and possibly the younger music, etc. It's a tough balance to suit everyone, especially if this event expands to draw in more than just people in college or a byproduct of the college quizbowl circuit.

It was great to play once again with Brian, Jeremy and Mark, as I think we have a good team dynamic where I'm not totally expected to carry the team but can if need be, and that if there's a buzzer race, it's probably going to be with someone on my side. In the end, it was another good -- if at times exhausting -- weekend, and I hope to do it again.

Kicking ice

I've been torn watching the Thrashers-Rangers series because I grew up following the Rangers and picked up the Thrashers during my time in Atlanta (plus, one of my friends does part-time work for the team). However, it was nearly impossible to get tickets for the games at MSG (obviously), but I lucked into a great seat (club level, although I didn't partake of wait service) for Game 3 via work.

It was one heck of an atmosphere at the beginning and at the end of the game, and in between was some of the most one-sided hockey I'd seen in a long time, and I've been watching the Thrashers since the beginning of the franchise. And yes, it did get really ugly at the end, including Ilya Kovalchuk going right for Sean Avery in the third period. Eventually, I ended rooting for the extra point and the shutout to make the rout look all the more impressive.

As for the celebrity watch, I didn't find Avery's main squeeze and cougar bait, but I spotted three different past and present Sopranos cast members -- Bobby Bacala, Vito Spatafore and Kelli Moltisanti, plus one of the guys from Rescue Me. For good measure, they trotted out this guy to do the anthem, so they meant business. Finally, the Rangers made sure to welcome back former players (as opposed to Rodney Hampton the last time I was there), so they're building things up during the playoffs since the first featured one was this tough guy. I've got to see who's on deck after that.

I will say the energy in the building was amazing (although doing a mocking tomahawk chop at the end of the game was a bit much), and even moreso in Penn Station as a ton of people were on my train back to Jersey. The sweep seems inevitable, and maybe I get a ticket there or not.

In any event, it was fun to actually experience playoff hockey at the Garden.

The hot seat, but not me

A heads-up for the game show fanatics in my audience, one of my opponents on my first Jeopardy! episode will be on Millionaire the next couple of days. I have no idea how she did, other than I wasn't used as a lifeline but was on the list. Check your local listings.

History lessons

Maybe it's not the worst thing in the world that a bunch of games today were rained out, preventing many from wearing Jackie Robinson's number that suddenly became a minor controversy. I guess the impact was literally watered down.

Honoring Jackie's 60th anniversary is obviously important, but sometimes you have to wonder if the players are the least aware of the impact of the day, compared to fans, writers and front-office folks. It seems like a player being a fan of the history of the game is actually news as opposed to something assumed.

For example, the announcers on a Yankees game gave particular notice to Robinson Cano's knowledge of the game -- of course, his dad was a former big leaguer and he was named after Jackie Robinson as well. YES announcer (and former big leaguer) John Flaherty said that he was more interested in playing baseball than watching it and probably following some of the history behind it as well. You can't always blame them, obviously. Players need to make a living by improving their game, and you don't always have time to study up on the past; you're worried about yourself, not what someone did 15, 20, 25, 50 years ago.

Many athletes like to tell the media that you can't appreciate what they do because they never played the game, yet many writers and fans seem to have a better grasp on the history that frames the current accomplishments and gives a sense of perspective. And that comes to light a lot when former players dispense coaching advice to current players.

For instance, it seemed like a godsend that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was able to tutor Andrew Bynum on how to play center. The fact that Bynum knew who Kareem was and knew that he would be a great teacher was actually news. At least it was a superstar. I was discussing with a co-worker that some younger players today may not be as receptive to a former star of less long-lasting significance trying to mentor them. Sure, someone will listen to Kareem given his history; but would someone else be as receptive listening to, say, Jack Sikma giving out basketball advice? The results would probably be mixed.

And going back to the Jackie Robinson day discussion, there has been some hand-wringing about the lack of African-Americans in the game today. In some ways, the grousing about it diminishes the influx of Latino and now Asian players in the league. The league is probably more diverse than ever before, but "diverse" never just means "a lot of different things."

It does seem like more African-Americans are gravitating toward football and basketball for a variety of reasons. Part of it is the quicker money, and some of it could be the extra attention at an earlier level (high school and college baseball don't get anywhere near the pub of football and basketball). I'm sure there are other reasons, and the awkward presence of Barry Bonds can't help matters.

No Imus, no fuss

Hopefully, most of the Imus hand wringing is over (although he could be indirectly be held responsible for the car accident that led to serious injuries to the New Jersey governor since he was on his way to moderate the discussion between the Rutgers team and Imus) because the whole storm over his comments has been ridiculous on so many levels.

Flax seems to have expressed a lot of the same feelings I have toward the whole thing, and it could be because we both grew up as regular listeners of the program growing up. I think that context is important in how people look at this controversy because most of the people calling for his head (and I’d imagine the Rutgers women’s team) had never listened and would never listen to the show. Of course, the history of offensive remarks is there and I suppose at some point he was going to pay for his words, especially since he was always playing with fire. But as many of us wonder, why here and why now?

Was it because he picked on a women’s college basketball team in particular? I’m sure most people didn’t realize Rutgers had played for a national title the day before, which is the only reason they were brought up on the show in the first place. Of course, it was really unfortunate that Imus’ regular sports guy Chris Carlin wasn’t there that infamous day. Carlin is the play-by-play voice of Rutgers football, and you know darn well the talk wasn’t going to go that far had he been there. Instead, it was Sid Rosenberg, who was “banned for life” from Imus’ show for a litany of problems with drugs and offensive remarks (worse than the ones that got Imus kicked out), who was in there and helped let things go overboard.

I actually think I can buy the fact that the Rutgers’ women’s team felt their season was “ruined” by the remarks because, as mentioned before, the comments probably marked the only time 99.99% of the country would be exposed to women’s college basketball. That’s not the way you want to be introduced to the general public. And while they’ve been commended on how they’ve handled the situation, I was intrigued that the two players they asked to speak at length at Tuesday’s press conference, they picked one white and one black player. There’s eight black players and just two white players on the roster.

The involvement of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson made sure this controversy was going to be blown out of proportion. Rutgers didn’t ask these people to represent them, but at the same time, the team wasn’t going to get their chance to talk with Imus if they didn’t generate the whole storm in the first place. But it’s unfortunate that such a level-headed response was only going to get attention because everyone was screaming "I'm offended" first.

But while a couple of us wondered which part of the slur was more hurtful “nappy-haired” or “ho,” I wonder if the word dyke had been thrown into the slur, would there be the same outcry. Players in women’s team sports often get slapped with that very unfair stereotype (although Rutgers’ first opponent in the Final Four, LSU, lost its woman coach due to an alleged inappropriate relationship with a former player), and it would be just as easy for Imus to say something like that. But then again, I’m guessing Sharpton will ruffle more feathers in this instance than GLAAD.

(BTW, one poster on TV Barn, I think, said this issue got a lot of extra attention because Rutgers is a New York-area team. I'd like to believe that except for the fact that New York-area reporters referred to Rutgers as being in South Jersey. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Where Gov. Corzine was injured -- that's South Jersey. Rutgers is very much in Central Jersey -- it's about 15-20 minutes from my house. For goodness sake, ESPN made Rutgers Stadium feel like it was just down the street from the Empire State Building; but to Manhattan-centric folks, the Rutgers area might as well be on Mars.)

Imus did dig a major hole for himself, first with his dismissal of the initial statements to The New York Times, and then going on Sharpton’s show and also talking about his charity work in trying to defend himself. Remember, you can do all the charity work in the world, but people don’t remember good things about you, only bad things. With that said, the Imus furor, not to mention his firing in the midst of his radiothon actually helped his charitable causes since people like me actually decided to tune in and make a donation rather than give it a slight acknowledgement and move on.

In some ways, the charity stuff and his attention to politics and current events (I can still remember him moderating a particularly nasty New York senate debate in 1992) actually burned him. You can’t have it both ways. You’re either a boorish, offensive personality, or you’re a current events talk show. The former kept him in drive time because the latter -- if he doesn’t get such high-profile guests -- would’ve shunted him to Sunday mornings at 5 a.m. But the former got him a prime spot that made sure the Tim Russerts and John McCains would show up to talk politics. Maybe if Imus had gone the Dennis Miller route and dropped all humor to go political (but still promoting his country and classic rock music friends), he wouldn’t have painted himself into a corner. Or maybe not.

Finally, it’s been a great year for Rutgers athletics, and yet their two biggest moments of glory have been hounded by controversy. In football, getting selected to the Texas Bowl led to the governor appealing the NFL Network to solve their battles with cable companies for carriage. Only a last-second deal prevented the entire state from turning against a cable channel and a cable company. Now, a trip to the national title game is “sullied” because of offensive comments made by someone they wouldn’t listen to about a team he would never watch.

Anyway, TV Barn has some interesting thoughts on the situation, and Time’s cover story hits on a bunch of things, including wondering why Imus gets fired but everyone loves Borat despite saying similar things.

I guess it's my job

I think I finally did my last draft of the baseball season with the auction for the long-running NL-only league that actually had its roots with a couple of guys from Pittsburgh I met at a summer program in Massachusetts when I was in high school -- in 1991. I found my way into it since those guys were friends with one of my eventual college roommates. And now the league now has an interesting mix of people who have known each other since high school, two of my college roommates and some work colleagues of someone else in the league. So while the fantasy baseball part was obviously fun, catching up with old friends was as much of the reason for keeping the league going -- heck, a good portion of the league membership is linked on the sidebar. And considering this was the first time I'd been at the draft live in about 4-5 years, it was good to match names with faces again. (Unfortunately, Easter-related stuff prevented me from joining the post-draft Atlantic City action.)

As much as I write stuff about how to win at this stuff, I'll admit that it's sometimes to tough to replicate the "draft experience" via columns, advice, etc. And the online experience, while good and usually more efficient, can lack the spice of staring down a guy fumbling through pages of notes figuring out whether to go the extra buck on Shawn Green.

As for the actual draft, I guess I stuck to some of my traditions: spending practically nothing on pitching yet somehow falling into a so-so Mets starter in the $10 range who eventually gets dealt away next year (Kris Benson in 2005, Steve Trachsel last year, Oliver Perez this year); picking up a bunch of expensive bats; and getting Chipper Jones -- again. For someone who just left Atlanta, I picked up a bunch of Braves, called up a bunch more in auction, and was in the running for a few more. Can't seem to shake the city (and it'll be even tougher now with the Thrashers in the playoffs -- facing the Rangers, no less).

One other fun bit about the auction, I decided to have fun with the proceedings and bringing this out when I called up said singer. However, I did not give away the CD to the highest bidder.

Trivial matters

I opted to skip out on the sports trivia contest I'd cleaned up on the past couple of weeks, and thus I missed this cool visual round. Based on the answers, I probably would've gotten 8 of 10. And that probably would've been fine to help me win another one of these things flying solo. Instead, I've been learning a bunch of different tax codes for the multiple state returns I have to file this year.

Touring the obits

It's somewhat notable that B.C. cartoonist Johnny Hart passed away the day before Easter, given that his strip had been drawing plenty of controversy for religious messages in recent years -- as it apparently moved away from the "fat broad" jokes and the strangeness of his characters appearing ads for shocks and struts.

Even more intriguing is the Bob Clark obit, considering that while he should be most associated with the now-classic A Christmas Story, his other credits seem oddly out of whack -- Porky's, the Baby Geniuses movies, the original Black Christmas and Rhinestone. In some ways, he should thank TBS and TNT for making sure his primary legacy will be the story of Ralphie and Red Ryder.

It is ironic, don't you think

After all this time, Alanis really does know irony:



Meanwhile, here's a live version of one of the best covers ever:

Chomped!

I suppose I could only go so far to sell myself out to the Buckeyes, although it would've been nice to collect on the different pools. However, it actually seems like Ohio State was proving the Ewing Theory as the game was going on -- Greg Oden finally has the breakout game and his team loses. Not being in foul trouble actually cut into his endurance. Oden seems to prove a strange paradox that you need him to win but his teammates decided not to show up when Oden was actually on his game.

And as for our Gator overlords, it is interesting they started the same five for both title games. Very impressive. Having a team full of children of former athletes actually has a secondary effect -- there isn't the same urgency for the top guys to jump to the NBA. Sure, they'd like to have the chance to play in the pros, but they don't have the same financial incentive to get the big contract if your dad has already cashed in reasonably well during his playing days. And if you've all come in at the same time and win a national title pretty early on, you might as well drink it all in and try again for some history if there's no pressing need to provide for your family.

Finally, I think I've figured out the Billy Packer dilemma. As a game analyst, he's actually very solid from a basketball perspective. Unfortunately, he comes off like such a grumpy know-it-all, he rubs people the wrong way, especially if he's criticizing your team. Honestly, if Dr. Z were given a TV commentator role and not coached one way or another, he'd come off the same way. However, most of us want a little fun with our analysis since sports is supposed to be an escape and not a job, which is why a Bill Raftery is more beloved because he can mix entertainment and pure basketball talk.

Jersey represent

So it's on to the national championship game for the Rutgers women, continuing the nice run set by the football team. However, while the Scarlet Knights shot lights out from behind the arc and played some stifling defense to smother LSU, I can't help but think that there was some awful basketball played by both sides, especially in the paint. There were lots of botched layups and putbacks, and just some weird missed plays you probably shouldn't be seeing in a national semifinal game. As much as I'll follow the women's tournament, you often can't fault those who wonder why there's so much coverage of it as well.

And now with that game over, it's time to watch the first game of the 2007 baseball season.

Cool as ice

One way to spend the interim between the men's Final Four games and the 1-2 punch of the women's Final Four/Opening Day is to see a figure skating movie? Why not -- it's another Will Ferrell comedy that was funny at moments and silly and over the top in other parts (pretty much par for the course). It wasn't as good as Talladega Nights, but some of the actors were game for their parts, such as Craig T. Nelson, and Jenna Fischer pretty much played Pam, although there's nothing wrong with that.

Speaking of Pam, it looks like Wired went first in sexing her up. And similarly, Geek magazine tries to glam up Chloe. I haven't seen so much love for the geeky girl since those Willow shots in FHM. (And age has been very good to her.)

Final countdown

I guess I'll be rooting hard for Ohio State as my hope for a Buckeyes-Gators national championship game, part deux, has come through -- but this time OSU winning it all. Hard to believe I've actually had that much at stake with my numerous pools ever.

Also, I think I discovered some lazy ad wizards over at Pontiac. While the Kansas-"Bobby Knight" bit wasn't too bad, I just figured out that the bit with the hypnotized referees calling for Louisville technical fouls makes more sense with the Kentucky fan as opposed to a UCLA fan.

Go, Cats?

It seems weird that Northwestern's basketball futility is fodder for a Final Four column, especially from someone like Joe Posnanski, but that's what we get today. And as he mentioned, there are so many NU alums scurrying around the business -- including two guys from my office who were in school around the time I was -- that it seems almost like there should be some outrage over it from the "typing classes."

But even if us sportswriter types won't get too crazy about it, at least there are some passionate fans out there hoping for change, by any means necessary.

Hooping and hollering

It's always fun listening to Bill Raftery doing college basketball, but the odd thing about him is that his quirkiness is practically an act. If you ever listen to his radio interviews, he's amazingly subdued, only turning on the catchphrases if he really needs to. It's an interesting phenomenon.

Meanwhile, does it seem like we were paying more attention to Gus Johnson after he got dropped out of the top four CBS crews? You have to wonder how he felt having to call an awful Knicks game while the Sweet 16 games were going on. At least Ian Eagle ended up with that ridiculous Division II finish. But look no further, there's a Gus Johnson remix.

Also, am I the only person out there that doesn't hold "One Shining Moment" in the same esteem as other sports fans? When the title game is over and the hardware, etc. is handed out, I'm already clicking to SportsCenter or some other show or possibly going to sleep. Unless I was really waiting for the local CBS affiliate news, I'm not sticking around to watch the song and the highlights. But maybe that's just me.

Finally, if people are continuing to gripe about voter turnout and comparing it to American Idol, could Sanjaya be similar to W? Think about it: Promising candidate at the start, progresses to the big stage only to look overmatched and always hounded by questions about how he got enough votes to stick around.

On the other hand, it's been nice looking at (if not necessarily listening to) Haley, but only after that they turned her into Mrs. Jay Mohr.

Chalk talk

Somehow I've picked the Final Four correctly for the first time ever probably despite some awful early picks. But sorta going by chalk works as was hoping to see some cool matchups in later rounds (national title rematch, UNC-G'town revival, Dr. Hibbert vs. Oden, UF-OSU national title game rematch).

Meanwhile, the women's bracket is all shaken up with a 3 and a 4 in the Final Four, although it's cool to see the Rutgers women continue the momentum from the football team. However, that second half against Arizona State wasn't pretty nor the teams themselves in HD. But Carrie Underwood in HD -- now that works for me.

Switching back to pseudo-sports, the list of inductors for the WWE Hall of Fame this Sunday is amusing and seemingly ripe for question fodder. William Shatner? Sure, why not. But Wade Boggs? Yeesh. Not getting enough cash from that hair transplant company?

Red means stop ... really

So I went to this place for my birthday, which was pretty good, considering I hadn't done the Brazilian steakhouse thing in a while. And given the amount of meat coming through, it's good to do only occasionally.

While it's nice to see places like this pop up in the suburbs, I can't help but wonder how over-hip they wanted to make this place. It's one thing to do the rodizio thing and leave it at that, but there's also a sushi bar plus an ornate drink menu and club-like feel to that place. It's a weird mishmash of all the "cool" restaurant/nightlife ideas at once. Strange.

And while the food was good, I know that when you flip the card from green to red, the servers are supposed to stop coming by. But I guess recognizing colors wasn't their greatest skill. It's not a good sign when someone is trying to foist more meat on you with the napkin thrown on the table like a white flag.

Meanwhile, over in the city, Peyton Manning turned in a pretty solid performance for SNL, all things considered. And yes, the United Way piece was the best part of it. Surprisingly, old #18 cussed a bit more than I might've expected, and do NFL QBs on the show have to go without pants for at least one skit?

What's my age again?

Yes, I've been very lax here. But here are some random thoughts while waiting for my fellow birthday buddy to host SNL:

-- Depending on which bracket you're looking at (most likely the ones I entered for money), I'm doing much better with Final Four teams than in the past, but you can thank all those high seeds very much going according to form. Instead, all the goofy bracket-busting upsets are happening on the women's side, including Marist, whose mascot is close to, but not this guy.

-- And in that same vein, a number of the supposed home-court or pseudo-home court advantages in the tournament haven't necessarily come through: Louisville falling to A&M in Lexington, A&M losing to Memphis in San Antonio, Wisconsin losing in Chicago; on the women's side, Rutgers spoiling homecourt edges for Michigan State and now Duke. And if you mention UCLA never having to leave California en route to the Final Four, northern California might as well be a different state from SoCal.

Watching all that tournament action does have me thinking about some of those ads, plus other TV spots around the dial:
-- It took a bit of searching of similar queries to mine, but according to this link, Rachel Specter is that amazingly attractive brunette in those RGX Body Spray ads. Overly obsessive fan sites and MySpace pages to come shortly, I'm sure.
-- So for a few weeks each March, I have to see the smarmiest Asian guy ever and his dopey white buddy to sell cell phones? Oy.
More to come as I can remember them.

-- If there's one thing American Idol has shown us, children of athletes actually have one more route to their own celebrity (thanks Jordin Sparks and Neko Smith) other than being a notable athlete or suffering from some rare debilitating disease.

-- I've been searching for both decent places to do pub trivia in NYC (not necessarily BuzzTime/NTN) as well as some teammates to join me as well, but for now I've stumbled across this all-sports pub trivia contest. The questions are pretty decent, although I've trounced the competition playing solo the past two times it's been run. Anyone New York-area based readers looking for someone to join them for pub trivia, get a hold of me.

Let it snow

I didn't notice it as much the few times there was a hint of winter weather in the Atlanta area, but now that I'm back in the New York area, I now see that the local network affiliates are running school closings in the crawl. It's a big change from when I grew up where the only places you could depend on for school closings in my area were this local AM station and its sister FM station. The Web helps out the process as well, as does the Cablevision News 12 stations, but I guess you can also thank the increased use of the crawl, so even the network affiliates can run school closings without taking time from the rest of the news.

Oscar blog 2007

I haven't done this in a while, but since I'm not working on Oscar night for the first time in a while, why not do the self-indulgent award telecast blog. I've only seen two of the five nominated films (The Departed and Little Miss Sunshine) and not that movies in general this year (is it a bad sign when the movie I was most excited for was Clerks II?), so I can't necessarily tell what's good and what's bad. But here we go with the rundown. Sorry for the length.

8:30: Cute testimonials by all the nominees in the intro. And I mean all the nominees. But mixing all the folks in the smaller categories with the bigger names almost screamed for some identifiers. At the same time, I think I was waiting for the guys from the Mac commercial to show up.

8:35: Now that's a nice payoff. Please stand if you've been nominated. Jack Nicholson, please sit down.

8:36: Ellen ready to deal some blackjack, I take it.

8:37: Most international Oscars ever. Neat. So what about that globalization? At least you can't outsource seat fillers, right?

8:39: Nice projection of your own nerves on the nominees, Ellen.

8:42: American Idol joke segues into Al Gore election joke. Of course it goes over well with this crowd.

8:43: Steve Carell: "Why the hell was I part of that joke?"

8:43: "If there were no Blacks, Jews or gays, there would be no Oscars." And James Dobson weeps.

8:44: Interesting to see who gets it by dancing with the choir that randomly appears.

8:45: Nicole Kidman seems to want to stay away from James Bond. And I always thought one of the supporting acting categories was first, so we don't switch the channel away after the monologue. Oh well, eye candy will keep people watching art direction.

8:46: Pan's Labyrinth opens up the ceremony with a win. Never saw it. Probably won't.

8:48: So Maggie Gyllenhaal drew the "hot young actress" card to host the technical awards. Not necessarily my choice, as much as I find her attractive. But I guess they needed to find a way to get her into the mix if she wasn't going to be nominated.

8:50: I guess Don LaFontaine sounds different saying his name instead of prefacing something with "In a world ..."

8:53: Ricky Bobby mentioned at the Oscars? Ah, I see. Comedians aren't allowed to do well at the Oscars. And Will Ferrell (nice 'fro, dude) and Jack Black are sort of proving why. And then there's John C. Reilly proving you can be funny and do serious stuff. However, when he did Talladega Nights, most people were surprised he'd "stoop that low" to do it. On the other hand, there was a bit of a subversive element in saying that the only way a comic actor will get nominated is to do some overly earnest film.

8:57: And so all of that silly leadup to give out makeup awards?

8:58: Pan's Labyrinth wins again. OK, the other options were a Mel Gibson movie and an Adam Sandler movie. What do you think will win? But the one guy is pissed to be cut off.

8:59: And now for the kids portion of the show. Cute. Of course, they're giving out the animation awards.

9:01: And oops. Will Smith's kid is already reading ahead on the teleprompter. I dare say he won't be the first to screw that up. Still not as good as the guy at the Grammys who was reading the prompts as well as the text giving out an award. Or, for that matter, Felicity Huffman screwing up Shareeka Epps name twice when giving her the award at the Independent Spirit Awards, calling her Shakeera. And thus prompting Sarah Silverman to say that next year the awards would be hosted by Fecility Huffman.

9:03: Ah, they're giving out both shorts categories. Because they're kids, and they're short. How clever.

9:04: Little Miss Sunshine has to bail out the Little Fresh Prince. But dude, West Bank Story. That's just too cool of a title, and apparently a concept for a short.

9:11: Sound effects choir? Is there going to be an award people actually care about before 10 p.m.? By the way, can't we just get Mr. Foley to show up? Or Fred Newman (who somehow has a new version of Mouthsounds in bookstores)? Meanwhile, Michael Winslow is weeping at home.

9:17: Jessica Biel and the other guy in the Idi Amin movie present an award. OK, then.

9:21: Hey, finally a "major award" (leg lamp not included). It is kinda weird seeing Kelly Leak after all those years, never mind up for an Oscar. And I guess it's about time for Marky Mark to get a nod, too.

9:23: Wow. Alan Arkin scores the upset over Eddie Murphy and Marky Mark. I didn't see that coming, even though I liked him and the movie. Did Norbit screw him over? I doubt it. But at least Will Ferrell's rant about not winning

9:26: Oy. More interpretive dance.

9:30: Time for I Love the '70s with Randy Newman and James Taylor. And I guess it's a best song block with Melissa Ethridge next. So I guess Dreamgirls has the big number later.

9:36: So Al Gore and Leonard DiCaprio are saying how green the Oscars are. But what about the actual moviemaking process? By the way, I think losing an election could be the best thing to reach some sort of pop culture hipness. First it was Bob Dole. And now it's Gore.

9:42: I'm still not sure how I feel about Cameron Diaz as a brunette, but she is a decent fit to give out the animated feature award. I guess the Oscars still love penguins, and the disappointed animated characters are a nice touch.

9:45: Yes, Ben Affleck has an Oscar. For screenwriting. We sometimes forget about that, as much as I loved Good Will Hunting.

9:48: The writing montage is amusing, but an even more interesting fact that I learned this week is that one of my fantasy sports colleagues earned a Razzie nomination for writing Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles.

9:49: Nice 1-2 punch of star power with Mirren and Hanks. But this early? And giving out adapted screenplay?

9:50: You're mispronouncing Borat, Helen.

9:52: The Departed gets its first win. Not a big surprise there. But that screenwriter seemed to embodying the spirit of Mitch Hedberg.

9:54: How much longer until that Disney contract runs out, Chris Connelly? And was he really meant to run into the people involved in that last award?

9:56: Commerical break: Why am I not surprised that's what Wes Anderson looks like that? Neat commercial, but it's not the Bruce Campbell Old Spice one, either.

9:59: Wardrobe change for Ellen, complete with a Bjorn. Nice segue into the costume category, given out by the women from the Devil Wears Prada. Did they have to stay in character? I guess so. And live action mannequins. That works for me. Seems better than just seeing sketches. But altogether, it looks like The Price Is Right or Family Feud.

10:03: Marie Antoinette wins. Not a big surprise. To win costume design, you've got to pick something very showy and very old. Which I guess knocked out Showgirls, The Queen and The Devil Wears Prada.

10:05: We have a Tom Cruise sighting, but to give a humanitarian award to NU's own Sherry Lansing. What's amusing is that the first time I knew about her and the fact that she was an alum was in one of those Northwestern TV ads they showed during football and basketball games years ago. Yeah, I actually paid attention to at least one of those collegiate propaganda spots.

10:10: More awkward spots between Ellen and the nominees. And forget about Mrs. Eastwood, let's give the camera to Spielberg, he knows how to use one of those.

10:12: Gwyneth's dress almost as pale as she is. And another win for Pan's Labyrinth? Is it this year's Memoirs of a Geisha? Lots of the pretty awards, but nothing for the ones people actually pay attention to.

10:16: Interpretive dance again? At least it doesn't waste that much time.

10:20: Nicole Kidman draws James Bond, while BFF Naomi Watts draws Robert Downey Jr. Gee, I wonder who wins there.

10:21: Wait a minute, this is a category where I've seen the majority of the nominees. OK, so it's two of three, and it's for visual effects, so it's the summer blockbusters, but whatever. Well, the Pirates of the Caribbean sequel does get an Oscar, no matter how bad it might've been.

10:24: Foreigners giving out the best foreign language film. What a concept. But first, a montage, minus subtitles, of course.

10:29: Oh wait. So Deneuve and Watanabe only introduced a montage? I guess they needed more star power with Clive Owen and Cate Blanchette, who are better suited to pronounce the nominees.

10:31: That's an upset with the German film winning over Pan's Labyrinth, which had won a bunch of the pretty awards already. Wait, the producer is thanking Arnold Schwarzenegger in his speech. Yikes.

10:33: OK, they had interpretive dance to Snakes on a Plane. God help us all.

10:33: Cue George Clooney. Cue Al Gore? Whatever.

10:35: No upset here. Jennifer Hudson does win Best Supporting Actress. By the way, don't blame Simon Cowell for her not winning AI. Blame the people voting.

10:42: Uber-hipness reigns for Documentary Short Subject presenters.

10:44: Jerry Seinfeld at the Oscars? To award Best Documentary Feature? OK, so he was part of a documentary feature that I did see, and wasn't all that bad.

10:45: Gee, I'm waiting for that jazzy music to play behind his monologue. Seriously, is he the guy who should be presenting this award?

10:48: Should anyone be surprised that Al Gore's film won? So the Clintons have a Grammy, but Gore's got an Oscar. I guess he's got two words for Bill and Hillary?

10:50: Clint's bobbling his way through Ennio Morricone's honorary Oscar: "I should've worn my glasses." But I guess he's more than just The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

10:55: Celine Dion shows up to sing the equivalent of a song from the new album. Morricone looks absolutely thrilled to be there, but he did get a standing ovation, which is nice. ... Hey, Quincy Jones is in his box.

11:00: So Clint goes from stumbling on his lines to Italian translator. He really is multi-talented.

11:04: Commericial break: Well, that GM robot ad did get retooled after the Super Bowl. It's a better message than the suicide one, I guess. And I do like having "All By Myself" as the song playing behind it, even if I'll have to hear it a few more times on this season of Idol.

11:06: I guess it makes sense to do best score after honoring Morricone, but after a commercial. Babel gets a win, although honestly I have no idea how to pick the winners for Best Score anymore.

11:09: Everyone still has fun with Jack Nicholson even if he's not nominated. And that bald look ain't all that bad.

11:10: The leader of the AMPAS talks about the Academy really fast. Where's John Moschitta when

11:11: Spider-Man and Mary Jane present together. I thought they used to be attractive. By the way, the reading of the actual screenplay is a tad weird but I guess useful.

11:14: Little Miss Sunshine wins Best Original Screenplay. Is this the consolation prize for the hip, pseudo-indy film of the year that doesn't win the big prize (see The Usual Suspects, Pulp Fiction, Good Will Hunting, Sideways, Lost In Translation) or is the sign of things to come?

11:20: Somewhat fitting for J-Lo to introduce the Dreamgirls songs. Oddly, though, she seemed a bit matronly in her getup, at least compared to others like her.

11:28: John Travolta and Queen Latifah. OK then. But I guess it works for both of them to give out Best Original Song.

11:29: I guess the Dreamgirls songs canceled each other out, which is a shame but not surprising. This category has produced some odd choices in recent years, and in this case, the Academy opted to honor Al Gore again via Melissa Ethridge. At least Randy Newman already has an Oscar, so he can't feel too bad about losing again. Note for those filling out Oscar pools next year -- choose the most anachronistic Oscar-winning song. (see Three 6 Mafia, Eminem)

11:35: We're already over the time limit and now the Fresh Prince is introducing another film montage. By the way, where's the obit reel where we can gauge the popularity of the dead people? My guess of the telecast running 23 minutes over is going to be off by a good amount.

11:40: Here comes editing, so we're just about home free of the "other" awards. But it's looking better for The Departed with another award. Plus, a random cutaway to bald Jack, who I guess will be presenting an award shortly.

11:44: Ah, here's the obit reel, introduced by Jody Foster.

11:48: Pretty even keel on the applause, especially with a lot of notable names passing. Nice to see them finish with Robert Altman.

11:51: Another monochromatic costume change for Ellen. First reddish, then white, then blue. I guess she eventually need to look more like Dori.

11:54: Count another chalk pick with Helen Mirren winning for The Queen. Solid field this year, although it seemed like this year's nominee list was built off a template.

12:00: It's midnight Eastern, so Ellen's gotta vacuum. Cute effect.

12:01: Now that she's separated, Reese Witherspoon lets her hair grow out. Works for me.

12:04: No sentimental/sympathy vote for Peter O'Toole here. Forest Whitaker gets a deserving award. Two of the past three Best Actor winners are now African-American, after not having one for years.

12:06: Ya think Marty's going to win the Oscar if they're bringing out Coppola, Spielberg and Lucas to present Best Director?

12:08: Yup. About time. Although I really did like The Departed.

12:12: Nice pairing of Keaton and Nicholson to give out Best Picture, although Jack's voice is already gone. Probably for the best.

12:14: Jack can stick around after all to relish in The Departed winning the top prize. That was my choice, granted I only saw two of the nominees.

12:17: And that's a wrap. Ellen was a quirky but decent host, pretty much like she's done elsewhere. I'd probably try someone else next year since I don't think she's a long-term answer. By the way, we never did see the accountants like we usually do.