CBS Encouraging Bad Behavior? Or Desperate?

Another blog item at EW.com caught my eye today. It seems that a doofus jumped over a fence today during the CBS "Early Show" and did a shout out to Coney Island while putting his arm around co-host Harry Smith. Why is this interesting?

During football and baseball games, if an idiot runs onto the field, usually the TV cameras cut away, not showing the intruder because they don't want to encourage others to try and get their moment in the spotlight the same way. Unfortunately, that leaves only poor-quality video when something special occurs. CBS has, according to the blog, put the video of today's interruption on their website and YouTube.

You think, "Okay, CBS desperately wants people to watch their morning show. The ratings have always been terrible during the morning. So even if other dimwits now hop the fence and manhandle the hosts, at least people will watch."

But then the blog mentions an "Early Show" overhaul that begins next week -- which means even if someone sees that clip and thinks, "Wow, I like how those hosts handled that! I think I'll start watching this show!" -- as improbable as that is -- on Monday there will be all new hosts! So why bother putting the clip online?

(The image above, by the way, is apparently how the CBS logo looked in 1966. I kinda like it.)

These Two Need To Have Hate Sex, STAT!

From Entertainment Weekly's Music Mix blog:

"Chris Brown launched into a profanity-laced Twitter feud for several hours today with former B2K member De’Mario Thornton — a.k.a. Raz-B — in which both Brown and Thornton employed homophobic slurs and taunts."

So, it's a battle between one practically-a-has-been and one never-really-was. Sigh. The article goes on:

"The exchange began after Thornton tweeted, using the Twitter handles for, respectively, Eric Benet, Brown, Halle Berry, and Rihanna, “I’m just sittin here Thinking how can n—-s like @ebenet & @ChrisBrown disrespect women as Intelligent as @HalleBerry11 [and] @Rihanna.” Brown quickly tweeted in response, “@razb2k, n—- you want attention! Grow up n—-!!! D— in da booty a– lil boy,” and followed up with several tweets taunting Thornton over his accusations that he was molested by his ex-manager and one of his former group mates. Thornton replied by accusing Brown of being on the down-low (i.e. in the closet)."

It finishes with: "By the end, both Brown and Thornton had apologized for using homophobic slurs and appeared to have moved on to tweet another day. It was all a masterful display of debate at its finest." These are what the EW.com writer linked to as their apologies:

Of course, one of these isn't really an apology, is it? Also, as you can see below, after these apologies the "war" actually continues, so the EW.com writer is even more mistaken...

Stupid people behaving stupidly. That's life. But really, shouldn't they get rid of all that sexual tension once and for all? I think it might go somewhat like this...feel free to skip to the last two minutes of this...

My Week In Comics 12-22-10

After last week's stunning win, many Eagles fans had visions of finishing at least second in the NFC, if not first overall, dancing in their heads. All they needed was for Chicago to lose a game and New Orleans to lose a game and Atlanta to lose two games and...and...and then they went and lost tonight at home to a very poor Minnesota team, meaning the Eagles get no bye week to start the postseason and are likely to hit the road if they win their first playoff game. What does all of this have to do with my comic books? Mainly it's a way for me to vent a little about a pathetic performance without writing a separate screed. But it gives me a segue in that I think the fans' greed in wanting to believe this team is a serious Super Bowl contender is matched only by the star of the first book I'm discussing this week...

Green Lantern: Larfleeze Christmas Special 1 (of 1): I knew this would be ridiculous from the moment I first read it was coming. If you remember back to the Blackest Night stories, Larfleeze is the Orange Lantern, with orange being the color of avarice. So it's in his nature to want, well, everything. And he's learned of the existence of a magical man who gives the people of Earth whatever they ask for once a year. Naturally, Larfleeze has a looooooooooong list for Santa Claus. Hmmmm...I just had an idea: in the ultimate battle of greed, we need a Larfleeze-Daffy Duck crossover...

Batman, Incorporated 2: This series is off to a fun start. Bruce Wayne's development of "Batman, Inc." finds him (along with Catwoman) in Tokyo, where he wants to recruit the Japanese hero known as Mr. Unknown. But Mr. Unknown has been killed by a criminal called Lord Death Man, who somehow is unable to be killed. There's a mixture of action-adventure and humor that makes for a fast-paced story.

Superman/Batman 79: Meanwhile, here's a book I skipped a month ago, and now it begins a story arc featuring the Superman and Batman of the 853rd century (as featured some time back in the DC One Million event -- one million as in one million issues of DC books, not one million years). But a villain from that distant future escapes their grasp and travels back to a time in the past when Dick Grayson was still Robin and calling himself "The Teen Wonder." So this series continues to be just a place to tell stories from any era, rarely connected to current events in DC continuity. I'm feeling it's not an essential book for me to buy on a regular basis any more.

MixBlog 12-27-10

Now that Christmas is over, we can look forward to the end of 2010. I thought about doing something on this blog this week, perhaps pointing out some of my favorite posts or something. Anyway, that will be for the week to come. I've got a few things to go through now...

Christmas Music: I just removed the holiday songs from my iPod. Here are my Top 5 Most-Played Christmas Songs:

Baby, It's Cold Outside - Glee Cast (16 plays)
Baseball Glove - Gord Bamford (13)
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Annie Lennox (10)
Put A Little Love In Your Heart - Annie Lennox and Al Green (10)
We Need A Little Christmas - Glee Cast (9)

All of the songs from the new Annie Lennox and Glee albums were played at least 5 times.

Snow: We officially had 12.4 inches Sunday into this morning. The forecasts generally went like this: from nothing (Thursday) to a coating to an inch (Friday) to 6-12 inches (early Saturday) to 10-15 inches (later Saturday evening) to 5-10 inches (late Sunday afternoon). The development of this storm, we're told, was very tricky to forecast. (Aren't they all?) As it turned out, all day and much of the night Sunday, the heaviest bands of snow that were circling around the low pressure as it moved north along the coast were unable to push across the Delaware River and into Pennsylvania.

A Little More On My Christmas Music

I just thought it would be fun to share how many versions of various Christmas songs are in my iTunes (out of the total of 468 holiday tracks), and the most notable performers of each...

Angels We Have Heard On High - 6; Aretha Franklin, "Glee" cast
Auld Lang Syne  - 5; Barenaked Ladies, Chris Isaak (and why is New Year's music played on Christmas?)
The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting...) - 8; Nat King Cole (duh), two versions by Ella Fitzgerald
The First Noel - 4; Annie Lennox, David Archuleta (I think these two names back to back form some sort of musical oxymoron)
Frosty the Snowman - 5; the Ronettes, two versions (again) by Ella Fitzgerald
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - 5; Annie Lennox, Rascal Flatts, Barenaked Ladies feat. Sarah McLachlan
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - 6; Pretenders, Kermit the Frog
I'll Be Home For Christmas - 4; Fats Domino, Kristin Chenoweth
Jingle Bells - 8 (if you include "Jingle Bells?" by Barbra Streisand and the medley "Jingle Bells/Jingle Bell Rock" by the Muppets)
Joy To The World - 5; Lee Greenwood, the Supremes
The Little Drummer Boy - 8; two up-tempo versions by Alexander O'Neal and the Salsoul Orchestra
O Holy Night - 7; Neil Sedaka, and a very funky cover by Musiq Soulchild
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer - 9; Gene Autry, Meredith Brooks, and only one version by Ella Fitzgerald
Santa Baby - 4; Eartha Kitt, Madonna, Everclear (male vocal, changed lyrics because heaven knows the band had to butch it up) and Miss Piggy
Santa Claus is Coming to Town - 8; the Four Seasons, the Supremes, the Looney Tunes (I own the CD "Have Yourself A Looney Tunes Christmas" -- not the greatest Bugs Bunny & Company work Warner Bros. has put out there, although it's mildly amusing at times)
Silent Night - 13 (this looks like the winner); Wynonna, Mahalia Jackson, the Salsoul Orchestra (non-discofied!)
Sleigh Ride - 9 (including the Kristin Chenoweth/John Pizzarelli duet medley of "Sleigh Ride/Marshmallow World" but not including the Alexander O'Neal song with the same title but different lyrics; I also have a version by the Spice Girls
White Christmas - 7; besides the obvious Bing Crosby, there's Darlene Love, the Supremes...and there goes that Ella Fitzgerald again with two versions...
Winter Wonderland - 6; of course, my favorite is by Eurythmics, though you can't go wrong with Johnny Mathis
We Wish You A Merry Christmas - 4, including Weezer

And with that, I wish you a Merry Christmas as well, if you celebrate it. Or, just follow Krusty the Clown's advice: "So, have a merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, kwazy Kwanzaa, a tip-top Tet, and a solemn, dignified Ramadan. Now a word from MY god: our sponsor!"

The Day I Was Santa Claus

And now, a Christmas story! No, not that Christmas Story.

Once upon a time (because all of these tales have to begin with that, don't they?) there was a little boy. He was in the third grade when his school decided, in the middle of the year, that he should be in fourth grade instead because they thought he was so smart that he was bored in third grade. From then on, he was always a year or so younger -- and more importantly, less mature -- than the other kids in his class, and it was really tough. Grade-wise he was able to keep up, but when it came to making friends and such, that didn't really happen at all.

(Let's drop the third-person narrative now. Of course, this is about me.)

Flash-forward to a few years later. I think I was in 7th or 8th grade. One of those "My Weekly Reader" type publications had a short Christmas play in it, and our teacher decided that our class would perform the play for the 1st- and 2nd-grade kids right before schools shut down for the holidays. So she was asking who wanted to play various roles -- elves, reindeer, etc. For some unknown reason --

My Go-To Christmas Music

Before I get into my main lists, I want to share a new favorite I discovered on Todd Zolecki's Phillies blog at MLB.com. It's "Baseball Glove" by a Canadian country singer-songwriter, Gord Bamford. The lyrics talk about the many things the family wants, but all he wants is a baseball glove -- specifically, "a genuine cowhide Rawlings Pro Special, one autographed by Roy Halladay." Bamford is a Blue Jays fan and it was released last year, before Halladay was traded to the Phils, but it doesn't matter. Click the above link and you can watch the video and find a link to download the song for free.

There are so many new Christmas albums now, but in recent years I've only bought a few. These are the albums I bought in the last couple of years that I really enjoy:

Glee Cast - Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album (love the Chris Colfer/Darren Criss version of "Baby, It's Cold Outside")
Annie Lennox - A Christmas Cornucopia (I love what she did, but I kind of wish this had a couple of fun, not so serious/religious-oriented selections, like Eurythmics' "Winter Wonderland," one of my all-time faves)
Kristin Chenoweth - A Lovely Way To Spend Christmas
Barenaked Ladies - Barenaked for the Holidays (their quirky humor shines in a number of songs, especially "An Elf's Lament;" also includes a few Hanukkah songs)
Ella Fitzgerald - Ella Wishes You A Swinging Christmas

I also found a couple of CDs that had been released previously: "A Classic Cartoon Christmas" and "A Classic Cartoon Christmas, Too." They feature tracks from many classic TV shows (and some that aren't so classic). Between the two, they include "Welcome Christmas" and "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch" from "Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas," songs from "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town," Jimmy Durante's "Frosty the Snowman," a couple from the Muppets, and -- most happily -- the "Heat Miser" and "Snow Miser" songs from "The Year Without a Santa Claus." (I really need to edit them into one mp3 so when my music is in shuffle mode, I won't hear one and not the other right away.)

The following are the Christmas CDs I've had the longest, and are still my favorites:

The Philly Holiday Shows

I already posted these videos to Facebook but I thought I'd share them here as well, since I blogged about my Wednesday plans. First is a short clip of the finale of the Macy's Holiday Light Show. The Macy's show has been around forever -- well, over 50 years -- dating back to when the downtown store was Wanamaker's. It's been freshened up a bit, though. It's been a while since I've seen it so I was surprised that the narration, which had been recorded by the late John Facenda (known nationally for his work on NFL Films) is now done by Julie Andrews. I think, as a uniquely Philadelphia show, the vocal should have stayed local. Still, it's a charming old-fashioned tradition:



This is a longer clip, from the Comcast Holiday Spectacular (I would record a bit and then hit "pause" so it's not a full version of the show, just some excerpts all in one video):




The Comcast show is, as befits a high-definition age in a building that only officially opened in 2008, high-tech. The video is played on a giant hi-def LED screen on the wall. But other than the shot of the city skyline, there's nothing that says "Philadelphia" about it. Nice, but less than spectacular.

Christmas Is Coming!

Last Christmas I gave you my heart I listed the Christmas TV specials from my DVD or VHS collection that I try to watch every year. Well, this year I haven't watched a single one yet, and time is running out. (Although I have listened to every Christmas song in my iTunes. I want to try to do a holiday music-related post this week as well.) But it's not as if I haven't watched any Christmas programs. I've got both the "Glee" Christmas episode and this year's Christmas-themed "Simpsons" episode guest-starring Martha Stewart and (in live-action with Muppetized Simpsons) Katy Perry on my DVR and have watched both two or three times.

I also just recorded the TV-movie "A Diva's Christmas Carol" starring Vanessa Williams -- surely this helped lead to her becoming Wilhelmina Slater on "Ugly Betty" -- and right now I'm recording "Bad Santa" from Spike TV, although I'm sure it's a censored version that may disappoint.

Tomorrow I plan to try and add to my DVD collection, if I can find an inexpensive DVD of "Scrooged" starring Bill Murray. Like the Vanessa Williams film, it's another update of the Dickens classic, but with a more satirical streak. The soundtrack included the duet by Annie Lennox and Al Green of "Put A Little Love in Your Heart," a non-Christmas song that is now, for me, a holiday classic.



Yes, Christmas is coming...although the case can be made that it arrived early this year...

My Week In Comics 12-15-10

A few days before Christmas. And the events in one of these books actually take place on Christmas Eve. Ah, synergy! But first...did you listen to my comedy recording I posted the other night? I'd like some feedback on it. It's only a little over 30 seconds long.

Superman 706: I'm just going to say it: this book is turning into a trainwreck. Instead of continuing to follow Superman in his walk across the USA, there's another "interlude." This issue goes back to Metropolis, where the Daily Planet has come under attack from a blog. Seriously. Occasionally awful dialogue and a simplistic resolution of the problem.

Supergirl 59: Here's the book set on Christmas Eve, although it's not really a Christmas story per se. It's the conclusion of the story in which Cat Grant's life is threatened. But after Supergirl saves the day, it concludes on Christmas with a super-powered being -- wearing a reindeer headband. (Okay, it's Krypto.) New writer coming on board next issue. I hope the characterization of Supergirl doesn't change with the change in writers.

Simpsons Comics 173: Remember the episode where Bart, Nelson, Milhouse and Ralph were turned into a boy band? This is like that, but there's no sinister subliminal YVAN EHT NIOJ angle, Bart is the only performer, and there's a different gender. Think Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana.

Victorian Undead II - 2 (of 5): Sherlock Holmes learns more about Dracula's nefarious plans to destroy the Royal Family and rule the British empire...although it's odd that Holmes, a man who deals in facts and data, so easily accepts that there are such things as vampires. Then again, he recently was dealing with zombies...

My Wednesday...Something

This still represents how I feel about winter (now that it's officially here).

Not sure what word to use with Wednesday that compares to Sunday Funday. Anyhoo, I'm going to try and accomplish the following tomorrow:

1. Comic books
2. Macy's Holiday Light Show (haven't seen it in a while)
3. Comcast Holiday Spectacular (haven't seen it at all)
4. If it opens as scheduled, lunch at the new Five Guys Burgers on Walnut St.
5. The movie "I Love You Phillip Morris" at the Ritz at the Bourse
6. ....well, at this point there's nothing else. If you have a suggestion or would like to hang out with me instead of stalking me from a distance, let me know. ;-)

We'll see if all of this works out. If there are crowds at Five Guys I may skip it and wait for another day.

My Sunday Funday

You probably already know about the stunning come-from-behind win by the Eagles, who scored 28 points in the final 8 minutes of the game to beat the New York Giants. If you read my Twitter/Facebook updates you know I won a 50-50 raffle at Tabu. I thought I'd take a moment and fill in a few blanks.

The reason I was at Tabu to begin with was because there was a softball fundraiser for the Tabu Wolves. (Brief digression: my team, the Nighthawks, was also sponsored by Tabu in 2010 but the bar is only sponsoring the Wolves next year.) I've mentioned my discomfort going to bars, especially if it's crowded and I'm alone. I'm not a great socializer. I went back and forth in my mind Sunday morning when I woke up, deciding whether or not to go. I waited until the last possible minute to get out of bed and shower and get dressed in order to get there by 1 pm. I finally decided that I wanted to support the fundraiser, I figured there would be a few people I know there and, at the very least, the Eagles-Giants game would be there to distract me from the whole scene.

While it was crowded, it wasn't overly crowded so it wasn't too bad. I spent a little time now and then saying hello and talking to some of my current or former teammates (well, mostly former), so although I still had some of that awkward out-of-place feeling, it wasn't as bad as it might have been.

Besides the 50-50 raffle and sale of jello shots, to raise money the team ran one of those grid games (usually you see them during the Super Bowl) where you fill in your name in a box, then digits 0-9 are posted for each team in random order,

I'm Not Saying We're Demanding, But...

The other day, in the midst of all the celebration over a certain major league baseball transaction, and inspired by that transaction as well as a certain TV commercial for car insurance, I had an idea. I was going to get a friend to help me with it but he left to visit his BFF out of town before I could fully flesh it out, so I did the vocals all by myself. And now, without further adieu, I present to you...pure comedy genius! (Just a warning: the volume might be a bit loud. At least it is on my computer.)







Lee! Lee! Leeeeeeee! by Joe Guckin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Quick Review: How Do You Know

The bad news is that, despite a cast including Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd, Owen Wilson and Jack Nicholson, there's not much to "How Do You Know," another romantic comedy that's mostly lacking in both categories. It's harmless but it's just not all that interesting. Witherspoon plays Lisa, a softball player just cut from Team USA. Softball is her life and she isn't ready to move on. She begins seeing Matty (Wilson), a not-too-bright pitcher for the Washington Nationals. (We are told at one point that he makes $14 million per year. This was filmed pre-Jayson Werth, so clearly this is a work of fiction. But the one scene of Nationals Park did show a half-empty stadium.) At the same time Lisa meets George (Rudd), an executive at some sort of firm -- it's not really clear what it does -- run by his father (Nicholson). George finds himself the target of a federal investigation and is trying to deal with that and his feelings for Lisa. The romantic byplay between Lisa and George, and Lisa and Matty, is always in fits and starts. You just wonder why any of these people want to be in a relationship with the other.

So that's the bad news. What's the good news? I have another excuse to look at this picture of Rudd. Duh. My grade: C-minus.

Asking And Telling, But...

Even with the Senate voting to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" I am still sour. Maybe I'm mad because I was wrong in thinking it wasn't going to pass. Maybe I'm just naturally a Grinch. But look at this chain of events. Last week the Republicans in the Senate (with one exception) refused to allow a vote on a military spending bill because it included the DADT repeal provision. Today, six Republicans voted to allow a stand-alone DADT bill to proceed, and then two more joined them in voting for the bill.

Am I to believe that these Republicans just magically changed their minds in a week? And two of them changed their minds just today within a couple of hours? Or that they suddenly found a dose of courage to stand up to the extreme right-wing (not to mention the increasingly despicable and/or senile John McCain)? If they were so inclined, why did they hold up the military spending bill?

So yeah, I'm happy that DADT has been repealed and, assuming President Obama and the secretary of defense actually successfully handle the technical process spelled out in the bill to implement this new policy, openly gay people who love their country can serve in the military. But even so, I'm as disgusted as ever. The process of getting laws passed in this country is seriously fucked up. Just look at the other bills being passed or not passed this month -- the tax giveaways to the wealthy, the DREAM act. So much needs to be done and it's not happening. And it will only get worse next month.

These politicians are just playing games while the rest of us suffer.

espnW? How About espnG? Oh, Yeah...

When I was clicking on some Michael Vick links for the post I just wrote, I found an article at something called espnW. (They're also on Twitter.) What is it? The site says, "espnW is a destination for women who are passionate sports fans and athletes."

So I'm thinking, if ESPN is going to have separate sites tailored to specific demographics, where's espnG? Or espnLGBTQ? Or the really long acronym that includes every possible variation? How about a "destination for gays, lesbians, etc. who are passionate sports fans and athletes"?

And then I remembered: there already is such a destination. And as you can probably guess from the logo, they're 10 years old now. Congrats, Outsports.

Why Deny Vick's Kids A Puppy?

On Twitter yesterday I posed this question: do you believe in punishing children for the sins of their parents? It may have seemed to come out of the blue, without any context. It was my thought after reading reactions to a comment by Michael Vick in an interview that he would like to own a dog again someday. "I would love to get another dog in the future," he said. "I think it would be a big step for me in the rehabilitation process. I think just to have a pet in my household and to show people that I genuinely care, and my love, and my passion for animals." This brought out yet another barrage of hatred directed at Vick, with comments not unlike the "sub-human" comment I talked about in my last Vick post.

Some of the responses this time compared it to a child molester being allowed to have access to kids. I'm sorry, but I think there's a difference between an adult who sexually abuses children and someone running a dogfighting ring, even taking into account that he killed some of the dogs. I abhor anything related to dogfighting, but child sexual abuse is much, much worse.

The fact of the matter is that Vick is not allowed to own an animal while he's still on probation, so for now the point is moot. But what about after that? If he continues on the straight and narrow, if he continues to demonstrate that he's learned his lesson, if he continues to speak out against abuse of animals, is there really a risk if he makes his children's wishes come true and brings them home a puppy one day?

In the recent Sports Illustrated cover story, it mentions that fact, that at least one of his daughters wants a dog and isn't happy that she can't have one. If some people had their way, that little girl would be, in effect, punished for her father's misdeeds.

One Word On This Abomination...

NO.

Videos: Wonder Woman, Darren Criss

Thought I'd share a couple of videos. They can't be any more different, but both are worth watching.

The first is from Funny or Die. "A Date with Diana" completely besmirches the good name and reputation of Wonder Woman, and is hysterical. It was written and directed by Matthew Cole Weiss, who works on the TMZ television show. (I have to admit I'm a little smitten, seeing him on the show every night.)

A Date with Diana from Maggie Lawson

The other is a Rolling Stone interview with the adorable Darren Criss (pictured above), who plays Blaine on "Glee." He answers everything in song, playing his guitar.

MixBlog 12-15-10

The usual 1:20 am blogging time slot. So awesome. Anyway...

• Yesterday (Tuesday) I made a small donation to a toy drive for BEBASHI, a local HIV/AIDS services organization, after a column last week in the newspaper that said their donations were falling well short from previous years. Considering my financial situation I didn't spend much, but I still felt it was necessary. If you read this quickly there's still time to donate before Thursday's deadline. Information is here.

• After that I went down to Citizens Bank Park hoping to run into Cliff Lee. However, he hadn't arrived in town yet. Then I tried to see Roy Halladay but, as you can see from the picture, he was not around either. Okay, actually I was at the ballpark because the Phils were running a "12 Days of Christmas" promotion at the Majestic Clubhouse Store. Different discounts each day and other special things, and today the special was a free tour of the team's clubhouse. Here's a tip from the employees giving the tour: go for the full ballpark tour, during the season when the team is on the road. Then you see the players' cubicles with their uniforms and other stuff inside. They really have a nice facility. I took a few other pictures with the camera in my phone and I'll post them somewhere sometime.

• It was quite a day sports-wise. Besides the big Cliff Lee news,

Phils Sign Some Guy. Something Lee. Sounds Familiar...

I was going to write a "MixBlog" post touching on a few different things. I may still do that tomorrow. The following paragraph is something I planned to mention...

So there are these rumors going around that the Phillies are still in the running to sign Cliff Lee. It's ridiculous that people are actually getting their hopes up. How can the Phillies sign Lee if they couldn't sign Jayson Werth, whose pricey new deal still isn't going to earn him as much as Lee? The Phillies traded Lee a year ago because they didn't think they'd be able to sign him to a long-term deal. The Yankees have already made their typical big-money offer, and the Rangers are really trying to keep him in Texas. If the Phils didn't want to give Werth more than four years, and they definitely don't want to give pitchers such long-term deals, and Lee has been angling for five or more years, why anyone is getting excited about this "news" is beyond my comprehension.

Oops.

They got the back page online before 2 a.m. Impressive.

My Weeks In Comics 12-1-10, 12-8-10

It's been a light couple of weeks, but I got a bonus at the end of the week thanks to a Borders 40 percent off coupon and an additional discount I was able to get by upgrading my Borders Rewards card...not that I want this to become a commercial for Borders...

So on the first (actually the second because there was a one-day delay because of Thanksgiving) I only bought...

Action Comics Annual 13: Because this series has been starring Lex Luthor, the annual does the same, with two tales from Lex's younger years. You know this because he had hair back then. It fits the story they're telling now  in that it gives insight into Luthor's mentality, his motivations and his flaws, but it's also a bit weird. The stories deal with Luthor's first meeting with both Darkseid and Ra's al Ghul. The latter tale is told in a third-person narration that's sort of a parable, while the other features many exclamation points. Essentially, whenever Darkseid speaks there are exclamations: "You look at me and think 'I'm not like him!' You would be correct! We have nothing in common!! You're a man -- and I -- am a God!!" Exact quote.

Then, this past Wednesday...

Superboy 2: Love this book so far. Featuring Poison Ivy, some freaky aliens (I'm assuming, anyway; they look like farmers currently) who have plans for Superboy, and the newest invention of Conner's friend Simon Valentine: Parasite Frogs! (Patent pending.)

DC Universe Holiday Special 2010 1 (of 1): Six holiday tales featurning various DC characters. I'm convinced that the entire purpose of one story -- centering on an award given by the city of Metropolis to a hero each Thanksgiving -- was to make the following blatant plug, in the guise of a Daily Planet staffer conversation about who would get the award...
Lois Lane: Green Lantern has done well this year. They're even making a movie about him.
Cat Grant: With Ryan Reynolds, right? Talk about hot -- can't wait to see him in that!

Yeah...

Quick Review: 127 Hours

It's pretty obvious that spoiler alerts aren't needed here: "127 Hours" is based on the true story of Aron Ralston, who was hiking in a remote canyon in Utah when a boulder fell and trapped his arm. Unable to dislodge the boulder, running out of food and water, with no search parties looking for him since he told no one where he was going before he left, he eventually did the only thing he could do in order to stay alive: he cut off his arm. When the movie was screened at film festivals earlier this year there were reports that some people got sick after seeing the amputation scene. I expected something a lot more graphic, but it's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. James Franco, as Ralston, has to carry the movie as he's alone on screen for much of it. Other than in a few flashbacks (as he's looking back at his life and his choices while trapped) he's not interacting with anyone else. He's definitely up to the task. Some of the film work was a little distracting -- do we really need to see the point of view from the inside of a water bottle? -- but for the most part, even knowing the eventual outcome, the suspense still builds. My grade: B-plus.

Now I REALLY Have The Christmas Spirit!

Santa, on the other hand, has had some Christmas spirits...



I haven't laughed this hard in a while!

MixBlog 12-8-10

So I had a thought today -- pause for wisecracks regarding my actually having thoughts. I might do another random blog post, but at some point I'd be repeating myself in the titles. Random Thoughts, Random Musings, More Randomness, Randomly Random Randomness...I needed something different. But what? Anyway, I was on the bus today and for some reason the word "mixtape" popped into my head. Suddenly, I had what I needed: MixBlog! (Please note that the date in the title corresponds to when I started typing, before midnight.) So, without further ado...

• I love some of these Twitter accounts that either impersonate celebrities or purport to be TV or movie or other famous characters. (I'd like to do one myself. I need to find a character that I know well enough to make it seem realistic, as well as one whose name hasn't been used on Twitter. I had an idea or two but the Twitter names I had in mind were already taken. One or two times the Twitter accounts were created but they're pretty much dead accounts, with no tweets at all or no tweets in a long time.) Here's something about "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" from a famous newspaper reporter that I laughed at today...
  
  
  
  
  It was followed by "Oh, crap. You all weren't supposed to know that." I can't get that image to upload to the blog, though.

• Speaking of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell,"
  

My Week In Comics 11-24-10

Back by popular demand! Okay, not so popular demand. Fine, no demand at all. Too bad, though, because this is MY blog! ;-) This collection is from two weeks ago. Last week I only bought one and this week I'm only getting one or two, so I'll combine last week and this week into one post. For now, we go wayyyy back into the mists of time. Back when these books were released, Barack Obama was President, Michael Vick was quarterbacking the Eagles and I was only 48 years old...

Action Comics 895: This issue guest-stars Vandal Savage, a supervillain who is immortal. This makes him unique. Unlike Superman and so many others who have died and been brought back to life, Savage doesn't die to begin with. Makes it much easier to keep track. Anyway, he has a compound that contains two of the spheres which have the Black Lantern energy that Luthor wants to access, so you just know these two aren't exactly going to cooperate with each other.

Batwoman 0: That's right, A zero issue before the "official" beginning of the new ongoing series in February. It's meant to serve as a reintroduction of sorts to the character, with the newly returned Bruce Wayne surreptitiously investigating the latest crimefighter to take on a Bat-identity -- both in and out of costume. Why is that distinction important?

Phillies Werthless

Ha ha, punny post title. Jayson Werth went for the money instead of an opportunity to keep winning. I figured he'd get a large enough contract from someone that he wouldn't return to the Phillies, but I would never have expected that it would be the Washington Nationals -- not the Yankees, not the Red Sox -- that landed him. To do so they gave him a 7-year deal worth $126 million. You can't fault Werth. He was signed for pennies on the dollar (relatively speaking) by the Phillies in 2007 coming off a wrist injury. Even with salary increases after that, they got four years of good production out of him at a bargain price. The Nationals are overpaying, but it's the only way that sad-sack franchise is going to sign anyone of quality at this point.

It's just a shame that the Phillies couldn't find a creative way financially to make a deal that would have persuaded Werth to stay. The platoon of Ben Francisco and Ross Gload or Domonic Brown (who was so bad in Winter League play in the Dominican that he was removed from the team; the Phillies' saying he was "tired and sluggish" comes off as spin doctoring) will not match Werth, at the plate or, especially, in the field. And the best of the free agents may be, God forbid, Jeff Francouer. Barring a clever trade, the Phillies are weaker in right field. Their spin is that if the players who struggled or were hurt last year improve on their numbers, they'll more than make up for the loss of Werth. But none of them can play right field and their own position at the same time, so even if the offense is fine there's still a defensive hole.

There's a lot of spin going on now, but make no mistake: even with that pitching staff and most of the same players that have contributed to four NL East titles, two NL titles and a World Series championship, even if you feel that despite losing to the Giants in the 2010 NLCS they're still the team to beat in the National League, the Phillies are a weaker team than they were a few days ago.

My iTunes Shuffle Baker's Dozen 12-04-10

I haven't done one of these in a while. I've been on a listening project lately: to listen (or at least try to listen) at least once to every song in my iTunes library that I hadn't heard since I reset the play counts at the beginning of this year. I created a "zero plays" playlist and listened to it almost exclusively. I must be honest and say that there were a number of songs I listened to for maybe a minute or so and then skipped to the next. Today I finally got through to the very last song on that list, which meant that I could switch over to the "Glee" cast's version of "Teenage Dream" and set my iPod to repeat. I only downloaded it three nights ago. It might get into the top 25 most played before the end of the year (depending on how soon I start playing just the Christmas music). Anyway, since I played every song I was hoping there'd be a good mixture without repeats when I put it in shuffle mode tonight. Do you think it worked?

More Than A Woman - Tavares
She Will Be Loved - Maroon 5
My Mic Sounds Nice (DJ Mark The 45 King Remix) Salt-N-Pepa
Someday We'll Be Together (fuTuRo birthday mix) - Diana Ross & The Supremes
Round And Round (Soul Mix Edit) - Tevin Campbell
Out (With Steven Grossman) - Mark Weigle
Butterfly Caught - Massive Attack
Could I Have This Kiss Forever (with Enrique Iglesias) - Whitney Houston
I Call Your Name - The Mamas & The Papas
Just My Vain Imagination (mashup) - Bob Marley/The Temptations
Catholic School Girls Rule - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Brand New Lover (Dust Monkey's Love Bubble Club Mix) - Dead Or Alive
Black Magic Woman - Santana

My Letter To Sports Illustrated

In your new "Strike Zone" feature you've declared it to be in the "cool" zone that two NFL players punched it out on the field, but the fact that Philly fans booed -- "of course," you said -- because the wrecking ball didn't bring down the Spectrum with its first swings is way "outside." Huh?

Forget that the type of booing displayed was in jest, as it is more often than biased national media fools such as yourselves -- always ready to take your typical lazy shots at the great fans of this great city -- care to admit. But you now say that fighting in football is now "cool." In the "Sportsman of the Year" issue, yet. Stay classy, SI.

It's great timing that my subscription expires in January. I don't have to bother to cancel it -- it can just die on its own.

By the way, you totally stole your idea for "The Strike Zone" from Entertainment Weekly's "The Bullseye." (Yes, I know both magazines are part of the same company.) I guess stealing is cool now, too?


Click on the images below for larger views. We'll see if they publish it, and how it's edited if published.

An Apology And A Little Randomness

I owe this guy Luis an apology for what I wrote about him being sort of an idiot in this post about the "Privilege Denying Dude" site and its improper usage of a photo, which I then used here. He didn't delete his comments, and they didn't just disappear. They were marked as possible spam and were awaiting action on my part in the Blogger dashboard's "Comments" tab. Sorry, Luis.

If I owe any of you an apology for something, let me know. ;-)

While I'm writing something, here are a few brief items...

• My $18.00 jury duty check finally arrived in the mail today. I still never called to find out the result of the trial. I'll probably keep forgetting. It would be nice if these court records were listed online somewhere. Then I could remember it at 3 am some overnight and go right to the website and find out if the defendant was found guilty or not.
• Also, while tonight's "Glee" was quite enjoyable and had its interesting moments (despite the complete absence of Sue Sylvester), the outcome of Sectionals was so utterly predictable that it was disappointing. I understand why it turned out as it did, but there was no tension at all, and that took away from the moment.
• Finally, this week the new comic books come out on Thursday because of last week's holiday and my current plan is only to buy one book, so I may write about that and last week's six books in a single post. Or maybe I won't combine the two weeks into one. I'm flexible that way, y'all.

Quick Review: Burlesque

Many people want to compare "Burlesque" to "Showgirls." I've never seen "Showgirls" except for a clip here and there, so I can't make a direct comparison but from what I know about it, I'd put it this way: "Burlesque" is a cleaned-up, sugary, bright and sunny version of "Showgirls." It's like a fantasy-world combination of "Showgirls" and "Flashdance" and and any old sitcom or movie where the gang gets together to put on a show to save the orphanage or theater or whatever. It's like a cartoon without the animation. And it's pretty gay. Christina Aguilera hops on a bus from the middle of nowhere and escapes to Hollywood hoping to become a famous singer, and ends up as a waitress at a burlesque house owned by Cher. Christina has talent to burn but needs a chance. Cher needs to make lots of money quick or she'll lose the building. There's singing, dancing, romantic melodrama (Aguilera and Cam Gigandet --if I recall correctly from three days ago, with all the implied sexuality, he's the only one to get naked, even if only for a couple of quick butt shots), some humorous lines, villains of sorts, and what are the chances that everything isn't somehow going to work out? Even Kristen Bell (the burlesque show's star prior to Christina's arrival), who drinks a lot, doesn't seem to suffer all that much. It's like cotton candy: it's not healthy, it won't fill you up, but you just want to eat it all up anyway. My grade: B.

God de Sade?

I occasionally like to remark that God is a black, Jewish, pro-choice lesbian. It's a joke that is designed to irk...well, white, non-Jewish, anti-choice heterosexual men, or at least the right-wing nutjob portion of that particular demographic. Today I got a reminder of another remark I like to make about God, and while this one is also a joke, I think there may be a grain of truth to it: God has to be either incompetent or extremely sadistic to allow so many innocent people to suffer so greatly.

Natural disasters are one thing, but what about child-molesting clergy? Greedy politicians whose positions favor the wealthy? And so many others? They cause so much pain to so many -- especially the politicians, whose actions affect so many more people -- yet God doesn't smite nearly enough of them. Hardly any, really. Don't you think a bolt of lightning striking down one or two of these creeps live on national television would send a message to the rest that they'd better clean up their act?

What reminded me of this thought today was, as you might expect, Twitter. And the National Football League.

Randomly Random Randomness

A number of random thoughts, observations and events...

This is how my weekend has gone: Both Friday and today I've stayed in bed past noon. Friday was worse, as I was in bed until 2:30 pm and my cold was at its worst. Today was not so bad, because my sore throat is gone and I was only in bed until about 1:40 or so. Oddly enough, in between -- that would be Saturday -- I got myself out of bed at 10 am, and was able to see a $5.00 matinee showing of "Burlesque" (review forthcoming).

On both of those days I slept in, I didn't bother to shower since I wasn't going anywhere (except a quick trip to the supermarket Friday). Today I put on a long-sleeved Eagles t-shirt and sweatpants, and wore my robe over it. And boy, is this robe old, worn out and dingy. I should really get a nice new one, but I generally don't wear a robe that often. (See? I told you this was random.)

Another Simpsons sports moment of sorts: Tonight, a homing pigeon flew into a bedroom window and injured itself, and Bart was nursing it back to health because Lisa ("They're like rats with wings!") hates pigeons. Homer and Bart are with the bird in the backyard when Moe appears and asks Homer if he ever considered racing the bird: "If it moves, you can bet on it."

Quick Review: Love and Other Drugs

As you know, I've been anticipating this movie for a while now. "Love and Other Drugs" reunites Jake Gyllenhall and Anne Hathaway, who previously played a married couple in "Brokeback Mountain." Of course, in that movie Jake's character had other, ummm, interests. Not here, though. Gyllenhaal is Jamie Randall, a salesman for the Pfizer pharmaceutical company. He's basically a horndog, and uses that to his advantage. He meets Hathaway's Maggie Murdock at a doctor's office; she's dealing with the early stages of Parkinson's disease. They have a quickie and decide to keep seeing each other. She only wants sex -- not a relationship. It develops, though, in fits and starts. It's strained because of the way she wants to deal with her illness, and also by his success once Pfizer comes up with a new drug that he gets to sell: Viagra. At times the movie wants to be seen as a commentary on the big drug companies spending (and earning) mucho dinero on drugs to help a guy stay erect while people continue to struggle with real diseases like Parkinson's. During some scenes, often when Jamie's brother (Josh Gad) is in the picture, it devolves into a more lowbrow comedy. But the real heart of the story is the chemistry between Gyllenhall and Hathaway. And unlike so many movie romances, the obstacles placed between the couple are more realistic and mature. (Even the amount of nudity in the film fits. It's not nudity for nudity's sake.)

And now I'm going to say something that I've never said before about any woman: Anne Hathaway might be the one woman on the planet who could get me to go straight for a night. It would really help if my future ex-husband Jake were also in the room, however. My grade: B-plus.

Long Days At Jury Duty

Let me start by mentioning that I served on the jury for three trials -- two criminal and one civil case -- prior to this week, but it's been many years since I last was selected. We have a "one day or one trial" system -- if you're not on a jury after one day your service is over. The last few times I've gone to jury duty I've been there for a day and then dismissed.

I thought the same might happen this time. I got to the Juror Assembly room on Monday at 8:15 am (after going through security at the Criminal Justice Center, which was a pain -- remove metal stuff from pockets, remove coat, remove belt -- but still not as bad as the airport) and completed the forms containing the questions about whether you've served before, whether you are related to any police officers, whether you've been a victim of a crime or part of a lawsuit, etc. Almost right away they called for a panel of 50 to go to a courtroom, even before they played the standard introductory video. I was number 48 of 50. We were taken to a courtroom which wasn't the one where the case was going to be handled. It was just to clear the Juror Assembly room a little, since it was going to overflow otherwise. So in that courtroom we watched the video, and then we waited. And waited. And waited. After 10 am we were told that "something happened with the case" and that we could take a 10-15 minute break and then go back to the Juror Assembly room.

About 10:45 or so those of us in that original panel were then sent to another courtroom while we waited to begin the voir dire process -- where we're questioned about our answers on the forms, among other things. We sat for an hour, doing nothing court-related but separating the various copies of our forms, and passing them to the court officer watching over us. Then, finally, we were called into the actual courtroom where the case was being handled.

My Week In Comics 11-17-10

Okay, so I have to decide tomorrow (later today, since it's after midnight when I begin writing this) whether I have enough time to see "Love and Other Drugs" (with Anne Hathaway and my future ex-husband Jake Gyllenhall) and get my comic books -- or choose between one and the other. This is what passes for an Infinite Crisis in my life. Oh, and also as I write this the John Williams main title theme to "Superman: The Movie" came up in my iTunes! Hmmmm...

Batman: The Return 1 (of 1)
Batman, Incorporated 1: I tie these two together because the "Return" one-shot leads right into the new ongoing Bat-series. The actual return of Bruce Wayne coming in that muddled miniseries and in Batman and Robin #16 dilutes the story here a bit, but "Batman: The Return" sets up what is a very interesting premise for the future. That would be "Batman, Inc." -- with Bruce publicly announcing (again, this moment actually happened in B&R 16) that he's funding Batman's war on crime, and Batman's recruitment drive for an army of crimefighters, all working under the Batman brand. Bruce is now focused on the big picture -- not just on stopping crime in Gotham City as vengeance for the murder of his parents, but on fighting evil worldwide. And he's having some fun doing it, which we haven't seen in ages. The new series is one that I might keep buying.

Superman 705: Continuing his Trudge Walk Across America, Superman takes on a case of domestic violence. Something I recall he did back in the day, just before he temporarily died at the hands of Doomsday. This storyline has turned disappointing, after a nice start. Should have turned around in Philly and walked back to Metropolis, Supes.

Supergirl 58:

Talk About A Misleading Headline

There are all these news stories today -- well, one story but with articles on many different websites -- that have a similarly-written headline: "'Ugly Betty' actor kills mother with samurai sword." Yet, if you read the article you find that the guy who is accused to hacking his mother with said samurai sword isn't one of the actual male stars, but some guy who had a bit part in one episode (as well as another bit part in the movie "Step Up 3D."

Apparently these parts were so small that he doesn't even have a listing at IMDB.com (the Internet Movie Database, in case you didn't know).

So, is this just an attempt by headline writers to get people to read the article? Isn't "Man hacks mother to death with samurai sword" or "Aspiring actor fatally attacks mom with samurai" enough? Or is this just lazy headline-writing?

Quick Reviews: Megamind, Morning Glory, Harry Potter 7

I don't like to do this but I'm going to be brief with these and combine them into one post. I have jury duty tomorrow and if I'm lucky enough to get picked to serve on a jury, it will create something of a time crunch. So...

Megamind: Animated, so it's easier to appreciate Will Ferrell because it's only his voice. Megamind (Ferrell) is the arch-nemesis of Metro Man (Brad Pitt), superhero protector of Metro City. Metro Man always defeats Megamind, until one day when Megamind actually wins. Then he has to find an answer to the same question Robert Redford asked at the end of "The Candidate:" what do we do now? It amusingly plays off the legend of Superman's arrival from Krypton and even has Ferrell spoofing Marlon Brando's Jor-El. My grade: B.

Morning Glory: Kind of a mish-mash. A little bit of a comment on the news industry, mixed with an attempt at romantic comedy (between Rachel McAdams, the new producer of a network morning show with minuscule ratings, and Patrick Wilson) that falls really flat. Harrison Ford plays an old-school news anchor, being paid to do nothing until he's forced, due to a clause in his contract, to take the co-anchor job on the morning show. Diane Keaton is the other co-anchor, who doesn't mind the fluffy, non-news morning segments, so she clashes with Ford. They're the best parts of the movie, particularly Ford. The rest is just meh. My grade: B-minus.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1: It's the beginning of the end. While there are a few humorous moments, it's mostly tense, with action-filled scenes mixed with some moments that I found rather dull, as Harry, Hermione and Ron are on the run from Voldemort and his minions. A lot of what went on was a bit vague to me. I only saw each of the previous movies once, and never read the books, so one of those "Previously, on..." montages like TV series use would really have helped. If you haven't seen the other movies or read the books, don't bother seeing this because you'll be hopelessly lost. My grade: B.

I Think I've Been Victimized

Remember the other day when I posted about a funny website called "Privilege Denying Dude?" Funny(?) story. I got an email saying someone commented on my post. The email from Blogger includes the comment. But the comment isn't on my site, so I'm assuming whoever posted it removed it. Anyway, it starts out with:

I am the owner of the photo depicted on your post
It is a stock photo and can be purchased at http://www.istockphoto.com
The buyer of the photo who has uploaded it to memegenerator voilated (sic) the Content License Agreement
You can view it here: (then there's a link that doesn't lead to anything but "404 Page Not Found")
You cannot simply use a stock photo image as you wish.
The issue in this case are the following phrases from the Content License Agreement:

Then there's some legal-sounding stuff and more comments and it closes with:

The person depicted in the picture is being brought into disrepute. In this particular case many people have been insulting the model because they believe the model is endorsing those phrases. You cannot see this anymore because tumblr has already removed the content. 
My image agency iStockphoto is looking into the issue. I kindly request you to remove the images from your website since they are not inline with the permitted use of this particular image.

Please inform me when you have taken action.

Best regards
Luis

As I said, the comment is now gone. In the email I got when the comment was originally made, the Blogger profile link leads to a page that says "Profile Not Available -- The Blogger Profile you requested cannot be displayed. Many Blogger users have not yet elected to publicly share their Profile."

The Elephant Project

Back in September I wrote about the Gumpathon, the British and U.S. Marines running across the country to raise money for wounded veterans. They completed their run on Veterans Day, but you can still make a donation. Meanwhile, I thought I'd highlight another worthy effort with a post.

The Elephant Project is raising money and awareness for the fight against Alzheimer's disease. I learned of this through Twitter, although I don't remember how I started following them (which, I guess, is ironic -- once again, paging Alanis Morissette). The elephant is their symbol because of the old saying that elephants never forget. So they have celebrities pose for photos while holding an elephant beanie baby. A package including an 8x10 photo, an autographed card and an elephant beanie baby is then auctioned off, with proceeds going to the Alzheimer's Association. (This is National Alzheimer's Awareness Month, by the way.)

I refer to the Elephant Project as "they" and "them" in the paragraph above, but that's sort of misleading. One of the main reasons I wanted to write this was because of this tweet from last month:

  

From what I can tell from the About page at the website, this kid is doing much of the work on this by himself, while going to school and working at his job. He totally puts me (and perhaps some of you) to shame. So, if your financial situation allows, help this guy out, either with a donation or a $10 purchase of a 5x7 photo of one of the famous people.

Links to the Elephant Project: website, Twitter and Facebook.

Michael Vick And Moving On

As much as I've disliked the fact that the Eagles were the team to give Michael Vick his second chance after he got out of jail for his dog-fighting activities, and as much as I've had a nagging bit of discomfort as this season has progressed -- with Vick taking over the starting quarterback job and excelling, culminating in that utterly ridiculous performance on Monday night in Washington -- I'm starting to let that discomfort go.

There are always people who want to endlessly debate everything. In Vick's case it goes like this: should he have spent more time in jail? Was he punished too severely, either by the NFL or the justice system, compared to people like Donte Stallworth and Ben Roethlisberger? Is he really sincere in reforming his life? Is he going to become the same douchebag he was before, as soon as he gets his new big-money contract after the season (which he will, from the Eagles or someone else)?

That's fine, but, just like so much else in this country, there isn't a real discussion of an issue. There are just people screaming stupidity, like the caller to WIP calling Vick "sub-human" that I mentioned the other day.

Today I saw a post that was in my Twitter feed from someone named Sophia Bush.

Sorry, Annie Lennox

I've decided against a trip to New York City to see Annie Lennox.

That sentence is blasphemous, I know. So here's the deal:

The other day I was on Facebook and there was a post from Annie's page with a link to apply to get tickets to see her perform at the taping of "Christmas at Rockefeller Center." It said there were 500 tickets available. I clicked on the link and registered with the website (which has tickets to a number of TV show tapings, it seems). I requested two tickets, and actually got a confirmation. I clicked to print, and only one page came up (noting that it was for two people).

Then I noticed something on the website. It said that if your ticket was for two and you showed up alone, instead of being allowed in, you'd be put in the standby line! Since no one was able or willing to go with me, I wasn't going to make the trip up there unless I was guaranteed that I'd see the show.

I went back to the website today.

Privilege Denying Dude,Y'all

This site is amusing me tonight. The premise is simple: take a stock photograph, add a caption. In this case, the sort of condescending look on the guy's face really works. As the site says: "Look, I wasn't around when all that bad stuff happened. All I know is I got to where I am solely by hard work. Discrimination? I'm not going to listen to this. You obviously can't hear me: my reality is the only reality." People have submitted their own creations (links at the site), on the order of "Gay pride? What about straight pride?" and "Why do women complain about being approached on the street? I'm a man, and I'd love to be harassed on the streets by random women."

Here's what I came up with:

(NOTE: Image removed; see this update for details!)

Red Band Trailer: Love and Other Drugs

Ohhhhhhhhhh, I want to see this so freaking bad! This is the "red band" trailer for "Love and Other Drugs," starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway, which is out on the 24th. If you're not familiar with them, red band trailers are explicit, and you have to be over 18 to see them, unlike the usual, safe for all audiences, green trailers. So obviously the video is NSFW.



Sigh...

Oh, and for my friend Kurt: it was filmed in Pittsburgh!

More On Sports Talk, Plus Some Sports Talk

Yesterday I talked about the local sports-talk radio stations. One thing I didn't mention in that post, but was reminded of today, is that the stations and their callers often seem to be stuck in a time warp, endlessly discussing/arguing/screaming the same tired points. An example of this was the constant whining about the Phillies not keeping Cliff Lee this season.

Now, I mentioned that I listen to WIP when my clock radio goes off and when I'm in the bathroom. When the radio clicked on today (well, after I turned it off and went back to sleep for a while and then turned it on again) there was a caller complaining about how "people talking about not wanting to sign Michael Vick to a long-term extension because he might get hurt" (like he did against Washington) are way off because Brett Favre gets hurt all the time. Favre hasn't missed a start since 1992. Vick, just this year, missed three full games and part of a fourth, and might have been out another game had it not been for the bye week. In other words, you dare not say anything negative about Vick, in this guy's mind. The next caller called Vick "sub-human," doesn't think he should be allowed to play football, etc. So the whole debate over Vick and his crimes and his punishment just goes on, and won't end until whenever he stops playing for the Eagles.

Or will it? A while ago

A Little Talk On Sports Talk

Around these parts you often hear complaints about sports-talk radio in general -- hosts don't know what they're talking about and/or callers are idiots. In particular there are complaints about WIP (610 AM) because when they've had a competing sports-talk station they've generally beaten their competitor in the ratings over the last 20-plus years. The most recent competition has come from what is now known as The Fanatic, which started out on 950 AM, then began simulcasting on 97.5 FM as well, and added ESPN Radio programming to their mix.

I mainly listen to WIP only when the alarm clock radio goes off and when I'm in the bathroom. Other than that I'm listening to music or, on occasion, all-news KYW. I have rarely, if ever, listened to The Fanatic.

One thing people say about sports fans here is that they're so interested in Philly teams above all else, that national programming (such as shows carried on ESPN affiliates) just doesn't work here. But The Fanatic doesn't have too much ESPN stuff, so they're really trying to compete with WIP.

And now I have some real proof of this.

My First Poll: Justin Bieber's First Time

I decided to go see "Megamind" today. What a mistake. Not because of the movie itself, which I'll talk about in a separate post. Since today was Veterans Day the schools were closed. Since the schools were closed the multiplex was crowded. Lines at the box office. Lines at the concession stands. Loud, rambunctious children all over the place. And since I wasn't seeing something for a more mature audience, such as "Jackass 3D," many of those loud rambunctious children were in the theater seeing "Megamind." (Plus, instead of $5 movies all afternoon, they reverted to their weekend policy where only movies before noon are $5, and other afternoon movies are $7.50.)

In addition, the final trailer shown before the feature started was for the upcoming Justin Bieber movie, which seems to be some sort of concert/behind-the-scenes thing. It really frightened me. Then it got me thinking. This kid went from nothing to international heartthrob almost overnight. Does he have groupies? And if so, has he taken advantage of any of them? Has he, in fact, turned in his V card? With Kim Kardashian, maybe?

With that in mind, I've created my first poll for this blog. Exercise your right to vote on this very important question...

When will Justin Bieber lose his virginity?
	Oh, please -- he's already done it
	Age 17
	Age 18
	Age 19-21
	Age 22-24
	Age 25 or later
	He will never EVER have sex!
	Depends -- does it count if it's not with a girl?
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