Saturday, June 7, 2008

I've Got a Case of the Belmont Blues



Well the Belmont is upon us and that can only mean one thing; horse racing will go away tonight and be forgotten about, by nearly everyone in the world, until the Kentucky Derby next year. It's a sad fact of horse racing. It has a shelf life of about 5 weeks a year and then it's gone. While it's here, however, let's enjoy it.

Big Brown makes a run at the Triple Crown today; he would be the first horse to complete the Crown in 30 years. This magnificent beast has a chance to go down as one of the greatest horses of all time if he can pull off this elusive collection of victories.

There have only been two horses this century, besides Big Brown, to win the Derby and the Preakness by four lengths or more, the last of which was in 1941. Neither of those horses won at the Belmont. To bolster Big Brown's case for greatness more, the last Triple Crown horse was Affirmed in 1978. Affirmed only had to beat four other horses in the Belmont; Big Brown will have to beat eight.

Let's all, collectively, enjoy the decadence and frivolousness of the horse racing culture this afternoon. It is a flash in the pan, two minute race, that should be harnessed into a merry little time.

Enjoy.

Baxter, Scotch and The Channel 7 News Team



A Kyle T. Hagler Photoshop classic. I miss the days of the fu-manchu and shag hairdo.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Super Finals



Well ladies and gentleman, this is about as epic as it gets. It's NBA Finals time and, to anyone with a soul's delight -- there are no Spurs or Pistons around to muddy the waters.

This is like if Kevin Arnold and Winnie Cooper had gotten married at the end of The Wonder Years; it's just one of those things that feels right.

Now I'm not a tremendous fan of either team, but I do understand the magnitude of this match-up and what it means to many older than myself. It's like "Freebird" in that it seems cliche' or played out by generations before our own -- hell maybe even contrived by the league, but who cares; it's a cold, hard classic.

On one side you have the hard-nosed, defensively oriented, lunch pale Celtics representing a city much like the make up of their team -- blue-collared and workman like. On the other side stands their complete antithesis, the glitz, glamour and star-power that is L.A. and their love-child Lakers.

It's Ali-Frazier. Flash vs. grit. One team plans to plod and claw their way to a championship and the other plans to dance.

It's high drama and I don't plan on missing a second of it. As for a team to pull for: my minds tellin' me Lakers, but my body... but my bahody is tellin' me Celtics. I don't see nothin' wron...

R. Kelly references aside, I'm going to be taking the experience in at Mother's Pub this evening if anyone cares to join.

The beer will be cold and the wings will be hot. Should be a pretty swell time.

Quote of the Day



"It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious."

- Oscar Wilde

Marshawn Lynch: "Playytime"



This is Buffalo Bills running back Marshawn Lynch. He happens to be quite the character and easily one of my favorite NFL players. The sadly ironic thing is that he is in the midst of a hit-and-run investigation; I just don't get it -- he seems to be such a skilled driver in this video.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Some Damn Good News



Well good news Gator fans. After suffering the devastating blow that was the season opener against Hawaii being played at 12:30 to accommodate Raycom sports, lady luck has smiled on us today.

The second game of the season, against the University of Miami, will be played at 8 p.m. and featured on none other than ESPN -- the WORLDwide leader in sports.

We may sweat our collective asses off in the sunshine seats for game one but a night-game, in The Swamp, against a quality opponent, on high-definition television is well worth it.

On a side note, the fact that we have to accommodate Raycom Sports for anything is a damn shame. Besides the fact that they have low-rent announcers, questionable camera work and the picture quality of the lunar landing, it's just embarrassing to be associated with that trash. They should be calling pee-wee hockey in Fargo, Minn. And even that would be a great disservice to those poor kids.

Go Gators! The U at night, in The Swamp, is truly a godsend. May the drinks flow early and often in celebration of righteousness and college football.

You Owe It To Yourself To Watch This Movie



Now hold on just a second. Before you jump out of your seat and call me a raging right wing nut-job, hear me out. I am not quite a nut-job and would never call myself a Republican. This movie has very little to do with politics or political lines and deals mostly in the realm of film making ethics and respect for your audience; it examines the shady movie making processes that Michael Moore has used to try and manipulate the American people as well as what motivates him to take such liberties in constructing the "truth."

The movie is fascinating on a number of different levels and exposes many of Moore's tactics through interviews with some of the people he has featured in his films.

One of the more shocking "alterations" of the truth came in a very poignant scene from Bowling For Columbine -- the part where he encounters a bank offering "a free firearm to anyone who opens an account."

The truth of the matter was that the bank's policy for the free firearm program required an extensive background check before the gun would be given away and, at least, a seven to ten day waiting period before the gun would be mailed to the account opener.

Moore told the bank that he was doing a documentary on "interesting small-business marketing techniques." He had contacted them weeks before with his personal information so his background check could clear. Now, usually the bank would mail the weapon to the person but Moore told the staff it would make the scene much more interesting if they would have it delivered to that branch so he could pick it up from the bank personally. They foolishly allowed that to happen.

The way the scene is shown in the movie misleads the viewer to think the bank's policy was to just hand guns out, on the spot, to anyone who walked in and opened an account. This couldn't be further from the truth but, of course, that wouldn't be nearly as poignant as Moore, literally, walking out of a bank with a gun in his hands, as if they were giving them out like candy.

Other transgressions include splicing multiple speeches of Charleston Heston's to lead you to believe that the NRA had planned to go to Columbine for a rally after the shootings rather than the truth that the rally had been planned for years, lying about the nature of his project before filming scenes and his ambush interview tactics, amongst others.

It brings to light the fact that as much as Michael Moore likes to call Flint, Mich. his hometown -- I'm sure he feels it gives him more credibility to say he comes from a down-and-out town -- he is from a very quaint and fairly wealthy town about 30 miles away from Flint.


The movie points out how perverse it is for Moore to travel across the country, wailing on about how terrible America and its corporations are and how far superior other countries governments and cultures are to our own, yet he lives in a Manhattan penthouse and is filthy rich from the very system he seems to hate so much.

Now I know some will say that they don't care if the "truth is stretched" because they agree with what Moore's general points are. Hell, I even agree with some of his ideas.

The problem is that when you start to think that you are so right, and so much smarter than everyone else, that it is OK for you to manipulate the facts to get people to agree with you, you are dealing with propaganda. And, as an American it is scary to see the powers that be, in Hollywood, allow this to happen.

Michael Moore and his movies offer up, time after time, an extremely pessimistic, derogatory view of our country. Now, I'll agree it's far from perfect and we need lots of reform but the way to help isn't making movies that bend and twist the facts to make everyone believe the sky is falling. We can only make the situation better through honest discourse -- not rabble rousing and underhanded manipulations that serve to pull the wool over our eyes and tear us further way from moderation, sensibility and resolutions.

Monday, June 2, 2008

Oh What the Hell



If you've never seen this video you're in for a real treat and even if you have, just go ahead and enjoy it once more. It's worth it.

This little chubster has provided me with a video I could, literally, watch over and over and over again. Even the woman next to this round, mound of girl-sounds seems to know this video was destined to be an instant classic; she couldn't help from laughing the entire time despite the fact the child next to her is screaming her name as if he was in the most mortal of danger throughout the ride.

Quote of the Day



"I often thought that if there had been a good rap group around in those days, I might have chosen a career in music instead of politics."

- Richard M. Nixon

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Listen



Now, I am, admittedly, not the biggest fan of Lil' Wayne or even rap music in general; I think a lot of it is decadent and derogatory but that's an argument and discussion for another time and place. Good rap, however subjective of a term that may be, does resonate with me, and this Weezy joint is GREAT rap.

This song has meaning and the musical chops and sound to stack up with just about anything. It's from the recently leaked Carter 3 album and is called "Tie My Hands."

Enjoy.