So...Is There Interest In A Contest?

Here's the deal: I have a couple of certificates I purchased through Eversave Philadelphia. I've used their certificates a few times and all went smoothly. Here are the two currently in my possession:

1. A certificate worth $20 at Mugshots Coffeehouse and Cafe -- three locations in Philly (expires 5/30/12)
2. A certificate worth $15 at Steaks on South -- on, naturally, South Street (expires 2/29/12 -- it's an older certificate so there's not as much time left to use it)

I'd be willing to give one or both of them away in a contest. I have an idea for what the contest will entail. What I need to know is, is anyone actually interested? I don't want to waste the time and effort if no one enters. Unfortunately, since they're both local establishments, I assume it wouldn't be of much interest to out-of-towners. Maybe if this works I'll hold another one, with something like an Amazon gift card as a prize.

So let me know -- either by replying to this post, or via Twitter or Facebook -- would you like to win one of these certificates? (And if you reply here, please don't post anonymously. Use your name or nickname or something.)

Too Long For Twitter: 76ers, NBA Returning?

So there's a tentative deal to end the NBA lockout, which would give us pro basketball on Christmas Day. Yay? I suppose it depends on the details. Will the terms of the agreement allow the NBA to become a truly competitive and interesting league again?

But if it does happen, I suppose I'll have a fall/winter team to actively care about again. DeSean Jackson and Wayne Simmonds have kind of ruined their teams for me right now, so as long as no 76ers have made an anti-gay comment recently...umm, maybe I shouldn't hold my breath on this one...

Quick Review: A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas

The high seems to be wearing off. Too much of the third installment in the Harold & Kumar franchise, "A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas," felt a bit forced and obvious. (It's still amazing that there's actually a H&K franchise to begin with. The first one, "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle," didn't become popular until it got to home video and cable, which is where I first saw it.) The film starts with our heroes apart. Harold (John Cho) has stopped smoking pot and gotten married, and now works on Wall Street. Kumar (Kal Penn) is still in a haze, and his reaction to the news that his girlfriend is pregnant causes her to storm out of his apartment. A package arrives addressed to Harold, and Kumar decides to deliver it himself. That leads to the two estranged friends, and their new best friends, heading out on Christmas Eve in a desperate search for the perfect tree for his visiting father-in-law (Danny Trejo). The typically wild and crazy night ensues. The most lively part of the film finds Harold and Kumar again running into Neil Patrick Harris, playing himself (but not really himself). In the previous H&K movie ("...Escape from Guantanamo Bay") Harris was shot and seemingly killed. There's a great explanation for why he's not dead, not to mention the whole gay-with-a-partner-and-kids deal. Still, there were a lot of stretches where I sat there, not laughing. Maybe if I saw it stoned? My grade: C-plus.

P.S. Unlike just about every 3D movie released, none of the theaters near me showed the 2D version. I was forced to pay the 3D surcharge and wear those stupid glasses over my regular glasses. That deserves a demerit in itself. I read that the 3D version was shown on a very large majority of the movie's screens. It still managed to underperform at the box office compared to both projections and the first sequel. Good.

Quick Review: The Ides Of March

Did you know politics is a dirty, cutthroat business? If you didn't, first check yourself for a pulse. Then watch a few hours of MSNBC, Fox News, etc. before you see "The Ides of March" so you won't be too shocked by what goes on. The film takes place in the days leading up to the Ohio presidential primary, and the Democratic race is close. Oh, and George Clooney, whose Mike Morris has a slight lead, is the governor of Pennsylvania. If only art imitated life. Morris is charismatic and very much progressive -- sort of a combination of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Ryan Gosling plays Morris' junior campaign manager, a budding political genius who is all about making a difference. Philip Seymour Hoffman is the senior campaign chief and much more cynical. Then events occur that turn things all topsy-turvy. Some are the work of the opposing campaign manager (Paul Giamatti), some the work of Gosling's and Hoffman's characters, some are caused by a Morris campaign intern (Evan Rachel Wood). Did someone say "intern"? Uh-oh... Anyway, I wasn't quite blown away by this movie. It's entertaining, sometimes more realistic than you'd expect, other times a bit too far-fetched. Solid but not spectacular, although it might get some love when awards season begins. My grade: B.

Thanksgiving Housekeeping

I wanted to post something quick here, since my posts have been less frequent since I started working. But in case you missed my updates on Twitter/Facebook, time to blog won't be as much of an issue in the coming weeks... (Read these from bottom to top. I don't feel like separating these into four images and putting them in the correct order.)

With this being a four-day weekend, I hope to post a few more items. I have 3 movies to write about (and I do plan to try and see at least one this weekend), plus I now have an idea for...a contest! With an actual prize! (It's not worth an extreme amount of money, and it's something that has to be used in Philadelphia, so it may not be of interest to out-of-towners, but still...) I'll post that in a day or two.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Today's Daily News: A Page Full Of FAIL

It's nice that, because I am a Philadelphia Daily News subscriber, each day the newspaper is on my doorstep when I leave the house. (Especially now that I'm actually awake every morning to go to work.) It irks me, however, that in order to have it on my doorstep so early in the morning they seem to have a printing deadline of midnight, or earlier. What this means is, stories about any night games played on the West Coast are guaranteed to not be in my paper. Worse, there have been times when games played in the Eastern or Central time zones were not covered or, at best, a very short, bare-bones wire service article was published. There was one time when a two-paragraph AP story was all that appeared in the paper for a 76ers game that didn't go to multiple overtimes (or even one, if I recall correctly) -- and was played in Philadelphia.

Modern technology doesn't help them put together a newspaper more quickly, it seems. Until recent years, it wasn't quite so bad. Now it seems more and more prevalent. It also leads to errors. And one page in today's paper was a doozy.  First, note the date of the paper and check out the photo and caption in the first two photographs (click on them for larger versions).

Somehow a photo from the Raiders-Chargers Thursday night NFL game from last week ran in this spot (along with the caption correctly identifying Carson Palmer) instead of one from last night's Jets-Broncos game. This is typical, by the way: run a photo from early in the game and tell the reader to go visit philly.com for the result.

Eagles Getting What They Deserve

My tweet right after yesterday's latest Eagles debacle was quoted in the weekly NFL wrapup on the Outsports Jock Talk Blog. In case you missed it: "I'll keep saying this til someone listens: Eagles' woes due to bad karma for not addressing DeSean's anti-gay slur."

Obviously there's no scientific proof of this, but it's as good a reason as any. DeSean Jackson called somebody a "gay-ass faggot" on Sirius/XM radio during the summer, while the NFL lockout was still on, offered only a half-assed phony "apology" afterwards, and neither the league nor the Eagles took any action in response -- even after the lockout ended and teams were free to talk to their players again. (I hope you're not tired of reading my posts about it.) Sure, there are lots of problems, but there have been a few bad bounces as well, so why couldn't it be bad karma?

The much-hyped "Dream Team" is floundering. The only sure thing right now on offense is LeSean McCoy, and too often the Eagles don't get him the ball often enough. Michael Vick is struggling (and now has two broken ribs) and the offense is at times fine and other times pitiful. The defense is kind of a mess, especially in the fourth quarter of games. FIVE games lost after having the lead in the 4th quarter is shameful. Andy Reid is his usual arrogant-while-saying-nothing self (although he's somehow 6-for-7 in coach's challenges). And Jackson was suspended for the game yesterday for missing a meeting Saturday because he overslept.

There were reports that Jackson, unhappy with his lack of a contract extension, actually missed/was late for multiple meetings during the week and other players were also late. If that's true, then Reid has lost control of the team. Suspending Jackson might be seen as a good disciplinary reaction but I can't help but wonder what the Eagles would have done if their opponent yesterday had been, say, the New York Giants instead of the Arizona Cardinals. Would Jackson have been out for the game, or maybe just the first quarter?

The Eagles are now 3-6 and it would take a miracle for them to make the playoffs now. And, sad to say, I'm kind of happy about it. I was laughing at their follies a few times yesterday. I don't root for the Eagles to win or lose right now, but I can sure enjoy their troubles since they refused to address DeSean's comment during the summer. You might think that makes me a bad fan, but we'll have to disagree on that one. I'm just on hiatus until...well, I don't know. The media ignored the DeSean story except for a perfunctory report immediately after the story was broken and, even with his current T.O.-like behavior, shows no signs of mentioning it now. There's no pressure on the Eagles to do a thing. So I don't know when my stance will change.

Quick Review: Tower Heist

I'm trying to get to movies more often again. With my work schedule and commute, weeknights are difficult. And with my trying to catch up on sleep on the weekends, I'm not getting to the before-noon $5.00 matinees. So for the three movies I've seen in the last week or so, I've gone on a Sunday afternoon ($7.50), Wednesday night ($6.50, because the Ritz theaters in Old City have bargain shows all day on Wednesdays), and Saturday evening ($13.00, in part because I couldn't avoid 3D). Anyway, we'll see how it goes. More movies I really want to see are either already out or will be out soon. Others I'm only sort of interested in, and those are kind of falling by the wayside.

Anyhoo, first up was "Tower Heist." A Bernie Madoff-substitute, Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda), is arrested and charged in a Ponzi scheme. He's under house arrest, but his house is a super-expensive apartment in The Tower (with Donald Trump's property standing in). Josh (Ben Stiller), the building's manager, and other employees gave Shaw their savings to invest. Needless to say, their savings are gone. Josh puts together a team to break into Shaw's apartment and find his "safety net" -- the stash of cash that these Madoff types keep for themselves in case of emergency. But these people aren't criminals, so Josh enlists the help of an actual criminal, Slide (Eddie Murphy), who, as it turns out, was a playmate of Josh's when they were both in daycare. Yeah. Naturally, there are many implausible occurrences. Slide may be a criminal but he seems more like an average lowlife than someone who could mastermind a multimillion-dollar heist. And the maid just happens to have a talent for safecracking? Really? But this isn't a documentary, it's an "Ocean's 11"-style caper. There are some laughs to be had (such as when the aforementioned maid, played by Gabourey Sidibe, flirts with Murphy's character), but more often than not it falls a bit flat. My grade: B-minus.

I'm An Exhibitionist

Tonight I went to see my picture at the opening reception for the Philly Photo Day exhibit at the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center. And here it is!

There were close to 900 submissions but they're helpfully arranged alphabetically by photographer's name, so mine is easy enough to find if you go. It'll be up until the 26th. It was interesting to see such a variety of photos, and yet similarities in a number of photos. City skyline shots, iconic buildings such as City Hall, the LOVE statue and the Clothespin, Pat's and Geno's steaks, a handful of shots from public transit (although I saw only one other picture showing the Market-Frankford tracks through the fence on the crossover between platforms). There were lots of quirky photos, photos of people of all ages, photos that were a bit tricked out to depict some special effect such as streaking lights, a few pictures from Occupy Philly, and so on.

And then there were two pictures of...TV screens at the moment the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series. (One can be seen in the first picture above.) Ugh.

Does This Make Me An Artist Or Something?

A while back I saw a sign at a subway station advertising Philly Photo Day. The promoters of this event, the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, invited anyone to take a picture -- with any device, whether the most sophisticated camera or just a cell phone pic -- anywhere within city limits on October 28th and submit it on their website. Then, they'd take every photo submitted and hold an exhibition. So on the day in question, as I went to and from work, I took a few photos. I then had to decide to submit one. Here are smaller versions of the photos I took. I took the first one shortly after I left the house, just after 7 am...

I snapped a quickie on the crowded bus...

...and another when I reached the El platform at Frankford Terminal...

MoneyMoneyMoneyMoney...MONEY!

This post brought to you by the O'Jays! The Sound of Philadelphia!

Tonight I had tentatively planned to see "The Ides of March" at the theater at Neshaminy Mall. I was on the route 14 bus, headed north on Roosevelt Blvd. to go to the mall, but I had a last-minute change of heart. I needed a new alarm clock radio for the bedroom, so I got off the bus and went to Best Buy and bought one instead. It has really lousy AM reception, at least for KYW Newsradio, but I only set the clock radio to KYW if someone I don't want to hear is on WIP sports radio (usually happens early on weekends). And since WIP is now on FM, the AM side isn't something I'll use much.

Anyway, I got home and looked at my mail -- I got my first paycheck today! A whole week's worth of salary! YES!

The only problem is, way back when I had my interview for the job, I gave them (as requested) my direct deposit information. I'm not supposed to get my check in the mail. Now I have to make a trip to my credit union to deposit it. An inconvenience, but hey, the important thing is I can finally start crawling out of my financial hole.

...Also, We Think You're Stupid

In this Q&A about the St. Petersburg Times newspaper's plan to change its name to the Tampa Bay Times, I'm struck by the last sentence in the first answer...

Q. Why is the Times making this change?

A: Tampa Bay Times is a name that better reflects the newspaper it has become and the region it serves. We have been Tampa Bay’s favorite newspaper for several years. We expect that advertisers, readers and subscribers, who might not have been inclined to consider the "St. Petersburg" Times their newspaper, will take a fresh look.

So, basically, the people of the Tampa-St. Pete region are not capable of advertising in/buying a paper that doesn't specifically say "Tampa Bay" on it. By the same token, I can no longer ride SEPTA because it stands for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority and I live in Philadelphia and it isn't called the PTA like it used to be.

To me this feels like a desperate move by a newspaper. It might not hurt, but it certainly isn't going to help. Sadly, the newspaper business is a dying industry and I'm not sure there's a way out.