I’m like a bird

So how do I celebrate/relax/whatever now that the Olympics are over? How about racking up more than 5,000 miles on Delta in a week. It was a wild travel week that really only came together after I had come back from my NJ-DC double shot just a month ago.

The first part of the trip was to talk to some people at a company near a large Otis elevator shaft and Lake Compounce theme park (where I ended up for that company’s picnic by some fluke). Those who can put it together will have an idea of where I went. I’ll have more updates on the actual business part of that trip later on when events warrant.

I got to that part of the trip by flying Song, Delta’s “low fare” offshoot airline. After that trip, I felt ripped off having to fly the mother ship home (and on the second half of my frequent flyer week). The no first-class thing was cool, mainly because everyone gets those leather-type seats.

But the real kicker is the Dish Network at each seat (rivaling JetBlue's offering of DirecTV). While I did watch a little TV on the flight (although no USA Network to catch up on the US Open), I spent most of my time dominating an NTN-like music trivia game -- multiple choice, touch screen to select answers, your seat number is listed alongside your score/answer/etc. I was waiting for one of my fellow passengers to come over and see who was going Ken Jennings on him or her.

Song also had a bunch of streaming audio channels, which were slightly better than the prepackaged music selections on your favorite airlines, if only because the playlists were longer, not necessarily better. In some cases, the music channels played full albums, which was nice; other times, it was just a mishmash sorta under one umbrella (for instance, the rock channel somehow included AC/DC, Hole, Warrant and Creed all in the same mix). The ‘80s channel had three albums streamed: Born in the USA, Night and Day, and Colour by Numbers. Guess which one I actually own? Sad, ain’t it.

Part 2: Vegas, baby, Vegas

The second trip of the week had me flying out to Las Vegas for the Fantasy Sports Trade Association conference. Somehow because of schedules, I have now attended it on an every-other-year basis. Instead of it being in Chicago as in years past, it went out to Sin City, partly because it coincided with another event run by the organizers. But, heck, it was in Vegas, that’ll bring people out there, and it attracted a record number of companies, including one that stuck to the Vegas theme by trotting out a bunch of girls to sell itself (unfortunately, I have zero idea of what they do, but the thought was nice).

I got into Vegas in the middle of the afternoon on Wednesday, and avoided the temptation to lose money at the slots in the airport. However, I did take advantage of another amenity at McCarran -- the ability to check into my hotel room at the Flamingo from their desks in the baggage claim area. It also got me access to the airport shuttle to get me to the hotel in just a few minutes (as opposed to the hour or so it took one of my colleagues because it stopped everywhere on the Strip).

Once I walked seemingly a mile across the sixth floor of the hotel to get to my room, it was on to exploring the area before the conference started. I hadn’t been in Vegas in more than 15 years (to put it into perspective, the Mirage was still being built when I was there), so it was a lot different than I remembered, but I also knew there was plenty to keep me occupied.

I ended up walking the Strip north from the Flamingo to Circus Circus in 105-degree heat (which honestly didn’t seem anywhere as uncomfortable walking the 6-7 blocks from the Washington Plaza to the Washington Convention Center in icky DC humidity last month). I stopped at a few casinos here and there, doing well at video poker at Caesar’s Palace and breaking even for the most part on the slots and such everywhere else. I also partook in the ¾-pound hot dog at Westward Ho (Total cost with a soda: $2.50), which was worth every nickel, meaning it was cheap and tasted that way. Just imagine fusing together the contents of a few cans of Vienna sausages together and you got this hot dog.

The dinner to open the conference was fine (dang hot dog killed some of the appetite), and it was interesting to hear special guest Napoleon McCallum talk about his career and the gruesome injury that ended it.

After dinner, it was off to go bond with some of the other folks from the conference in a place that has to be seen to be believed (there is some stuff that stays in Vegas).

Most of Thursday was spent doing conference stuff, attending panels, etc. However, I was able to steal a few minutes to cash in my winnings at Caesar’s from the day before (and then win another $9 on video poker for good measure). And since it was the season opener for Northwestern and BC, of course I was going to put some money down for the heck of it. Now I know why I don’t usually bet on sports.

Both bets were more from the heart since I’m an NU alum and my brother is a BC alum. I didn’t realize BC was on the road at Ball State until it was too late, and by then, well, they didn’t cover the spread and they barely scored what the spread actually wasy.

As for NU-TCU, I missed most of the game because I was doing a fantasy draft (and putting together a really good team in the process -- which means I’ll go 4-9 or something like that), but I saw a few glimpses of early in the second half before going to the Hard Rock for dinner. I jumped over to the bar to check out the score, figuring I had lost for sure. Instead, I was floored to see the game go into overtime, and Brian Huffman mimicking NCAA 2005 Brian Huffman by missing short field goals all over the place. What made it worse was that I only had the money line on NU. So not only did my team lose, I didn’t even cash in on them covering the spread.

After deciding not to go partying again with some of the guys from the night before, I ended up doing a little walking down by some of the places I didn’t see the day before like the Bellagio, Paris and Bally’s. Eventually, I ended back at the Flamingo opting to play black jack instead of trying to get a couple of hours of sleep before having to catch a really early shuttle back to the airport. It paid off at the end as I won $150, more than making up for the botched football bets earlier in the evening. Sleep? That’s what the plane was for, and I think I did well on that end on my way home.

I’ve got a few pictures from the trip that may get posted one of these days. However, after that trip, I know I’ll be back in Vegas sooner rather than later. I still have the south part of the Strip, not to mention downtown, left to see.

A couple of other Vegas thoughts and observations:
-- I’ve never been on a flight that had as much energy as the one I took to Vegas, especially compared to the ones I’ve taken recently to places not Vegas.
-- It’s weird to see the dress code just go all over the place, even among some of the folks I was with. While most of us weren’t overly dressed up, a bunch of us did have the business casual going (at least at night) or casual business (replace the khakis with shorts or jeans, depending on your comfort with the heat). And then there were the t-shirts and workout shorts on some. And honestly, no one looked out of place, it just depended on where you went.
-- Maybe because I wasn’t in any hurry to get anywhere, but the Strip wasn’t too bad from a walking perspective. Vegas isn’t a New York in terms of walkability, but it serves a decent purpose, although I guess withstanding afternoon temperatures in the 90s and 100s isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
-- Did I mention that I want to go back?

Here come da judge
Steve B came up with a good point that judging in diving is a lot more on the level compared to gymnastics and figure skating. The more I think about it, diving probably shouldn't be thrown in the same boat as the other two when it comes to eliminating judged sports from the Olympics.

When it comes down to it, you can easily figure out the math in diving scores. Since it's so transparent how the scores are determined, it's a lot easier to ferret out a bad judge or two. In fact, it appears diving combines the best aspects of the judging in gymnastics and figure skating.

Like figure skating, you get to see every judge's scores (although the FIS has changed those rules somewhat), and like gymnastics, the winner is the competitor with the most points. Unlike either sport, the judges aren't afraid to use the entire 1-10 scale, plus the degree of difficulty is factored in addition to the judges' scores and is well in the open, so there isn't that shroud of secrecy like in the case of the botched start value like in the men's all-around.

I am amused that figure skating coverage never really explains how the scoring is done other than seeing all of those 5.somethings and the 6's. It all comes down to an altered version of roto baseball scoring, except that judges are involved and they're determining the places. Why is the math so convoluted that we just have to take Scott Hamilton's word that someone won a gold?

And with gymnastics, we now know that certain judges screwed up, but how come we never see their scores? We just see a number and go with it (or not, as in the case of Aleksei Nemov). It just seems a bit arbitrary.

Finally, I guess with elite figure skating and gymnastics, everyone is so good that the slightest of bobbles need to be magnified to determine a gold medalist, but the judging in both sports is just asking for trouble when everyone is being graded over such a tiny range of scores. It seems a lot easier to figure the top competitors in diving when you can actually see scores ranging from 1-10. Only the worst of disasters will earn an elite figure skater something under 5 or a gymnast something under 9.

Dispatches from the overnight shift
MSNBC actually came through with a solid outing in the 2 a.m.-7 a.m. window today, primarily because they decided to show the entire men's triathlon live and not waiting for NBC to show a cut down version of it in prime time. They still got to squeeze in their schmaltzy profile during the race (of an Aussie, not an American), but it didn't detract too much from the coverage.

NBC didn't do the same for women's triathlon the day before, although it was trying to keep things open for the start of the bronze-medal baseball game (the ending would've taken place well after the game started) and thus filled the time instead with another showing of the bronze-medal women's beach volleyball match.

Another plus of the early-morning coverage is the extended looks at other sports, even if there were no Americans involved, and today it was wrestling and taekwondo. The highlight of the wrestling coverage was hearing Jeff Blatnick mention pro wrestling as a possibility for Egypt's Karam Ibrahim, who not only showed some good moves in reaching the gold-medal match but plenty of charisma -- he was doing flips on the mat after a win. Could we have the next Kurt Angle on our hands?

Taekwondo was interesting, and I even got to see a Filipino fighter compete, but I'm still amused that Pat Croce was the color commentator for this event. However, he did a solid job, in both showing that he's charismatic and knowledgeable.

It's unfortunate E.M. Swift doesn't write more for SI.com, because he nailed it twice with his columns on the unfortunate gymnastics controversy that has started to cloud the games and taken attention away from some great achievements like U.S. men's 400-meter sweep.

First, he helps to validate Paul Hamm's gold medal by further explaining the sometimes arcane judging rules. Plus, he mentions the start value issues with the U.S. team that eventually led to Blaine Wilson crashing off the high bar.

Today, he takes everyone to task for this year's games. The level of gymnastics was so-so, the judging was suspect, the international organizations have hung out Hamm to dry, the media coverage was deplorable. And while he doesn't call her out by name, Swift does take Christine Brennan to task for suggesting Paul Hamm should give up his gold medal primarily because the U.S. is so hated around the world.

"Brilliant. Let's blame a gymnast for the decline of America's stature in the world."

It seems like any competition whose results are primarily determined by judging has come under fire lately (except diving, you're next). And unfortunately, it's two of the highest profile events that are getting tarnished by the whole thing (gymnastics and figure skating). I guess when you're constantly making it a gigantic dramatic production to begin with, the drama will continue beyond the actual competition. Is Aaron Sorkin or David E. Kelley somewhere in the background writing these twists?

Boxed in?
What happened to boxing as a marquee Olympic sport? CNBC or MSNBC gives it three hours a day, but it's on its own and you really have to want to watch it to catch the coverage, although Teddy Atlas has been entertaining as the color guys, but I miss Marv Albert calling fights, and Fred "I'm not the Fear Factor Guy" Roggin seems superfluous. It feels like it's in its own TV ghetto, especially when you consider it's been getting zero buzz on NBC's coverage. There's been a story about an Iraqi boxer, but I can't name an American boxer, or an international fighter, for that matter. A sport that propelled Cassius Clay, George Foreman, Oscar de la Hoya and Roy Jones Jr. into pro stardom, and created a legend in Teofilo Stevenson, has become as anonymous as judo or taekwondo.

Is the lack of a U.S. presence/medal contender part of it? Aren't there any international fighters who come across as a "must beat" personality? Have Don King, Mike Tyson and Bob Arum wrecked the sport so much that we don't care about the potential future pros who will be coming from the Athens ranks?

Or is it the current judging system, which appears more to test the buzzer reflexes of the judges than the fighters' ability to land a punch? As much as it's easier to follow along, sorta, when you see a score, I think it's a lot more fun to wait for a knockout and/or have a Harold Lederman doing the judging between rounds. In fact, I think he's the guy we're missing to make the coverage complete. He'd work well with Atlas to complain about scoring, although he'd be flustered when he tries to throw it to Jim Lampley, who's got higher-profile anchoring jobs, when it's Bob Papa on the mike.

Channeling my inner Martzke

A couple of interesting quotes from the weekend in sports.

"That drive is so far right, Michael Moore is going to do a documentary on it." -- Gary McCord (I think) on a Tiger Woods shot during the final round of the NEC Invitational.

"We're now going to bring you uninterrupted coverage of the men's 100 meter final." -- Bob Costas
Ooh, commercial-free coverage of a race that takes less than 10 seconds to complete. I'm so there, dude.

A few more Olympics notes and observations ...
-- Give credit to NBC for spreading the wealth with all of the cable networks. It was fun bouncing between the mother ship, CNBC, Bravo, USA Network and MSNBC at different times during the day. I probably should've gone to the gym, where I could've watched NBC, CNBC and USA simultaneously; however, I probably would've been distracted by Best Week Ever or something like that.

-- But as we noticed at work when we got the non-Olympics Bravo feed for a while -- how much of the lineup is Celebrity Poker and Queer Eye? And at one point will my mind start bleeding over from those shows into Olympics coverage? Maybe Dave Foley calling badminton or something? Carson making over some of those Olympic outfits?

-- On the other hand, I think USA Network is more than ready for the U.S. Open when it had the men's doubles gold medal match live in the states until 7 p.m. Eastern and 2 a.m. Sunday morning Greece time. It appears they'll be prepared when Todd Martin has the requisite five-set match that goes until about 1:30 a.m.

-- And a note to the weightlifting announcers, everyone knows attendance has been an issue during the Games, don't lie about a standing room only crowd or a packed crowd in the venue when we can see plenty of empty seats behind you. BTW, how did former NFL linebacker Ray Bentley get a gig as the weightlifting color guy?

-- Oh yeah, we know there's a time difference between Athens and the U.S. Don't try to pretend otherwise during the prime-time and late-night telecasts. We know some of the Bob Costas in-studio interviews are taped ahead of time. Hence, Natalie Coughlin looking really good and ready to hit some clubs after her interview, although in real time it would've been 6 a.m. Greece time (since the interview aired after 11 p.m. Eastern).

But it was a bit ridiculous when the opening shot of Athens during Pat O'Brien's late-night show is Greece covered in darkness. Look, it may be 12:35 a.m. Eastern time, so we know it's early morning in Athens. Heck, the local NBC affiliate just did a live interview with their reporter in Greece during the late news and it's bright sunshine behind him. Just say it up front about what the late-night show is: prime-time (Greece time) events that were on too late to make the cable or daytime NBC coverage, events you want to show that won't make the prime-time cut, and a wrapup of everything else that happened.

In fact, I'm a bit baffled as to why NBC tries to make it a point to show events that took place during the day in Athens during the day in the U.S. and night-time events in Athens during prime-time or late night in the U.S. Most of the live events, except maybe soccer or the 10,000-meter race, were either indoor events with the Vegas effect (you can't tell what time it is) or stuff early in the morning in Greece, and in the middle of the night U.S. time, where you might as well fill the void with actual events.

(I am amused when NBC does the promo for the multi-channel coverage during the prime-time show. "Coming up at 2 a.m. on MSNBC ..." "Coming up at 4 a.m. on Bravo ..." "Coming up at at 7 a.m. on USA Network ..." They're pretty much telling you, "If you have no life and actually want to watch Olympic events as they're actually unfolding, here's how we're going to appease you. ... Why can't you just wait for Bob Costas tonight?")

Just got off a couple of days of overnight shifts to help out with the Olympics. Thankfully, it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. It helps when there's live shot put really early in the morning from the ancient Olympic stadium (which looked like the parks Music Midtown just after the festival) or softball or another close call for the so-called Dream Team. I do appreciate the commercial-free coverage of stuff like USA hoops and soccer, although you'd wish there'd be more of it for other sports.

It is odd to watch live beach volleyball at 2 a.m. on MSNBC, if only because there are fans who decided to get out there at 9 a.m. to watch a match. I suppose it's the most eye-pleasing sport (it is often tough to separate the women's players and the dance team), but I'm surprised they don't go for more live coverage of stuff of the "fringe" sports at that hour; however, I think they have had live handball, which was really cool. Even on the cable networks, NBC does plenty of time shifting, which is even stranger for me when I've had to make sure stuff like shooting, badminton and rowing is working and then seeing it about an hour or so later (instead of 3 a.m., it's on at 4:30 a.m., for instance). But at least much of that other stuff is getting shown in the wee hours, and not just jump cuts when Pat O'Brien hosts Access Athens.

As for gymnastics, a couple of questions about the competition:
-- Svetlana Khorkina really wants to be an actress, right? I think she'll do just fine as Mena Suvari's double (or at least take the parts Mena turns down -- there is an American Pie 4 in the works.)
-- It's very easy to do the Mary Lou-Carly comparison. They were both cute 16-year-olds who won the women's all-around. But is it just me, but did Mary Lou at 16 look a lot older than Carly right now at 16?
-- Is it something with the U.S. team that some of the girls looked like linebackers compared to the competition?

The Ringmaster
It's a bit interesting that I do have to pay attention to NBC's primetime coverage to make sure we have all our bases covered. I guess if the Peacock hasn't shown it, it really hasn't happened, right?

The Costas coverage seems to be OK, although you know what you're going to get: U.S.-centric coverage, sob stories, etc., etc. Still, it seems to show what you need to see.

However, all of the other cable channels picking up the slack are doing a nice job as well. I've already watched a couple of handball games on MSNBC, and that (not badminton) really should be the "breakout" sport of Athens for U.S. fans, even if the Americans aren't even in it. It's also nice to get at least a flavor of a bunch of other sports either really late at night or early in the morning. At least I'll have something to watch when I start doing the overnight shift tomorrow (other than a repeat of the prime-time coverage).

Other Olympics thoughts:
-- I think we all saw the "Dream Team" losing sooner rather than later, but who knew Carlos Arroyo had that much game? Even more fun was watching the end of the Argentina-Serbia game -- the pass to Ginobili in the final seconds was just as impressive as Manu's shot. It is interesting to see that most of the hoops teams have some NBA presence.
-- I still can't put my finger on it, but I think if you look at Jenny Thompson, you're getting a preview of what Kirstin Dunst will look like in a few years (minus the ripped physique, obviously).
-- What type of plastic are the U.S. women's gymnastics team wearing? They're definitely not drab, but it seems a tad too shiny, especially when you factor in the makeup and what seems to be what Last Comic Standing winner John Heffron calls "stripper dust" on a couple of them. Speaking of the gymnasts, where's Pamela Anderson? You'd think with the money she shelled out for Mo Bhardwaj, you'd think she'd make her way to Greece. There were plenty of great seats available Sunday.
-- Speaking of attendance, I just about lost it when Telemundo showed the Ghana-Paraguay match and saw no one in the stands at midfield. The wide shot was even worse. If no one shows up for a match, does it really count?

Dot, dot, dot
-- Hmm, given JD's penchant for inadvertently predicting death for celebrities by writing questions about them, maybe it's not a surprise that Julia Child passed on just days after we saw her kitchen exhibit at the Smithsonian.
-- I think my level of interest in the Athens Olympics will be way below Atlanta, when I couldn't help be immersed in it, and Sydney, where the time zone differences and other responsibilities kept me way off kilter. However, it's going to throw me all off if I have to rely solely on NBC's coverage for the marquee events. I understand needing tape delay to show things to a mass audience, but working in a 24/7 news environment, it throws you off when you know what's going to happen (and need to know it happened) hours before it becomes "reality" for the American audience.
-- The fencing outfits look more like stuff from this movie.
-- I wish I knew my Greek alphabet so I could figure out when every country came out. However, I'm still wondering why NBC treated the parade of nations like a live event when it was taped hours ago ("Here are the countries who marched while we were on commercial.). With that said, it looked like NBC did try to fit in all of the countries in the parade.

The name is pretty silly, but I've become a huge fan of Dave FM, a reworked version of a former classic rock station. I'll have to keep track of a playlist one of these days. But within the span of a few hours, these were among the artists heard on the station: The Who, the Cranberries, Modest Mouse, Joe Jackson, Chris Isaak, Soundgarden, Better Than Ezra, U2, R.E.M., the Smiths, John Mayer, Garbage. Not exactly revolutionary, but it's nice to see a bunch of niches aggregating on one station.

In the span of 18 months, the two highest-profile alums from my high school have gone through very public downfalls. First, it was Jay Williams crashing his motorcycle. Now, it's Jim McGreevey's outing and resignation.

I sure hope I'm not the next most prominent person on the list. If that's the case, I guess I'd be toast.

Washington Journal, Part 2
After being overwhelmed by the humidity the first couple of days at UNITY, I instead got overwhelmed by the sheer number of people the rest of the time. (Final totals were about 8,000 attendees -- a record gathering of journalists.)

Thursday was the John Kerry speech, which sounded a lot like his acceptance speech at the Convention with a couple of little wrinkles to appease the crowd. It also sounded like the Convention with the raucous reception given by the crowd. Great, let's just fuel the flames of the "liberal media."

Thus, it was perfect to contrast that with the Bush speech Friday, which was actually more entertaining, although not always for the right reasons. He's a lot more folksy, which probably doesn't go over as well with this crowd, which (as part of the nature of the profession) needs to prove it's slightly smarter than their audience. And unfortunately, he absolutely flubbed one question on tribal sovereignty, sounding like a ninth-grader who hadn't done his homework. I suppose he let his words speak for themselves, which led to a colder reaction, plus lots of chuckles and guffaws both with and at him.

Granted, not everyone there covers politics or are even supposed to be "objective," but at such a high-profile event, you'd like to think many of the journalists there would try to keep an even keel. Hopefully that won't affect the next UNITY convention in four years when they try to get both candidates again.

As for other stuff at the convention ...
• Jerry Stackhouse is a very bright guy when spoke about his relations with the press at a sportswriters panel.
• I'd like to know who decided to schedule nearly half of the new media panels all at the same time. (I opted for a panel on Flash, which I now really need to take a class on.) However, the Saturday afternoon online panel was solid, and it was also a good place to meet with some other higher-ranking people in the business.
• There were plenty of good panels, but I wish I had more time to take all of them in. It actually seemed like there wasn't enough time for all of them. And other times, I just felt like I was grazing.
• Oh yeah, I did meet Morimoto and shake his hand at the AAJA banquet, although it was a mess trying to get his picture, so no photo evidence. However, he did do an amusing bit with Joie Chen, who helped auction off a chef's shirt signed by Morimoto and dinner at his restaurant in Philadelphia. Plus, he unveiled the secret ingredient ... SPAM (cans of the stuff were provided as a preview for next year's convention in Minneapolis). I think I even saw some cans of SPAM autographed by Morimoto.
• Speaking of the banquet, Connie Chung turned into Mark Russell with her take on the election to the tune of "Love and Marriage." It had to be seen to be believed.
• Despite all the gravity of the convention, it's still a great place to meet new people and see lots of old friends, co-workers and classmates. After a while, you keep on running into the same people over and over again, despite the 8,000+ people in attendance. That included the managing editor of the Seattle Times I had met on the bus back from Camden Yards on Tuesday.
• Among the parties and receptions I found my way to was a huge one at a reporter's place that has a reputation for being a hot spot for young DC elite.
• The convention was a solid experience in all, although I also realize I have no game, which is sad given some of the people I came across during the week.

But speaking of games, I saw plenty of quizbowl folks this week, including dinner with Tricia, Tim and J-Kel on Thursday (where they got to see the multitudes of conventioneers at the Grand Hyatt). Then it was back to Tricia's on Sunday to play a whole bunch of Burns and Muck Masters rounds with a bunch more people -- good times had by all. At least I know there'll plenty of good people around should DC be in my future.

DC follies
As hot as Atlanta can get, it hasn't been that terrible and definitely not as humid as it could be. With that said, welcome to the sticky city of DC. Not knowing about the shuttle buses running from my hotel (it proves there's a difference between retro and just old) and the UNITY convention, I've been treking a good 6-7 blocks back and forth and looking sticky in the process -- not what you want when you're trying to impress recruiters and other conventioneers.

Otherwise, it was a decently eventful day. Spent most of the morning actually processing registrations. Don't know how a mundane volunteer assignment turned into that, although four hours of meeting people doing that stuff was probably better than four hours of stuffing really nice laptop bags with stuff.

Had good talks with a couple of recruiters -- it's nice when there are people who know what I do and can thus relate with what I'm looking for.

And as always with these things, it's nice to see plenty of familiar faces, whether it's the Atlanta chapter folks, the Atlanta alumni group and just others I've met over the past few conventions. However, this time it was a lot more imposing with a big opening reception at Union Station.

It is interesting as well to see the famous faces at a convention like this, especially since it's an all-encompassing minority journalists group. I spotted J.A. Adande at the hotel bar. Some reasonably well-known local TV personalities around. And for you ESPN folks, Dream Job runner-up Aaron Levine is at the convention, although I haven't gotten a chance to talk to him just yet.

Travels with JQ
There will be more later (including my five-boroughs tour and the Man U game), but for now, I'm in DC for UNITY. Thanks to JD for getting me from the airport, and thanks to Kristin for a great (if humid) time in Baltimore and at this game -- where the large group of cadets from Annapolis sitting in the upper deck stole the show.

Yes, I'm a bit narcissistic here, but since I never gave anyone advance warning, you can find the audio of my appearance on Boise radio about Ken Jennings (look for the July 30 Spud Brothers show, somewhere in the two-hour range). It's nothing special, but hey, someone actually set up something the four hours or so the column was actually up on the site.

I've actually been beaten to the punch on posting this to a blog by Cooch and JD, but here's my long awaited KenJen column. There are a few things I wished I could've added (especially a good Cliff Claven reference), but I didn't want to ramble on even further than I already had in the piece.

Raindrops keep falling my head
I'm still drying out from a decent day in New York. My brother and I discovered a nice back way into the Met, which we would've exploited more had we not had other things to do in the city.

I should've taken some photos while wandering around Manhattan in between the actual things I had to, but then again, how much of a tourist do I really want to look like if I actually have places to go? However, I did want to mention this Joey Fatone photo that was blown up really big in Times Square -- I swear it's Elvis Costello after a few too many cheeseburgers.

While I did some of my usual social visits in Manhattan, such as visiting Gobo and seeing the New York staff, I also was able to see an advanced screening of Garden State (making up for the one I missed in Atlanta a couple of weeks ago). And I lucked out in a huge way getting a pass: The New York Times site actually had a popup offering readers an invitation to the free screening -- thus the first ever useful popup ad in history. Unfortunately, because of some horrible weather in the late afternoon, in which I got rained on really badly, there wasn't much of a crowd (only about 60-70 people). I'd also like to think popup blockers might've stopped a bunch of people from even seeing that invitation.

But getting back to the movie, one of the quotes on the posters called it this year's Lost In Translation, and it's actually not a bad comparison at all. In this case, Zach Braff plays the actor trying to find himself in a not-so-familiar place (in this case home, where he hasn't been for nine years), and Natalie Portman is the sweetly troubled soul he discovers on that journey. Along the way, Braff's character learns a lot about his old hometown friends he left years ago and tries to resolve some long-standing family situations.

I really liked this movie, and much like Lost In Translation, it's because I could connect with the main character, who comes home to New Jersey and yet it doesn't really seem like home -- even when it comes to seeing old friends. Braff even said that a lot of it was based on his own life (oddly enough, we're both from Jersey and we're both Class of '97 from Northwestern, although I'd never heard of him, never mind met him, until Scrubs came out). While there were plenty of humorous moments, it was also very striking and poignant -- a delicate balance for any writer/director, especially for a first major feature film.

Braff had a decent script and did a solid job directing and acting, but Natalie Portman really shined in what could be called the livelier version of Scarlett Johannsen's character from last year. Plus, the soundtrack was amazing and really matched the mood of the film. It was the first time in a while that I was drawn to a soundtrack that didn't feature songs that I was familiar with.

And yes, I think it's really fitting that I happened to watch this movie on a rare trip home to New Jersey. But hey, it's a nice time for movies about Jersey that have nothing to do with the mob.

Snarkolepsy
I'm home in New Jersey for the week, and right now I've slept probably a total of three hours the past couple of days. Since I didn't get home until about 3 a.m. and a 9:30 a.m. flight the next morning (plus the potential security hassles getting there), I figured I'd just stay up, play NCAA Football 2005 and just chill out before going to the airport. It's actually worked out well, since I got my requisite sleep on the plane and a little nap when I got in.

I'll have a little more on the trip once I figure out what the heck I'll be doing.

I'm also eventually going to have my Ken Jennings column, but for now, Cooch has his solid column on the phenomenon, with just a little peek into the quizbowl world from which he came.

Also, the New York Times seemed to get a bit overintellectual with its review of Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle, but it's a solid read nonetheless. However, Scott also suffers a bit from Ebert-itis in misidentifying one of the corporate drones from early in the movie. It is in fact Ethan Embry playing a corporate tool, as he tries to figure out where his career went after the vastly underrated Can't Hardly Wait.

Nostalgia overload
I've watched most of I Love the '90s, which has proved once again it's TV's version of junk food -- it's not all the enriching, but it's damn entertaining and you see if you can resist watching it when it comes on. However, it does suffer a tad compared to the previous incarnations, but that shouldn't be a surprise when some of the stuff they're reminiscing is barely old enough to be nostalgic, but not necessarily snarky, about. But, I do think they did a great job incorporating '90s music within the segments -- possibly the best of the four series. That did the best job of triggering the nostalgia more than most of the segments on pop culture.
 
Triggering the nostalgia in me is a lot stranger in the '90s, compared to the '80s shows or the '70s. I was a child of the '80s, so both sets of series were a fun look at my childhood. While I was born in the '70s and had a smattering of memories from then, there's enough of a disconnect that it's fine to look at things ironically and still be entertained.
 
But in the '90s, I can actually point to a number of years and think of important things happening in my life that it wasn't always all about pop culture. My '90s include most of high school, all of college, and the beginning of adulthood and the "real world." I seemed to "live" all of this, and some of it even seemed to live in the background.
 
It's fine to see some of the regular panelists back, what's up with all the second bananas offering their insights? Instead of Blossom, you get Six (not that I'm complaining there); no Jennifer Love Hewitt or Neve Campbell, but Lacey Chabert (again, no complaints); A.J. Langer instead of Claire Danes; Dean instead of either Gilmore Girl; Rachel Bilson instead of Adam Brody or Mischa Barton; Gunther instead of any of the Friends (he's the only regular from the show who's not acclaimed enough to think this stuff is beneath him); the list goes on and on.
 
There are a couple of entries off the top of my head that really make me go hmmm ...
--What in the world are Zubaz pants doing in 1996? Those things were long out of style by then. I can remember owning a Zubaz hat while I was in high school, not to mention those Arena Football teams with Zubaz uniforms.
--I was amused to see a full segment on Office Space as it proved that some memories are shaped long after the fact. The movie was a bust when it first came out in 1999 (I can remember it being in the theaters for about two weeks in that dead zone in February), but it wouldn't be for another year or so after it ended up on video that it would gain all its momentum as a pop cultural phenomenon -- after the '90s were over.
--Y2K was obviously right at the end of '99, but they also were able to sneak in John Rocker, whose infamous comments appeared the final week of the year.
--I'm sure there's more out there. Feel free to add your own, not to mention stuff that was missing, warped, etc.