More movie capsules, since it seems that's what I do in between watching Wimbledon matches while at the gym:

Fahrenheit 9/11: It was well-made and entertaining, although you have to be skeptical of both Moore's assertions and the criticisms/rebuttals. The truth is somewhere in the middle, but definitely not in what has been offered. No one ever said he was trying to be even-handed, although the second half of the film (about Lila Lipscomb and Flint) worked much better if only because there seemed to be more relevance instead of the angry Michael Moore who appeared to be proving what he said at the Oscars was right. What's odd is that my politics are drifting left, but I have more issues with Moore now, compared to the Roger & Me/TV Nation days, when I was a bit more to the right.

Control Room: If you're looking for a "real" documentary, concerning the war, then this is for you. It's not as slick as F9/11, but it's engrossing and entertaining without having to involve the filmmakers. What you take from the film is that Al Jazeera is no "evil mouthpiece" as many paint it. It caters to a certain audience, but there's great care in trying to report the news fairly, which can be harder than many think. One telling scene in the film was the senior producer lambasting a producer for booking an interview with an American commentator who ripped U.S. policy, instead of looking for a more "balanced" guest.

Napoleon Dynamite: And now for something completely different. A movie about a high school nerd sorta making good? Of course I'm there. However, I wanted to like the film a lot more than I really did. John Heder absolutely nailed the role of the mouth-breathing nerd, but much of the supporting cast seemed to much like caricatures and while I don't mind meandering plots, this one wandered around even more than I'd like. There were plenty of funny scenes, but there was something missing that I can't necessarily put my finger on.


Speaking of Wimbledon, for Q rating purposes, the Serena-Sharapova final was the one everyone wanted to see. Of course, I got slightly confused after that match when I saw the early previews for Wimbledon, the movie, because there was another willowy blonde, only it was Kirsten Dunst instead of Sharapova.

And for the first time in a long time, I actually cared about women's golf because of Jennifer Rosales of the Philippines via USC had the lead in the U.S. Open before stumbling badly in the final round. Oh well, time for me to stop caring for a while other than to think, "Michelle Wie is just 14?"

Just a couple of things while I'm thinking of it ...
-- Well, blog fever has now infected our site. I've got a few thoughts about it that I'll keep off here for now.

-- Sometimes you have to watch a movie in a reasonably crowded theater to get the full effect, and that's how I felt about Dodgeball. You need a bunch of people laughing at some of the silly stuff, and then it all connects from there -- especially when some of the cameos come up.

Couple of other Dodgeball notes: Does Christine Taylor now only work with Ben Stiller? I know they're married and all, but I thought I remember hearing a joke when the two were on Curb Your Enthusiasm that Ben accepted the job so her wife could have some work. And who knew he could milk the Warren Cheswick character for an entire movie?

For those of you looking for more on Last Comic Standing, Jim Norton has blogged about his elimination from the show.

Back in blog
OK, time to dust off the blogging hat and get back to business. (No real reason for the hiatus -- just didn't feel like doing it for a bit.)

Went to see a handful of movies during the hiatus:
-- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: I thought it was a very well done film on its own merits, having never read the books. That might be an advantage to me since I'm not looking out for what's missing or comparing Cuaron's storytelling to Rowling's, etc., etc.

-- Saved!: At times it felt like a Christian-school version of Mean Girls (although Mandy Moore is hilarious as the queen bitch), but in all, it was a well-acted and funny satire. I've been a fan of Jena Malone's for a while, and she's solid again, but I was surprised by Macaulay Culkin's performance -- even if he looks like a taller of version of his Home Alone persona. I also came to the realization how much Heather Matarazzo looks like one of my friends.

-- Imelda: I caught it as part of the Atlanta Film Festival, although it wasn't one of the hottest tickets in town. It was a decent documentary, which was part a profile/history of Imelda and part a history lesson of the Marcos' rise and fall. I was surprised by the access that Imelda granted, and she was rather candid with some of her controversial views, although she also came off as a kook at times with some of her "new age" philosophies. And yes, there were shoes involved, including a trip to the shoe museum. As a history lesson, it was pretty straightforward, and as a profile, you got to see a lot of her personal side. But in the end, the film played it down the middle as to whether she was corrupted by power or she was what she was.

Other observations:
-- While watching this old episode of SNL on the NBC All-Night feed, one of the backup musicians for Mariah Carey was this dawg.
-- I'm still thrown off by seeing Bill Clement doing commercials for mosquito spray.
-- Were the Last Comic Standing producers compelled to show Brett Butler and Drew Carey get pissed off because they could or because they had to since word of their blowup had been swirling ever since the show taped. While I'll still watch the show, it's disappointing that they've turned the show more into Big Brother than American Idol and thus picked the housemates as much on building conflict than actual talent.
-- I guess I can be an SI jinx as well, at least in an opposite way. That was going through my mind when I went to this game with a surprising amount of Royals fans around me, besides the one who joined me for the afternoon.

It seems strange to think that Beavis and Butt-head feels really dated while I'm watching it on MTV2, even though it really has inspired today's kids, whether they know it or not. However, I thought it was all to fitting that this compilation was being advertised during the show, given the time frame, although this collection might've been more appropriate.

Ha-ha!
OK, so Durst, Santorelli and Cotter were all eliminated in the semifinals of Last Comic Standing, while Norton and Sue Costello, who had a short-lived Fox sitcom about six years ago, advanced. But for the most part, it seemed like there was a lot of fresh if somewhat experienced blood that advanced to the finals. It did seem like the first group of semifinalists was full of very experienced folks, while many of the more interesting characters (but not necessarily talented or experienced) were in the second group. At this point, a lot of the folks run together, which may or may not be a good thing. Besides Durst and Santorelli, we're without the stripper, the Siamese Dream-era Billy Corgan lookalike and a really funny, young East Asian kid (although the Iranian kid who passed up med school for comedy did advance).

The credits mentioned it briefly, but I wonder how they really dealt with the fact that two of the judges, Colin Quinn and Rich Vos, know a few of the folks from Tough Crowd. We probably won't have as much of the familiarity of the contestants in the next round, but there are already rumblings that Brett Butler and Drew Carey were upset with the eventual choices to join the house and that their input was largely ignored.

Who's laughing now?
So another season of Last Comic Standing has started, and I can't help but think that for as much as this is an American Idol for comedians, why am I recognizing a number of the contestants from when standup was all over TV?

Last year's winner, Dat Phan (who I met briefly last year before he performed at the AAJA convention), was a relative unknown, as was runner-up Ralphie May. While there were seasoned vets like Dave Mordal and Rich Vos, I wasn't that familiar with them.

This year, among those who have advanced to the semifinals include Will Durst, who I've seen do standup since the now-departed Ronald Reagan was president. He's even done an HBO One Night Stand back in the day, and he even got back on the radar briefly during one of the first runs of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? when, as a phone-a-friend, blew the $500,000 question. I like his stuff, but what in the world is he doing on the show?

Other veteran comics with plenty of TV experience who have advanced to the semifinals include Tom Cotter, Frank Santorelli (looking much bigger than when I'd see him on the old Short Attention Span Theater on Comedy Central) and Jim Norton, the short, almost bald comic on
Tough Crowd. In fact, if you've appeared on that show, it means you have at least a little cachet in the business, right?

While it's not really the same thing (since AI has stipulations on being "real" amateurs), this setup is somewhat like bringing Edie Brickell, Meredith Brooks or Montell Jordan to compete on AI for a chance to revive their careers.

I won't argue that the added exposure helped out even the veterans -- a bunch of the comics did an AI-like tour of comedy clubs after the show, but in the end, most of them are still doing decent work in the clubs and Colin Quinn's show, which probably wouldn't have been much different with or without the show. Still, I guess it's not a bad idea of getting more season vets on the show, given how bad and unprepared some of the comics featured in the early cutdowns were. (And then there was Buck Star, who appeared at all eight tryouts -- LA, SF, Dallas, New York, Boston, Nashville, Chicago and Tampa, finally getting one callback on the last stop in Tampa, only to be denied a chance at the semifinals. He had potential but definitely wasn't there yet.)

I'll keep watching if I'm around for it, but I won't feel so empty if I miss it. Besides, Comedy Central is doing the quick reruns of it a few days later.

If you need another reason to feel old, VH-1 Classic has officially entered the '90s with a block featuring Blind Melon ("Tones of Home" -- i.e. the video that's not "No Rain"), Alice In Chains ("Them Bones") and Pearl Jam ("Jeremy"). And it looks like the day before, they did Bell Biv Devoe ("Poison"), Duran Duran ("Ordinary World"), The Cranberries ("Dreams"), Matthew Sweet ("Girlfriend"). I guess it's a good way to get people prepared for I Love the '90s, but are videos from the early '90s "classic" yet?

D-U-M-B-A-S-S
Both Mike and Craig have interesting commentary on yesterday's National Spelling Bee and how it's lost a lot of relevancy despite its live coverage on ESPN (which even the French Open couldn't get).

Competitions like the spelling bee as well as many of the academic competitions that many of the people on the blogroll are part of have seen their difficulties rise exponentially in recent years. In a way, it seems like a rather organic process, but not necessarily a good one.

In either case, there's a rather fixed knowledge base, and back in the day, there was a certain baseline of difficulty developed that seemed fair at the time. Over time, though, the words or clues used would start feeling a bit overused. So to shake things up and make things seem more interesting (at least for organizers and hard-core players), the only way to go was dig deeper into that knowledge base and in effect ratcheting up the difficulty. There isn't enough "new" stuff added to the knowledge base over the years to keep the difficulty the same without repeating what's been asked before.

In the bee's case, you plumb further and further into bigger and bigger dictionaries to find more and more obscure words. In quizbowl's case (at least the types of competitions I'm used to seeing), you dig into deeper and more advanced texts to find more and more obscure clues and/or answers.

The unfortunate side effect is that some of these competitions get so hard that you can only watch these things in awe without even trying to find out how this stuff should be relevant. It becomes like a brainier version of Fear Factor. Honestly, what is the difference between watching some kid pass out, get up and spell a word that'll be used in .0005 percent of people's vocabularies and some guy or girl pass out while trying to eat 100 cockroaches in a minute?

In some ways, it mimics the evolution of today's athlete. As the accomplishments get more and more impressive, the types of athletes who can perform them become less diverse. NFL lineman have to be 300 pounds to succeed. Baseball pitchers don't have to be Randy Johnson's height, but they have to be in the 6-2, 6-3 range at least. The average 40 time, vertical leap, etc. of today's athlete is often superior to just 15-20 years ago. There are more advance training methods to get that way, just as there are more advanced and sophisticated ways and resources to train for a spelling bee.

Maybe it's only fitting that ESPN covered the Spelling Bee live and included it on SportsCenter. It's just another way to marvel at ridiculous feats that supposedly seem easy to the competitors but in no way can the average schmoe even fathom of doing.

Garden party
I guess I've known about it for a while, but New Jersey does have a strange mythology unlike any other place, currently embodied by The Sopranos but also created by a number of sources besides Bruce Springsteen. What's intriguing is that Jersey is often considered such a low-brow type of place, yet it's not hard to find fellow Garden Staters no matter where I go (or at least find people at least familiar with where I grew up). But I guess we all just escaped to everywhere else.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention I was part of the clusterf*** at Hartsfield-Jackson when flying up to Chicago on Tuesday morning. It's ridiculous when the line for security winds outside. I'm surprised I'm not in any of the photos in the story.

The sad part is that I knew this was going to happen, given that it happened a few weeks ago and that even the local news was predicting it the night before. I left earlier than usual and I got to the airport about 7:50 a.m. for a 9:40 a.m. flight. I got to the gate about 9:15 a.m. It's not good when the people allegedly helping you out keep directing you to the wrong line.

Look, when a bunch of people in a row are carrying small bags, there's a good chance that they've checked in and are trying to find security. Don't direct me in the same direction with the folks with four giant suitcases, OK?

While I got there early, my co-worker who was joining me on the flight didn't realize this was going to happen. Thankfully our flight was delayed for about 30 minutes, or else he would've missed the flight as he got to the gate about 9:45.

Atlanta's setup just asks for trouble -- 18 checkpoints for the entire friggin' airport all in one place. It's a bottleneck waiting to happen. Oddly enough, it seemed like the line was moving reasonably quickly once I figured out where to pick up the line, but just trying to figure that out cost me about 10-20 minutes.

I'm in Chicago for a couple of days, and I get another chance to see a Cubs game, this time the Astros are in town (and probably at the hotel I'm staying at). So, with the wealth of starting pitching on both sides, what matchup do I get?

Brandon Duckworth vs. Glendon Rusch.

Thankfully, there was lots of beer involved to keep us away from grasping the sheer inanity of the game, which included the game-winning hit from Mike Lamb, also known as the official acquired stopgap at third base for the Yankees after Aaron Boone got hurt and before they got that A-Rod guy.

Nostalgia is dead, long live nostalgia
It's now official, I Love the '90s will make its debut in July, further strip-mining the precious resources of nostalgia left in this country. The ad I saw for it was quite amusing, though, featuring I Love The ... regulars Hal Sparks, Michael Ian Black and Rachael Harris (who is of the Tina Fey/Lisa Loeb sorority of women who look far better with glasses) in a 90210 bit.

And speaking of nostalgia, I just finished What Really Happened to the Class of '93?, which naturally piqued my interest since I'm also the class of '93. Even more intriguing is that the author, former Salon.com writer Chris Colin, went to Thomas Jefferson High School in northern Virginia, and I know a friend who went there (long after this class graduated, though).

Anyway, the book attempts to encapsule a strange and momentous 10 years in American history (Clinton presidency, dot-com boom/bust, 9/11, etc.) through people like myself who "came of age" during that time. Thus, the book comes across as more "serious" version of The WB's High School Reunion, which loved to wallow in labels and silly drama instead of "reality."

But back to the book, Colin does a great job of profiling a number of his classmates, writing compelling narratives that show the development of his peers from their high school personas to what they are now. There are even some nice curveballs thrown into the mix (like a career change, family emergency, etc.), somewhat reflecting what these people went through during their lives over the past 10 years. Colin strikes a nice balance of objective detachment (in painting a fair and accurate picture) and emotional connection (when needed to provide some relevance -- like a former girlfriend and his "arch-enemy").

For the most part, Colin picked out interesting people to profile. In some cases, the book would've been incomplete without some of them -- the homecoming queen (who didn't seem the type), the girl who had a baby during her junior year, the guy suspended for having a BB gun in his truck, John Sununu's son, and unfortunately, the gifted kid who would commit suicide while in college. But he also got a nice cross-section of other types: the quiet drama girl, the stereotypical Asian overachiever, some misfit types whose lives have gone in multiple directions (to a Mormon mission, to a northern California monastery, to a world of hazy gender issues). Colin does a good job of making you want to care about these people, even if he wasn't close to all of them -- I'm sure he learned a ton about his peers he never would've believed while in the process of writing the book.

However, while he is trying to tie these stories to the events of the past 10 years (and obviously has to touch on political issues, both national and international), I have to wonder exactly how politically charged his classmates really were back then, and to a lesser extent now. Colin says that the social order at TJ wasn't as much the usual jock vs. geek, but liberal vs. conservative. It seems a bit hard to fathom, and my friend at TJ disputes this notion.

Yes, issues would polarize students, especially in a school in the DC area, but to make it the overarching theme of high school (especially at a science/tech magnet school) seems a bit far-fetched. No doubt, there were some major politically charged events during his time -- the outing of a few students (including one profiled who has HIV) and the fight over changing the school handbook to outlaw harrassment on sexual orientation terms. Some of those events would have long-lasting events on some of the people featured -- another girl came out during college and one guy has now become a she (sorta). But at times the book felt like the profiles would veer off into a political rant, either from the left or the right, although usually tied into that person's career.

I imagine this supposed framing of high school shouldn't be too surprising given Colin's "arch enemy" was a military brat with a definite conservative bent (at least during high school), even though the guy didn't really think Colin as a "nemesis." But maybe that's how some lasting high school memories will end up framing things years later, even while reconnecting with everyone proved to be a catharsis.

Nonetheless, the book is compelling and topical voyeurism, and maybe it's a good thing he didn't touch on pop cultural references, which might've bogged down the story taken away from his thesis. (I guess I Love the '90s will have to do in its stead.) And at least his reunion went off far better than mine, as I've chronicled before. Now if you'll excuse me, it's time find some of my old high school friends on Google, Friendster and those alumni finder Web sites.

In the most unscientific of ways, I know exactly how long my commute home at 2:30 a.m. takes. It's the length of these three R.E.M. songs, played as part of a weekend three-play block on the de facto classic rock station here in town.

JD already mentioned this great Onion article waxing nostalgic about my youth. However, I'm surprised it hasn't appeared on the main page of this site, although it'll likely be discussed to death at this event.

Quick update: I suppose not everyone realizes what The Onion is all about, given this brief exchange or this one on the YCDTOTV message board. Sigh.

Pyramid scheme
Just caught an old episode of the $100,000 Pyramid (before GSN puts it out to pasture). During the bonus round, a clue of "The Bulge" for "Famous Battles" was disallowed because it's "not a place you can find on a map" (unlike Bull Run). Apparently to the judges, Battle of the Bulge was not a "real" battle.

How revolting
See, there is a practical use for DDR. Now to get back on that kick without bothering the neighbors.

And speaking of revolutions, here is the song list for Karaoke Revolution 2, although I'm disappointed Konami decided not to create add-on disks and instead went for a completely new game. Hopefully the new microphone will be better than my headset that barely fit me.

Geez, I wish I had known about this promotion before making my minor-league trip today.

When in Rome
If Chipper Jones could do it, so could I, so I took in the Rome Braves tonight, who, as I discovered, are a pretty good team, especially on offense. Rome's pitching was OK but nothing spectacular, while Greensboro's starter seemed to be taking aim at the mascot.

The whole park experience was pretty good (pictures may come later), although I learned quickly that Rome isn't all that close to the interstate. Otherwise, the stadium reminded me of a smaller version of Myrtle Beach's stadium, which may not be that surprising given both are very new and are both Braves affiliates.

However, Rome toned down much of the sideshow that I saw in Myrtle Beach last year -- there were a couple of silly races, but otherwise the between-innings entertainment was much like Turner Field. Actually, so was the music, especially the batters' intros. On a related note, it was rather unfortunate that the instrumental part of this song as background music for a between-innings game to win some jewelry.

Time's up?
You have to wonder if 24 will soon be hitting the "Fraught" watch. The move to Monday nights isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the start of the season in January will be interesting since I'm wondering how they'll fit 24 one-hour episodes between then and the end of May, not to mention the shooting/production/writing schedules as it seems as if the occasional gaps help perk up the show when it hits down points. On the other hand, it may force the writers to approach the show like a 24-hour movie (which is how I view it) and actually have a plan for the entire season written up ahead of time instead of making things up as they go along and messing around with continuity (which often seems the case).

But now comes word that many of the regulars have gotten their walking papers. Of course, we'll find out shortly if this is actually "news," or if it's something that will portend the events of tomorrow's final episode.

Walk this way
There's an interesting battle going on right now over Peachtree Street, specifically the running of new suburban commuter buses on that famed street to drop people off at their places of work. Given the current and future of design of Peachtree, it doesn't seem like a good idea. But when you consider the motivation behind the proposed plan, there's no wondering why there's such an outcry over the current state of commuting and the problem of out-of-shape Americans.

Steve Stancil, GRTA's executive director, says that the people who likely will be riding on the Xpress buses are not used to having to walk an extra block or so to get to work.

"For every block that people have to walk, you lose approximately 20 percent of your ridership," Stancil says.

What's the big deal?
I guess because I use Blogger somewhat regularly (depending on your defintion, I guess), I got selected for a GMail account. I haven't thought much of it, although it's under consideration as my primary account when I ditch the Mindspring one (which may be sooner rather than later). But I never realized how prized one of these accounts can be. If I only I knew ...

On a related note, I am looking to move my Web site (and maybe my e-mail) to my own domain. Anyone with suggestions for hosts and plans like that, feel free to leave some comments or e-mail me.

Pulling the plug
The almost final results for this season's LaPlaca Open are in (we're just waiting for the Drew Carey and Oliver Beene burnoffs). I didn't do as bad as the season before when ABC seemed to make a minor comeback and Fox just decided not to air some shows (although Septuplets is supposedly coming this summer, about 18 months too late for the contest).

I only missed two shows. Many seemed to whiff on "Two and a Half Men," but I believe CBS had it somewhere other than Monday night when the schedule was first released. If not, then have we not learned from "Yes, Dear" or even "Baby Bob" that a family watching a test pattern will get ratings on the Big Eye on Monday nights? "Tru Calling" was a close call, and I ended up losing. I guess the shelf life for a wacked-out Fox drama featuring a hot brunette is two seasons, not one -- buzz or no buzz. (Have we not learned from "Dark Angel"?)

But my eight other choices did come through:
-- Friends: Easy, although people got burned last season when they said this would be the one where the show finally ended
-- The Drew Carey Show: I probably should get those points by the end of the summer
-- The Practice: Firing most of the cast screamed "Fraught," but I got scared when James Spader actually perked up ratings.
-- Jake 2.0: Bad title and premise. Plus, it was on UPN. If it isn't Smackdown, Tyra Banks or Star Trek, you're toast.
-- The Mullets: See Jake 2.0. Seemed like a nice SNL concept, though.
-- L.A. Dragnet: When you replace Ethan Embry (a potential show-killer himself) with the U.N., you've got problems. Plus, the lead-in was the "Wonderful World of Disney." Can't we get Pep Strebeck back?
-- Boston Public: The move to Fridays was a death knell. Plus, most of us at work still can't think of the show without the first ads featuring Fyvush Finkel leering at one of his students. And that was how long ago?
-- Threat Matrix: Seemingly anything with the word "Matrix" in it released after 1999 has sucked.

The new good books
I'll admit I've never read a Harry Potter or Left Behind book, but Slate does a solid job in pointing out the similarities between the two series, and noting the big difference between the two (which probably helps explain some of the attitudes toward the books):

Left Behind is Christian and Harry Potter pagan, but rather that Left Behind is Protestant and Harry Potter is Catholic. One of the chief theological arguments between Catholics and Protestants has been over whether salvation is earned through faith or by good works. ...

Left Behind is fatalistic; Harry Potter sees outcome determined by individual actions. Both provide a roadmap for how to live a good life, but in one case the key is morality, and in the other it is faith.

I know (the origins of) Kung Fu
Given how much time I spend doing trivia-type stuff, I obviously took great interest in this article on books specializing in general knowledge-type stuff. I already owned this book mentioned in the column, and I'll have to get the one written by the folks at Slate.

As the story states, there is a growing market for stuff like this. I'm a big fan of Mental Floss, and not just because Victoria has written for them. It is interesting that wanting to know stuff is becoming "hip," although in this Google-based world, it probably isn't too surprising. People need and want to know stuff, and thanks to the Internet, it can happen somewhat quickly. And yet, I still think the pursuit of knowledge still seems marginalized.

While game shows like Jeopardy and Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? are very popular, there's often a wonderment over the successful contestants, as if they're freaks of nature or something because they know stuff. And yet, many people take great pleasure when the "media" mess up some factual error in some report, or, even worse, Jay Leno exposing regular people for knowing nothing in his "Jaywalking" segment.

Many of us still take on that basic teenage idea that we "know everything," but when someone shows that he or she knows more, there's a defensive reaction of, "How did he/she know that?" or worse yet, "Why does he/she know that?" (That even comes up in quizbowl competitions where most of us try to take pride in knowing lots of stuff.)

I like the attitude Mental Floss editor Will Pearson takes toward his magazine. "It's about people learning information they always thought they should know."

And one last note, Todd, the writer of the CNN story, helps run a popular bar trivia business down here in Atlanta, so I wouldn't be surprised if some of the information gleaned from these books ends up in a contest one of these days.

You're canceled
I believe we're just waiting for Fox to announce its fall schedule, and we can come up with the final results on this season's LaPlaca (thank you, ABC, for burning off Drew Carey in the summer so I can get points).

Only a couple of people mentioned Ed on their lists, even though it was pretty much done after last season. But now that it's officially toast, here's a long tribute to the journey of our favorite bowling alley lawyer.

Aaargh!
The last time I went to a Braves game, I saw a triple play. So of course, I decide not to go to the stadium tonight with Randy Johnson pitching, and I miss a perfect game.

Poor Braves, in consecutive games, Ben Sheets knocks them out for 18 strikeouts and now Randy Johnson fires a perfect game.

Timing is everything
First, there was the B.D.-Pat Tillman coincidence. Now, there's this.

Tone deaf, Part 2

I already posted the Blender list of the 50 Worst Songs Ever, so I figured I would just follow along for the VH-1 special and just laugh away. Well, I was wrong.

I suppose because of rights issues with the songs and videos, the VH-1 list is actually much different. Very strange.

I've added a handful of new blogs to the list, courtesy of a long-running roto baseball league I'm in with one of my college roommates. I've known the existence of a bunch of them recently, but now I know where they are. One of these days I'll arrange them in some order other than alphabetical, but I like the mishmash right now.

Game show geekery
Yes, folks, it's time to play the Millionaire phone game yet again. I whiffed tonight by inverting my answers on a question. I went to oldest to youngest, instead of vice versa, probably still thinking how we sealed up first place at team trivia tonight. I'll be back trying to add my name to the list of friends who have been on the show.

In other game show news, I'm actually fascinated by the Jeopardy! Power Players week, featuring high profile political folks and journalists. I'm actually caring about the DC power culture again, if just for a few days and with the help of Alex "Damn You" Trebek. The Washington Post has a good preview of it, thankfully devoid of most spoilers.

Today's episode featured a very stiff Bob Woodward, who got outbuzzed on two clues directly related to him, plus a couple of feisty righties in Peggy Noonan and Tucker "You got a problem with the bow tie?" Carlson.

Here's the rest of the week's schedule:
Tuesday: Anderson Cooper, Maria Bartiromo, Kweisi Mfume
Wednesday: Ari Fleischer, Ashleigh Banfield, Aaron Brown
Thursday: Al Franken, Gretchen Carlson (CBS's "Early Show"), Keith Olbermann
Friday: Tavis Smiley, Christine Todd Whitman, Tim Russert

Who needs sleep?
The usual late-night viewing options when I wind down after work are somewhat sparse (unless you're really into Skinemax stuff). However, right now, among the offerings on the HBO channels include three of my all-time favorite movies.

What took the Rangers so long to sell out and get a corporate name on their stadium? And isn't it fitting that it's a 30-year deal, although can the team prepay the principle? Were they hosed on the points and the closing costs?

Play ball!
The weather is getting warmer, but not oppressive, so it was the perfect time to catch a businessman's special (and still get in time to do the long walk from the stadium to my car and even drive home for a few minutes to change and deal with an interesting phone call).

While I was happy NU's own Mark Loretta had a big game, validating my decision to wear the 'Cat hat, the Braves fans got a minor thrill with a triple play (an around-the-horn one for good measure). This is the second time, I believe, I've seen a triple play in person. The first being Randy Velarde's unassisted one at Yankee Stadium a few years ago.

Besides the beautiful weather for a game, the Braves made a number of changes from Opening Day that really improved the fan experience. For one, they've taken a page from their former Time Warner compadres, the Hawks and Thrashers, and are now giving out free programs, about the size of a Playbill. It has just enough basic roster information so fans don't seem totally clueless about the home team, plus it was a good excuse to slip in an All-Star ballot.

You can't keep score in the program, but at least now you can buy an actual scorecard for a buck. While I have my own scorebook, it aggravated me that the only way to get a scorecard in the past was to pay $5 for the big program/yearbook thing with a scorecard on a glossy page that made it impossible to write on. Thankfully they've solved that problem, although I'm still taking my tattered book with me to the park.

Finally, the one promotion I made sure to take advantage of was the half-price concessions that's a promotion to show off some of their new food items. I suppose I'd have tried more if I had the time, but it also shows how ridiculously expensive ballpark food is but doesn't need to be. For instance, there's now a place for specialized burgers (replacing the specialized hot dog stands, I believe) -- but the regular price is $8.25, and I doubt it comes with fries. It was strange paying less than $5 for nachos and a lemonade and realizing how much I'll actually pay in the future.

It's good to see I'm not the only one confused by KFC's re-expansion of its abbreviation to something silly. But at least we don't have the animated Colonel in the TV ads anymore, either.

You knew there was going to be some obvious hand-wringing over how the Pat Tillman story was covered, so it was somewhat surprising to see Salon's King Kaufman provide a slight counterpoint by looking at the psychology over how we react to such stories (especially when comparing Tillman's death to others who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I don't mean one life is more valuable than another in some measurable, abstract, objective way. I just mean it's a matter of perspective. Consider any one of those soldiers whose death we've heard about recently. Are his life and death more valuable and important to his family and friends than Pat Tillman's? Of course they are.

Pat Tillman's life and death tell us a compelling story, one that touches us. He hit a nerve in people not just because he put a face on the war effort, which he did, but also because his story had so many compelling elements, not the least of which was his refusal to do interviews, to participate in his own mythmaking. Giving up a glamorous, million-dollar career to join the Army during wartime is one thing, but shunning the spotlight? In 21st century America, that really made him stand out.

But as unusual as it was, as unusual as he was, Tillman's story was just so damn easy to identify with. Who among us, upon hearing about him leaving the NFL and joining up, didn't put ourselves in his shoes and think, Would I have done that? It's all the more compelling that in the vast majority of cases, the answer must have been "No." It certainly was for me.

We ascribe different levels of meaning and importance to all sorts of objectively similar things all the time because of the way they speak to us. There's nothing wrong with that. It might feel a little weird to shortchange the cop on the beat or the firefighter rushing into a burning building or even Tillman's comrades in arms, but it's not. For any one of us, no two lives -- and no two deaths -- are equal.

And in a related story, MSNBC.com pulled Ted Rall's cartoon questioning Tillman's hero credentials that sounds a lot like the editorial at UMass from last week.

I'm not sure I agree with the pulling of the cartoon or even the sometimes the overboard reaction to Gonzalez's editorial. For the most part, the positions on the war I've seen are:
a) You support the administration's position, or
b) You're against the current administration's position, but you still support the troops.

These two pieces show there's at least an option c) You're not only against the war, but also against the troops fighting it. So f--- them all.
(In a sick way, it's a lot like the Point/Counterpoint bit in Airplane! where one side says "...they bought their tickets. They knew what they were getting into. I say let them crash.")

This strip had me rolling, although I wonder how many people are going to get the reference in the punch line?

If you're too cheap to pick up Blender, here is the list of the The 50 Most Awesomely Bad Songs Ever. My own commentary to follow soon.

Since it does involve me tangentially, I figured I should post the travelogue of Mike's Dirty South 2004 Road Trip. If I weren't absolutely zapped from the tournament, I probably would've joined him for at least a couple of legs of Monday's festivities. I do think there will be some minor league road trips this spring/summer.

Mark Cuban isn't looking for a feud with Donald Trump, and I doubt his reality show will reach Apprentice-like levels, but I do like how he defused any potential conflict with the Donald on his blog:

I respect you and think we would have a great time hanging out talking business. How about this as a truce offering: I will come by your apartment in NY, we can either walk or take a cab to the White Castle of your choice and dinner is on me. Bring your girlfriend if you like. If we can’t be friends after sharing a couple dozen sliders and onion chips, it just wasn’t meant to be.

Might I also suggest some Chicken Rings?


Speaking of reality shows, it was a bit odd seeing Jesse Palmer during ESPN's NFL Draft coverage talking about how great it was for the Giants to get Eli Manning. Granted, Kerry Collins' cap number may change things, but wouldn't you think that Manning's selection would mean, stealing from another reality show, that Palmer will soon hear, "You're fired!"?

Fact vs. fiction
It's almost a tad creepy that the same week B.D. from Doonesbury loses a leg in Iraq that we get the real story of Pat Tillman's death in Afghanistan, nearly two years after left the Arizona Cardinals to join the Army Rangers.

In a strange way, through his service and his death, Tillman is finally getting the respect and the accolades he so deserved during his brief life. In the cruel world of the NFL, Tillman appeared to a "but" player. He was a vastly underrated DB in the NFL, piling up lots of tackles ... but, he played for the Cardinals and only really close followers noticed him until he left to join the Army Rangers. He was a standout linebacker in college ... but since the NFL often slaps star college players with the amusement park "you must be this tall/big" signs, he slipped to the Cardinals in the draft. There were no "buts" now. He left the NFL to join the Army and was killed in the line of duty. He can't be underrated anymore. In fact, he'll probably fall into a similar category as Nile Kinnick -- a sports star who really was an "American hero" (no matter how you feel about the war).

Back in action
It's about dang time I actually posted an entry, don't you think? Anyways, much of the time was spent working on TRASHionals 007 stuff, which went very well, although it took me a couple of days to really decompress from the whole thing. Most people thought it went well, so that's a good sign.

Plus, it was good to see everyone and even have a bunch of people stay at my place (after months with practically no one coming to visit). Despite the utter lack of space, people are welcome to come by and crash -- especially if it involves side trips to Distant Replays, and it always seems that way.

More adventures in Nerdular Nerdence
But to wrap up my week of geekdom (although you could argue my final fantasy baseball draft of the season on Saturday is it), I went to see Weird Al. It's hard to believe that it's been 4 1/2 years since he was here in Atlanta. But here he was again, doing a good job in a half-full Tabernacle (the third deck was practically empty, and I got a seat in the first row in the second deck just off to the side of the stage).

It seemed like the Poodle Hat stuff wasn't received as well as I might've thought, but he was definitely energetic (that's how the woman, who wasn't familiar with Al's stuff, sitting next to me described him -- although she just showed up to see a concert at the building before she returned to England). And I was impressed how he got the videos synced up for "Angry White Boy Polka," which was his opener.

Al did have his stretch in the middle where he went through his numerous costume changes, but it often seemed like many of the video montages he shows during the wardrobe switches were really just filler, not to mention more chances for the Al-aholics in the crowd to recite lines from UHF. (Speaking of video filler, I'd never seen the MTV ad where Al does "unplugged" versions of his biggest hits. It's definitely a riot seeing him play "Like A Surgeon" with the acoustic guitar in a coffeehouse setting.)

I still think my favorite part of the show, though, was his mega medley (probably 15-20 minutes long) of about 10-12 parodies pretty much in a row, starting with "Trash Day" and hitting things like "Theme from Rocky XIII," "Eat It," "Lasagna" and "Jurassic Park."

Yes, I'm almost finished
Now that TRASHionals is finished, I feel a little better linking to things (since they won't be questions, thus they won't be favoring my friends who read this site). First off, here's a trivial, yet fascinating Slate article about the underside of baseball caps. Secondly, here's a great Salon piece about one of my favorite bands, The Minibosses, who were featured in an audio bonus at last year's TRASHionals.

Sometimes when you leave the TV on too long you find things you never expected to see. Case in point: this guy was doing a report from Arizona Wildcats spring football practice. I guess it's somewhat of a lateral step after working the news on Channel 9 in New York. But I guess that answers the question of where is he now?

Hope springs eternal
I spent part of my birthday watching this excellent film, although I will admit that I might've enjoyed it even more if I was in a better frame of my mind when I did see it. It was inventive, creative and also vastly entertaining, and it seems like Malkovich with a less weird edge (but still amazingly quirky at the same time). I'll probably see it again soon so I can wrap more of my brain around it.

The nightmare is over
As much as I wanted to hate the show, I did get hooked on Dream Job. So it seemed almost fitting that the guy who seemed good enough not to lose would actually have enough to win the grand prize. As Cooch has already mentioned, Mike Hall wasn't the best of the final four, nor the final two, but somehow he won the grand prize.

I still think people got confused how their vote was supposed to count, just like Week 1 when Mike got voted off by the fans, partly because he was on first, and no one was sure whether to vote for your favorite or to eliminate a contestant. And if you consider Dream Job's Survivor-like setup, shouldn't the final vote be the one you want to win, not lose? Thus, Mizzou boy wins it after all, much to the chagring of seemingly everyone around me.

However, I do think there is a silver lining to Aaron not winning. First off, Mike has got to be getting some scorn from those in Bristol (and everywhere else in the profession) because he answered some trivia questions to bump his salary to $95,000. A college senior doing highlights making $95,000. Think about that for a second. How much do you think some of the j-school students will make at their first job? How many people at ESPN make that much? I don't think you're going to get much support from those living on ramen right now.

Secondly, I think Aaron could turn into the Dave Holmes of the show, meaning Mike is the Jesse Camp of MTV. Anyone hear from Camp or his hair recently? Holmes ended up becoming a halfway decent personality on the network for a few years as the runner-up to MTV's similar contest a few years ago and still shows up on cable as a host. Aaron will find himself in a high double-digit market in a few months and work his way up quickly, probably earning a bit more respect as he takes the "normal" path to success. He's got one hell of a resume tape already. (Oh yeah, after that performance on the buzzer in the sports quiz test, we've got to get him to play a trash tournament.)

Of course, when it comes down to it, I think Aaron got screwed when he was paired with L-Co (?!?) for the SportsCenter segment. Then again, you could see the scorn on Karl Ravech's face when he was paired with Mike. (When's Baseball Tonight going to start? Where's Harold? Where's Gammons? Where's Stark? Who did I piss off to get this gig?)

Not to be too much of narcissist, or The Narcissist, it's interesting that I share my birthday with not just Peyton Manning but also Mike Vanderjagt. Those two put their differences behind them and did just fine, as well as lifting my fantasy team to the finals in the Sportsline Experts League last fall.

And since I know Craig would also appreciate this -- Happy Birthday, Willow!

One reason why I've been quiet lately here (other than the standard work thing) is that I'm also cranking out stuff for TRASHionals, and it seems like of the stuff I want to talk about eventually germinates into questions and I'm not going to give any more edge to those playing who also reads this blog.

I've been somewhat snarky in my 9/11 thoughts in the past, but for now, all I can say about this is YIKES!
(Thanks to Mike for the link.)

Brushes with greatness?
I guess it's a matter of time before I ran into someone famous at Distant Replays, given all the pictures of rappers and athletes on the wall. I actually saw Cee-Lo starting to film some fluff piece while shopping for throwbacks. Me, I'm just happy trying to get a t-shirt, hat or "reasonably" priced jersey-type thing (i.e. no $300 Kansas City Scouts jerseys).

However, those of you coming down next month for TRASHionals that happen to be traveling through Atlanta, maybe I can arrange a little shopping trip.

Does Tony grade on a curve?
Unfortunately, I am addicted to Dream Job, mainly because it's one of the few things really worth watching at that point on Sunday night at work. It's getting slightly better, although I feel like I'm watching a broadcast journalism class in action, and is that really a good thing?

This week's Al Jaffe's sports quiz was good, although I was disappointed how poorly everyone did. Then again, I suppose your brain could go blank on national TV, although I feel like you could get some of us out there and blow away the field.

So we're down to the final four, and I guess it proves that youth rules on the show. All four finalists are in their 20s, with Shaggy being the oldest at 28. I think he's the guy to beat, primarily because the fans determine the winner instead of working with the panelists. So yes, it's a lot like American Idol. He's got the cool look, the "attitude" and the knowledge to win over the crowd.

Stanford Asian Guy is probably the most suited to the role, but I think he's too plastic to win over the crowd. Mizzou Boy is the classic "fly under the radar" reality show contestant. He's good enough not to get voted off, but he's not good enough to win it all. Look for him (and Aaron for that matter) and a low 100 market in a couple of years. Ivy League/Chicago girl seems like a fun girl to hang out with, although she's a bit of a spaz even for my tastes.

Happy Action Fun Time
While everyone else seems to be updating the status of their brackets, I've been helping to pound out the coverage at work. But to get everyone up to speed, I have three of four Final Four teams left (Duke, Georgia Tech and Pitt) only losing Stanford. I always pick a ton of upsets in the first round, and I did hit both of the 12 seeds that advanced (Manhattan was a slam dunk, and surprisingly so was Pacific, given Providence's struggles at the end of the season), but missed another 12 (BYU), not to mention a close call with ETSU, a not-so-close call with Western Michigan, and realizing the Princeton offense only worked for about 25-30 minutes (crashing out with both Air Force and Princeton -- I almost always pick the Ivy League team).

Everyone got hammered with the second round, obviously, but I wished I had picked Xavier. (The Catholic school thing, not to mention not liking Mississippi State.) I even mentioned in the office after the lack of upsets in the first round that we'll get a bunch of big ones in round two. Same thing happened in 2000 -- only four lower seeds advanced after the first round, but we ended up with two eight seeds and a five in the Final Four.

I suppose if there's any sign that Ed is just about done, check out this upcoming auction. Anyone really itching for a complete bowling alley can just head over to northern New Jersey for the goods.

Forgot to mention I also saw Starsky and Hutch over the weekend. It had its moments, but I wanted to like it more than I really did. I don't mind all the remakes of '70s shows into movies, but you have to get into the spirit of the thing to make it work. The movie couldn't tell if it was a serious crime drama (what the show was) or comedy (what the movie tried to be). At least Todd Phillips' last two films (Road Trip and Old School) knew what they were and it was easy to go off from there, which was why they were funnier.

But the strangest thing about the whole experience was that I saw the film in the same exact screening room I saw The Passion of the Christ earlier in the week. For all I know, it could've been the same seat.

Finally, it seems that at least one baseball commentator knows who the real audience is for spring training games. While doing a bit about top Angels pitching prospect Bobby Jenks, Rick Sutcliffe mentions that fantasy owners should pick him up in their leagues if he isn't already taken. Think Sutcliffe plays in a keeper league or two?

Saving Private Christ
At least that's what I got out of watching The Passion of the Christ. Simply put, it was an amazingly brutal and violent version of some old mysteries of the rosary/stations of the cross films I watched back in elementary school. The scourging at the pillar seemed to go on forever and had that Private Ryan feel to it, as did the crucifixion.

I do believe the complaints about anti-Semitism are well-founded. While I hear the passion passages every year during Lent, the movie depiction of it, especially the role of Caiphas and other rabbis, really puts the Jews (especially those in power) in a bad light. If anything, all the hype and hoopla about Mel Gibson's faith just made it a tad easier to take that part of the film (i.e. it wasn't as huge a shock).

Given everything I've heard about Jim Caviezel's faith, I couldn't see anyone else taking this role, and he did a great job with it. I also now appreciate how some filmmakers avoid putting stars in certain roles so as not to distract the viewer. Caviezel blended into the role thanks to the beard and long hair , but Monica Bellucci was slightly distracting as Mary Magdalene, if only because I had the thought of those bad Matrix movies stuck in my head (obviously, she wasn't wearing her Persephone outfit on Mt. Calvary).

For those expecting more, such as further going into Jesus' teachings or even how he got to this situation in the first place, you're best served reading the Bible or other scholarly works. As the title suggests, it was a passion play. An overly elaborate and often dark one. It's the Stations of the Cross expanded over two hours with lots more bloodletting replacing prayers.

One thing I've noticed has been swept aside in the whole hoopla is the fact that none of the dialogue is in English. While there was talk of not including subtitles at all, using them let the words and the message sink in a lot more than if they were spoken -- in some way, it was like reading a scripture passage. And given there were probably more elderly viewers (with hearing problems) at the theater compared to your usual movie, the subtitles were a huge bonus.

I am curious, though, if the film would qualify for a "Foreign Language" Oscar, given that the dialogue was in a language other than English.

As for the reviews in general, I really haven't bothered to go through most of them. I was going to see this movie anyway (and probably would've gone to one of those packed outings with my church if it didn't conflict with work), but here's a link to Roger Ebert's review, which seems to be one of the fairer assessments of the film -- although I'd like to have seen him actually comment a bit more on the "technical" aspects of the movie.

This is only a test
If all final exams were as silly (and I suppose easy, if you like sports) as Jim Harrick Jr.'s final exam. Some of the multiple choice questions could've been written by the crew at Millionaire, although I doubt they'd misspell the name of Harrick Sr.'s predecessor.

Reality check
Not sure what it is about the words "season finale" that gets me watching some of the bad reality shows, but here I was catching the last few minutes of Average Joe 2 and losing it while the "average" guy takes the girl on a date to Fenway Park, complete with a dream meeting with ... Tim Wakefield! Everything just seemed too surreal on that trip, including the guy's thick Boston accent. (BTW, is the Mass-hole, at least accent-wise, one of the stereotypical people reality shows must cast these days? C.T. from Real World Paris and Rob M. from Survivor come to mind.) And despite getting a big old kiss in center field, he struck out in the end, but so did girl, so I guess it's all good.

But you can't kill the franchise as Adam from the first show pulls off a Trista and gets to turn the tables in two weeks. However, it looks like he'll get to choose from a bunch of the beautiful people. Will the twist be that he gets "average" women down the line? Things that I think about that I really shouldn't be, especially since I'm usually watching Airline or wrestling when I get back from trivia.

The Oscar blog
It's probably nothing like Sports Guy, but since I'm here in the office working and watching the Oscars while also watching some games and the news wires, might as well do a running log of what I saw. For those who I'd usually IM for stuff like this, consider this what I might've said had I decided to converse that way. It was the best way to balance work and fun all in one.

I will apologize for the length in advance …

Pre-game show
Chris Connelly is finally earning his Disney money after doing the occasional "must get paid" feature for ESPN. But what the heck is "competish"?

Billy Bush -- I thought it was the guy Ryan Seacrest eliminated from American Idol, but instead he caused plenty of awkward moments with every nominee. And why bring up "Oprah … Uma" again?

I think Elijah Wood and Peter Jackson wanted Maria Menounos' multi-million dollar dress to have a wardrobe malfunction. But I guess my friend Stew was happy to see her on screen again.


8:31 p.m. Thanks for bringing out Sean Connery to open, but I was waiting for him to mention something about swords.

8:32 p.m. Great opening film with references to everything under the sun, although it is tough to incorporate Lost In Translation with all the big-budget flicks involved. I liked the A-Rod throwaway line, not to mention Michael Moore getting trampled during the big LOTR war.

And yes, the songs are back, and while I suppose I was dreading the familiar, but Billy was fun. I really liked the "My Favorite Things" bit for "Lord of the Rings"

8:51 p.m. Tim Robbins wins Best Supporting Actor -- no surprise, really. I'm surprised he hadn't had an acting nomination before. Even more surprising -- his political statement was about child abuse.

8:55 p.m. Another awkward Jason Biggs moment to shill for Diet Pepsi. Wouldn't he have been a better choice for a Sara Lee or Mrs. Paul's ad campaign.

9:00 p.m. I'm not a big Angelina Jolie fan, but she did look good. Time for those smaller categories that actually make or break the Oscar pools. Oh look, LOTR won. I guess it's time for the sweep to begin. I thought it might be the place for one of the "other" films to earn a token nod.

9:03 p.m. How come Robin Williams doesn't crash Billy Crystal's party more often? Oh wait, his frenetic humor could turn people off. That includes the Elmer Fudd impression reading off the list of nominees for Best Animated Feature. And was there any doubt Finding Nemo was going to win?

9:06 p.m. I forgot about the silly instant replay between commercials. They're still slightly behind sporting events in turning those replays over quicker.

9:08 p.m. Hey, Oswald found a job while The Drew Carey Show is in limbo. ABC, just show it once and cancel it now so I can win points in the LaPlaca.

9:13 p.m. Yup, LOTR wins again for costumes. The rout has to be on, don't you think. Great, the one year I decide not to vote along the LOTR party lines -- at least not for the art and costume categories.

9:15 p.m. The Dennis Miller Big Picture bit makes a short but entertaining appearance.

9:20 p.m. Renee Zellweger finally gets that Oscar, although she needed to move down to Supporting Actress to get it. Why did they cut to Nicole Kidman when Renee thanked Tom Cruise? Just wondering.

9:27 p.m. Nice tribute to Bob Hope, and actually seems relevant to the show, but it probably extended the program by another 15-20 minutes. There will also be tributes to Gregory Peck and Katherine Hepburn, which now makes me feel bad to those who will be "relegated" to the annual death reel.

9:30 p.m. Oh wow, Florida State just went ahead of Duke (going back to be my actual job). The 'Noles beat Duke at home when they weren't good, so what will this year's good team do?

9:32 p.m. Couldn't Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson just say, "Go see Starsky and Hutch next weekend. And the nominees are …" instead of having Stiller wear the '70s stuff?

9:33 p.m. OK, a film about squash got nominated? Couldn't tell you too much about the other films for best live action short, though. But there goes another pick down the drain.

9:37 p.m. Hey, I got Harvie Krumpett right in our quickly assembled office pool. Sometimes picking the silliest name works.

9:38 p.m. Look, Lisa Loeb is at the Oscars. Oh sorry, that was Liv Tyler. I didn't know much about most of the original song nominees, but having Alison Krauss, Sting and Elvis Costello around to perform can't be a bad thing.

9:54 p.m. Billy Crystal can do a great Robin Williams. Otherwise, the "what are they thinking" bit seems to be done better at Thrashers games.

9:59 p.m. Gee, LOTR wins again. I think I got that one right this time.

10:00 p.m. I guess it's a rule that the scientific and technical awards must be hosted by a hot female actress to appease all the geeks in attendance. This year, Jennifer Garner drew the short straw. But hey, she gets face time at the Oscars because it wasn't for her appearance in Daredevil.

10:02 p.m. A Blake Edwards tribute is a great time for Jim Carrey to act like a nut. Works for me.

10:08 p.m. So much for Florida State against Duke.

10:15 p.m. Oh wait, Dream Job is on. Umm, I'll wait to skewer it on the replay. Instead, let's leave the comedy to the real masters like Bill Murray who's introducing Lost In Translation.

10:17 p.m. Interesting 1-2 punch with Murray followed by Johansson. She looks much better here than at the Golden Globes, but I still don't see her as such a glamour girl.

10:19 p.m. LOTR wins for makeup. The rout continues. Wait, Peter King is one of the winners? Is he going to have his own Oscar diary in Monday Morning Quarterback? Thankfully, he didn't use the Oscar podium to rail on Delta again.

10:25 p.m. A non-LOTR film wins a technical award (Master and Commander for sound editing). Of course, LOTR wasn't nominated.

10:28 p.m. When I first saw Julia Roberts on the red carpet tonight, I wasn't sure if I was looking at Sarah Jessica Parker or worse yet, Courtney Love with a dye job. But it's still a good choice to intro the Hepburn tribute.

10:33 p.m. Nightly crash in the office. Also seeing the Dream Job guys do Fact or Fiction, which actually seems like a good test for the contestants. Oh yeah, that Ogre/Hobbit dude is pretty slick.

10:40 p.m. I like the pairing of John Cusack and Diane Lane, even if it is for the documentary awards. At least they had better chemistry that John Travolta and Sandra Bullock.

10:43 p.m. The Fog of War wins Best Documentary Feature, and brings a nice ovation from the CNN.com newsroom, who were hyping it up in recent months. He didn't go as far as Michael Moore, but it was getting there, and with even more blank stares from the stars (which is why they weren't usually shown during the other awards). Crystal's retort, "I can't wait to see his tax audit," was a nice recovery.

10:50 p.m. Time for the "others" dead celebrity montage. It's always spooky to see who gets the most applause, while others get none. Why don't they just turn off the crowd mike when that happens? Just a thought. And Donald O'Connor gets the last frame, but John Ritter appears to be the winner of the loudest reaction.

10:52 p.m. Ah, here's the Tiger Woods as Carl Spackler ad. What took them so long? Nice ending, too. Kenny Loggins -- enemy of the gopher.

10:56 p.m. Time for the Adult Contemporary portion of the Oscar telecast with Sting and Phil Collins presenting. No word if they'll apologize for their music of the '90s. At least Bryan Adams isn't around.

11:03 p.m. Cool, they're in character for A Mighty Wind.

11:11 p.m. Over on Dream Job … It's not a good sign when a sponsor comes up with a plan to give a not-so-good performer a second chance on a reality show. Thankfully, Alvin (the Wendy's Wild Card winner) was shown the door quickly. Although that also means two of the four black contestants have been eliminated.

11:14 p.m. OK, Will Ferrell and Jack Black get three minutes to be goofy, this time with music. Cute.

11:17 p.m. You know it's LOTR's night when it's winning Best Original Song.

11:21 p.m. And best Foreign Language Film goes to El Lordo del Ringos. Never mind, it went to a Canadian film (yes, it was in French, much to Triumph's delight). Oh great, the producers of the winning film thought the same thing I did.

11:23 p.m. Overheard in the office: Uma Thurman looks like Heidi.

11:26 p.m. Does the Mars Rover have Lo-Jack?

11:31 p.m. I think LOTR nails the sweep after taking adapted screenplay against a solid field. In the words of Warner Wolf, if you took LOTR as your default Oscar pick, you won.

11:35 p.m. Lost In Translation gets the Oscar for "most buzzworthy out-of-the-box film that's not going to win Best Picture," otherwise known as Best Original Screenplay. (see The Usual Suspects, Pulp Fiction, Good Will Hunting). I loved the film, but as a screenplay, I'm not sure it was all that great. However, there was a well-timed cut to cousin Nicolas Cage screaming in approval. There are more Oscars to share in the family.

11:43 p.m. 10 down, one to go for LOTR. Is there much suspense involving anything LOTR? Oh wait, the acting awards are up.

11:48 p.m. No surprise, Charlize Theron wins the award for "beautiful actress who needs to look ugly to gain respect." Nice touch by Adrian Brody with the Binaca before opening the envelope. If I didn't know, I wouldn't have believed Theron was from South Africa -- maybe that's because I had a co-worker originally from there who still had a thick accent.

11:53 p.m. What's with the filler promoting Best Actor? The telecast could've finished close to on time.

Midnight It's a matter of time before Sean Penn won Best Actor. But to me, he'll always still be Jeff Spicoli, although now he's got a bit of a political agenda. Thankfully, it wasn't the main part of his speech. I'm disappointed Bill Murray didn't win, but he's a funny guy

12:05 a.m. I guess it's only fitting that Spielberg would give out Best Picture the year that Lord of the Rings takes it all. Isn't it usually some well-known actor or actress hands out the biggest piece of hardware?

12:07 a.m. A clean sweep for LOTR, making it easy to mark up those Oscar pools. But props to Peter Jackson for mentioning "Meet the Feebles." Billy Crystal knows how to play up to the camera after the so out-of-place mention of a producer dating Crystal's cousin. I love his, "Get the camera off me" look he had. BTW, those hobbits keep perpetuating their stereotypes. Even as they panned through the crowd on stage, they were together, much shorter than the statuesque models handing over the hardware. They couldn't find Peter Dinklage to make them look tall?

12:15 a.m. Nice job overall by Billy Crystal. Sometimes going with the old reliable works, just look at the Bob Hope Oscar clips they kept on showing. The show was actually kept at a nice pace, even those time fillers weren't all that long.

I think we're only a bit surprised that Lord of the Rings went 11-for-11. There were a few places where other films probably could've snuck in and grabbed an award or two, but it didn't happen. Instead, it was the unpredictability of predictability that won out tonight. I suppose the oddsmakers were happy with that.

More "real" reflections later. Maybe this'll be distilled into something later on.

Where movies and sports collide, and I don't mean Seabiscuit
Unfortunately, Yahoo doesn't have an Oscar pool this year, but ABC has stepped into the fray, which makes sense as the network actually airing the damn thing. I've also got a couple of friends running pools, but I'll save them the trouble of having to deal with entries from people they've never heard from.

So will this new drink taste like Boo-Yah! or will you have the urge to drink it every hour on the hour from 6 a.m. until the middle of the afternoon? And will I be able to secure samples of this from my insider at the company?

Reality check
I was already sick of Dream Job before it even came on, but thanks to a lack of quality TV options, we got to see the train wreck not once, but twice. If I'm not a big fan of most of the current anchors, how is a show about people trying to be like them going to be any good.

The show really screamed Fraught, at least from the outset with Stuart Scott hamming it up even more than usual and the first three awful finalists each doing a set of highlights.

And talk about filling all the stereotypes of people trying to find a sports broadcasting job. The first three guys were a Missouri j-school student (lots of them around), a Stuart Scott wannabe crossed with Don "No Soul" Simmons, and a fat guy who I've wanted to slap since those ads started playing ad nauseum. Lots of forced references, bad flubs and general awkwardness from those guys. Tony Kornheiser nailed it with the fat guy, comparing him to Chris Farley doing a SNL skit about SportsCenter.

The panel was reasonably sharp, although Kit Hoover could fill in for Paula and LaVar Arrington (what the heck was he doing there anyway?) as Randy. Having the main ESPN talent guy was also a plus since they are hiring someone off the show for SportsCenter (while ESPNews guys like Michael Kim continue to wait their turn).

In between, they wanted to make use of the leftover 2-Minute Drill equipment from the studio, so they forced an identifcation quiz that made everyone long for the days of Hearsay.

Back to the contrived highlights and the reasonably solid contestants. There was the half-Asian/half-Jewish kid from Stanford who was sharp and could have a future. (He's my early pick to win it all.) After that was a girl from Chicago going to Brown who eerily looked a lot like Annika Sorenstam but seemed to hold her own. Finally, there was the comedian who figured ESPN needs even more funny guys who may or may not know sports.

The voting-off process was pretty straightforward, although I couldn't get on the site to cast my vote. It was funny that it came down to a special red phone tiebreak vote to eliminate Stuart Scott-lite. It's too bad we couldn't vote off the actual Stuart, or the worst anchor/reporter/special guest after each SportsCenter.

I am curious to see what else they're going to subject them after the first couple of weeks. They've already had them do highlights. I guess stuff like interviewing, reporting, doing ads for Tylenol or TGI Friday's, etc.

I suppose I'll watch a bit of next week just to see Ogre (or a hobbit, take your pick) try his hands at highlights. Thankfully, there will be other things on next Sunday (just that Oscars thing) to distract me.

One last note on this show. You wonder if anyone was giving out or reading copies of this book during the casting call?

And then we're going to Burninate California and Texas and New York. And we're going to South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan ...
Surely, this couldn't be the first time Trogdor won elected office in an institution of higher learning. Of course, if this trend continues, would Strong Bad be considered on the same level as a Roger Ailes or James Carville as a campaign genius?

Back in college, a bunch of us ran a fake character for write-in votes for Northwestern's student government president. It had some legs for a couple of years, at least within our dorm, before being taken over by a more successful write-in candidate that actually blossomed into a winning campaign.

Jennys around the country can relax. Those eBay auctions have been canceled, although the one in Manhattan was going for more than $200,000.

By George
OK, which is scarier: That the Grill Man is coming out of retirement or that he has his own inspirational album?

The madness of King George Steinbrenner
Honestly, I'm still a bit numb over the fact that A-Rod is a Yankeee (with another photo to prove it). Of course, with this team, just about anything is possible, so it almost shouldn't be a surprise. Remember that The Onion even predicted the A-Rod trade last year (he's on the far right).

As a Yankee fan, it is great to see the move, although after a while it does feel a bit tiresome that they can get just about anyone they want. And it does create some ridiculous expectations. If they don't win the World Series, heads will roll, and it's worse if they're eliminated by a team like the Angels or Marlins from the past couple of years. Say what you will about teams like the Pirates or Tigers having no shot at the World Series already, how odd is it to think you've failed if you got to the Series and lost. (Only the Braves can say something similar.)

While this latest move makes even more people hate the Yankees, remember that they haven't won the World Series since 2000. Plus, those teams that won all of the World Series in the late '90s were created much differently than today's All-Stars at every position. There was a lot more of a team concept then. Sure, Bernie Williams, Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera were the superstars (and to a lesser extent Andy Pettitte), but could you really say the same about Tino Martinez, Scott Brosius or Paul O'Neill (solid players who showed up at the right time)? Joe Torre will have to use a different way to make this team work, otherwise it could be his last season in the Bronx, whether it's his choice or not.

Geez, Canada, like you really needed to encourage him. Let's see what Don Cherry has to say during Hockey Night.

I'm not sure why you'd want Jenny's phone number when you could buy Tommy Tutone's career for 10 bucks. Still, if you are the lucky winner of the number, you'd better get yourself a good answering machine to ward off all those curious callers.

Help wanted
Anyone in L.A. looking for a job? Maybe you'll like this one.

Gotta thank JD (happy 30th, BTW) for this article. I guess if he wanted to get back in the business, he could be an evil conductor, maybe have the inevitable roll of subway tokens as his secret weapon.

One bright spot to working the night shift is that there'll be nights (like tonight) where I'll get to see my favorite anchor muppet do the news. What's more fascinating is that Richard Quest either jars people in the middle of the night (when his regular show airs in the U.S.) or first thing in the morning (since his show is during European breakfast hour). Either way, you'd be scared to go to sleep since he'll find a way to infiltrate your REM cycles.

Here's your fantasy football
OK, so I only know of one person who watched the Lingerie Bowl, but somehow that's enough to form a league. That would mean L.A. would have no teams in the NFL, but entries in the Arena and Lingerie Leagues. At least they should have plenty of choices for players. I'd be interested to see who comes out for the Chicago team, though. And maybe we'll actually get nipples this time, especially if they're playing outside in Chicago or New York.

Further proof that anyone can be famous for little to no reason at all.

Dunk you very much
OK, so LeBron James won't be in the slam dunk contest. But what the hell is this guy doing there? This could have some humor value to it.

Embarrassment of niches
I'm both scared and intrigued that my cable digital music service now has blocks of '90s music on the Showcase channel. While each decade has plenty of disparate music that only shares a common timeframe, the '90s may have gone to the greatest extremes, especially among its biggest hits. And since radio got so specialized by the '90s, it's even more jarring to hear all these things at one. Within the time I was listening, I got some "superstar" artists of the decade (Pearl Jam, Nirvana, TLC, Notorious B.I.G, Mariah Carey), stuff stuck in the '90s but not bad (Fastball, Duncan Shiek, Savage Garden), and stuff from the early part of the '90s that you can hardly believe was part of the same decade (Londonbeat, Tara Kemp, Mr. Big, that Meat Loaf song). It will make for a freaky boxed set in a few years when Rhino decides to put one out: hmm, Ace of Base next to Soundgarden next to Whitney Houston next to Smashing Pumpkins next to Tupac.

But I leave it up to all of you. If you had to put together a CD that best covers the entire scope of popular/influential music '90s, what would be on it?

In the end, it doesn't really matter
The inevitable finally came yesterday with a number of my co-workers officially getting the ax after the company gave them their two-month notice. It was a very sad day, but I think they went out in style as we all got a chance to hang out for a few going-away drinks. Plus, we had a lot to talk about: Our new boss decided to send out his monthly report, talking about all the strides we made in January, minutes before a few people were going to shut down for the final time. Exquisite timing. Couldn't he have included it in the severance paperwork?

Now we've got a new world order with the way things are done down here, and that includes me moving back to the night/weekend shift on a full-time basis. Yes, it's not going to be the best thing in the world, especially after seeing the things my church group has planned in the next few months. I would complain about having little time to go out on dates with the new schedule, but it's not like I had much to begin with. Plus, there are some things that open up given what has just happened (I'll let those in the know figure out what I'm talking about -- let's just say not everyone was given a full sendoff last night).

On the positive side, I can hit matinees all the time now (if there's anything good to see at the movies) and get more errands done during the day (we'll see how long that lasts).

And to go along with my life as an f'd up sitcom, it seemed only fitting that last night was also the series finale of Ed. It ended on the same sweet and quirky level that was tone of the entire show. Naturally, it ended with Ed finally marrying Carol, but with a bunch of silly twists in between. And hey, Phil was actually not annoying in the finale; that would be left to Warren Cheswick.

The show had run its course, in my opinion, but it was good to see to NBC give it one last hurrah of a season, albeit reduced to 17 episodes. They weren't necessarily quitting while they were ahead, but I didn't feel like they were dragging things along for a few more seasons. There was no blatant "shark jumping" moments -- the writers found a way to make the Ed-Carol engagement a lot more interesting than I would've ever thought.

Now the show goes into minor TV history with a flicker of hope that it might show up somewhere on cable in a few years or on DVD like just about mildly successful TV show nowadays.

Super Genius
Not only is Regis back for Super Millionaire, so is the phone-in qualification. The tapings are at a bad time for me, but I may take a crack at the test for a few of those days.

I still think that the elimination of the phone game led to the demise of the show the first time around, more than the multiple airings and countless celebrity editions. Much of the fun of the game was that if you called and got the answers right on the phone, you could be on TV a few days later playing for the big money.

There was a lot more spontaneity to the whole endeavor, as opposed to the numerous game show auditions I've been to. There isn't any hoping a game show would hold tryouts in your town, there's no casting/interview process. You win, you could be in. It may not produce the most diverse crew, but if you're looking for "reality" TV, this is it.

Geography for $200

Yes, I'm giving in and posting one of those map things:



create your own visited states map
or write about it on the open travel guide

I guess I've got the Blockbusters chain across, if barely. Surprisingly I haven't been to Alabama, given how close it sort of is to me right now. I'm thinking that will change sooner or later.

Also, it's interesting that we mention states on this map, because given the last couple of places I've lived, states aren't a true reflection of where I live, it's cities instead.

It's strange when people ask me, "So how's living in Georgia?" Yes, Atlanta is in Georgia, but I don't consider myself living in Georgia. There's a much different mentality from that area compared to say, Macon or Valdosta.

The same goes when I was in college and was living in Chicagoland. Yes, it's Illinois, but if someone asked me how it feels to live in Illinois, that's just odd. Springfield, Champaign or Kankakee is much different than that mass of land that covers the Chicago area.

Those are probably the two biggest exceptions to the city-state dynamic, but it's something to keep in mind. There isn't always the same attachment to a state like, say, New Jersey. And remember that even within states, there are different mentalities to people living there. Just think of the state of Northern California mentioned in this movie.

Phil Simms' favorite show
Yeah, the Super Bowl announcing crew probably cringed at all the promos they had to do for Survivor All-Stars, but it was a ton of fun as expected. It helps when you're already familiar with the characters, and Mark Burnett got the right mix of winners, entertaining characters and eye candy.

It's all so familiar (to at least reasonably regular watchers of the show) that you can't help but see how it will all unfold. It's fantasy or fan fiction Survivor come to life. And it's damn entertaining to get them all shaken up. Of course why all of these people wanted to do it again is beyond me. Some of them already have pseudo-careers based of the show, but hey, if they want to move the clock back to 14:45, more power to them.

I'm surprised that the Thailand show only produced Shii Ann, but hey, there's some diversity! Then again, I'm glad to see a bunch from the Australian one since that's the one I followed the most closely. I think the only one I didn't see on the cast who might not have been considered was Kelly from Africa, but I guess you can only have so many psycho women, and Jerri perfected it first.

And I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that the past winners would be targeted first. At least I was right in thinking that Tina wouldn't have a long stay. Being nice can only go so far the second time around.

They're Super, thanks for asking
Going Larry King here with a bunch of Super Bowl observations:
-- Of course it was going to be a close game, and it's no surprise Adam Vinatieri was going to kick a game-winning field goal. That's the way the Patriots are. I figured it would be a close game and since we all expected a low-scoring game, of course it was going to turn out 32-39.
-- If both teams played offense the way they did tonight, they would've gotten a lot more respect much much earlier. And heads up to the Eagles, you don't need to have superstar receivers, but a few halfway decent ones would be nice. No one would confuse Smith-Muhammad or Branch-Brown-Givens with Holt-Bruce or Moss-Carter, but they're at least capable.
-- Speaking of the offense, it was surprising to see both teams stray away from their usual game plans yet still made it work. The Patriots did a lot more pounding on the ground, plus longer passes, as opposed to the "gnat attack." The Panthers abandoned the run but did fine with their receivers. (Did I mention how much I've been a fan of Ricky Proehl since he was with the Cardinals and would throw to him constantly on Madden for the SNES?)
-- I avoided almost all of the pregame stuff, except for the trashy-looking cowgirl dancers during Toby Keith's performance, and Josh Groban looking like this guy. Beyonce was a good anthem singer. I missed halftime -- figured it was the best time to drive home from work. Unfortunately, I missed this.
"It's unlikely that MTV will produce another Super Bowl halftime." -- Joe Browne, NFL executive vice president. Ya think?
-- TMQ will have a field day with both the blitzing (the Pats' big blitz led to Proehl's TD) and the two-point conversion strategy (which was dicey, but at least it was in the fourth quarter).
-- The ads were pretty dull, but Budweiser had a couple of nice ones (the wife screaming at the ref, for instance). But, AOL spent all that money on those ads?
-- Patriots fans, before you get all worked up about talking dynasties, remember how much you hate Yankees fans and how they act after they win. Do you really want to be like them?