TLFT: Drag Race Finale (No Spoiler)

I started to post this to Twitter but then I realized it needs a little more room to breathe. ;-)

Knowing they taped the ending of the "RuPaul's Drag Race" reunion/coronation three times, one for each of the finalists, made the eventual announcement of the winner tonight somewhat anticlimatic -- especially when the actual winner wasn't the one filmed first, based on EW.com's on-the-scene report, and thus didn't get the most genuine audience reaction. (Don't click on the link if you want to go completely unspoiled.) I can understand taking precautions to prevent the news from being leaked, as apparently happened last season, but to me it really took away from my enjoyment of the show. Not to mention I'm still ticked off that the winner wasn't revealed last week. First there was "The Glee Project" finale, in which every finalist won something, and now "Drag Race," in which nobody won, at least not on the "final" episode. What's next? Annoucing the winner on the first episode and then running the show in reverse?

I will say the choice was interesting. I had no real favorite so I'm not overly pleased or displeased either way.

Oh, and the reason Willam got kicked off? Yawn. Seriously.

50; No Softball

So here's a magazine cover from fifty years ago, on the day I was born...

Or if you're a little less highbrow, like me...

50. Yikes. So far it isn't really any different from my 40s. Except I can join the AARP and start benefiting from my advanced age. (And dammit, why can't I find a video of this Grampa Simpson clip?)

Anyway, if you've ever checked out my Twitter profile page you've seen what I wrote for a bio, at least since I began my job in October: "I may have a job now but I will still spend way too much time online, on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Oh, and blog. And play softball..." But I've made a change. It now ends with "...but not this year." The softball league's season begins this weekend, weather permitting. However, this year I'm not playing. I had been planning to, but there was a problem with my team's practice schedule that led to my not making it to practice. (We talking about practice! Not a game, not a game, not a game -- we talking about practice!) I won't go into the gory details; suffice it to say there was an exchange of negative emails and, had I decided to play, I probably would have preferred finding a new team.

But I got to thinking (which is always dangerous). If I did play I wouldn't be as effective pitching as I've been in the past. One of the things that spurred me to rejoin the league in 2008, after a 20-year hiatus, was the fact that I had been dieting and lost a lot of weight (eventually the total loss reached 50 pounds), so I felt more able to do things without overtiring. Unfortunately, since then, slowly but surely I've been gaining it back. And if anything, with the stress from my job schedule and commute to and from work, I've probably eaten worse over the last 6 months.

Mom's Music

A few years ago my mom received an mp3 player as a gift, so she wrote out a list of songs and asked if I could put them on the player. So here's a list of 200 of her favorites. This is just the collection that made it onto the player. Looking at the worksheet which I created, there are some songs that didn't make it for some reason. Either they weren't online at all for me to download, or the quality was poor, or she wasn't sure of the song title or artist and I couldn't figure out exactly which song she wanted.

Also, I should point out that she adored Rod Stewart, but she had many CDs with his music so she didn't bother to have any of it put onto the mp3 player.

The list begins after the jump...

Why An Earthquake Should Bring Down Xfinity Live

A few weeks ago I bought a ticket to Wednesday night's Phillies game. I wasn't planning to go originally, even though they were giving the t-shirt pictured to all fans 15 and over. Then I read that the Phils set up their starting rotation so that Roy Halladay was pitching that night. In the previous two years I haven't seen him pitch once in person. I've only been to a few games the last couple of years but every time I went someone else pitched. So I got a ticket.

(I almost didn't go because my mom passed away the day before, but I spoke to one of my brothers and he said she wouldn't want me to waste the ticket, which I sort of felt myself, and it wasn't as if I was missing the funeral or needed for anything else related to it.)

I figured I could check out what has come to be known as Xfinity Live. (Officially the title ends with an exclamation point but I refuse to use it.) When plans to tear down the Spectrum were first announced, it was known as Philly Live, and was quite ambitious. A shopping/dining/entertainment experience, perhaps even a hotel, was planned. Although I hate that the Spectrum had to go (I'd have liked to see them build around it somehow), the idea sounded really exciting.

It became less exciting when the project was delayed and scaled back due to the economic meltdown.

Then they decided that it would be given the same bizarre made-up name that Comcast came up with for its cable, internet and phone services because the name "Comcast" had such a poor reputation.

Today's Horror Show Started Here

This is on Locust Street between 8th and 9th. The building, according to Wikipedia, was eventually abandoned, the same way the GOP abandoned the principles of Lincoln and instead began sucking at the teat of the Religious Right. The building was turned into condos in order to keep it from being torn down.

Insert $0.50

I don't know why this amused me, but...

My iTunes Shuffle Baker's Dozen 4-5-12

Sure, it's an easy way to post content. Why not?

Let Me Be The One - Five Star
I Thought It Took A Little Time - Diana Ross
Rhythm Of The Night - Valeria
Is That You Mo-Dean? - The B-52’s
Viking - Los Lobos
Waiting For The End - Linkin Park
Cosmic - Kylie Minogue
Running Back To You - Vanessa Williams
The Party Song - Slave featuring Steve Arrington
Ode To Billy Joe - Bobbie Gentry
White Heat - Madonna
Never Miss The Water - Chaka Khan
Hello And Goodbye - Madonna, Andrea Corr, Jonathan Pryce

Phillies 2012!

The season begins tomorrow in Pittsburgh. The Phillies go after a sixth consecutive National League Eastern Division title, on the road to a third World Series appearance and their ultimate goal, a second World Series championship in five years. I think there's a lot to worry about, especially early on with both Ryan Howard and Chase Utley out with injuries. If games are close because the offense is struggling, the Phils will need their bullpen to do the job and I'm not sure they're up to it right now. Then again, it seems like the bullpen has always a concern and somehow things work out.

They seem to have dodged a bullet by letting Ryan Madson go away and signing Jonathan Papelbon to be the closer. Madson had Tommy John surgery and is out for the season after signing for one year with Cincinnati. But if the guys in front of Papelbon can't hold leads for the monster starting rotation...anyway, although it's tempting (particularly for those national "experts" I love so much) to say that Atlanta or Washington or Florida Miami will overtake the Phils, I'm going to do with the Phils what I did with the Braves for all those years in the 1990s and early 2000s: keep picking them to win until they don't. So I present my picks for the divisions and wild cards (yes, two...ugh...). I again present my disclaimer that I don't have a deep awareness of what's going on with each team, so these are very uneducated guesses:

NL East
1. Phillies
2. Miami
3. Atlanta
4. Washington
5. New York Mets

NL Central: St. Louis
NL West: San Francisco
NL Wild Cards: Miami, Arizona
AL East: New York Yankees
AL Central: Detroit
AL West: Los Angeles Angels
AL Wild Cards: Texas, Tampa Bay

Short Sports Musing

The NCAA men's basketball tournament just ended. I'm sort of amazed at how little of the tournament I watched this year. And I only completed one online bracket (as usual, my picks were well off the mark). I'm not sure what's up with my sports love. I still read the Daily News sports section before the rest of the paper, but I just don't watch as much of it on TV. I watched a little less of the Eagles and NFL this year, and I've watched less of the Flyers and NHL, but those were influenced a bit by the DeSean Jackson and Wayne Simmonds verbal anti-gay incidents.

It makes me wonder a little how much of the Phillies I'll watch this year. At least in the case of the Phils, I'll be going to a game in person now and then, starting with April 11, the second home game (and first night game) of the new season. And despite the general awesomeness of the Stanley Cup playoffs, which start in a little more than a week, baseball is still my favorite sport. So we shall see, I guess.

Quick Reviews: Too Many Movies To Count

That headline isn't true. The count is eight. Eight movies I've seen between February 19th and yesterday. And I'm not allowing myself to watch my Sunday night TV shows until I finish this. Plus, I'm sick of the ticket stubs sitting here, on the table, mocking me.

These are in chronological order except for the first one, which was a 2011 release...

The Descendants: Really fine. George Clooney excelled, as (almost) always. Not too much rang false with me in this. I put it into my 2011 Top 10. See which movie got bumped from the list here. My grade: A-minus.

The Woman In Black: Started out really dull and never truly picked up in intensity. Neat twist ending saved this grade from being worse. I'm really loving Daniel Radcliffe, though. My grade: C-plus.

This Means War: Ugh. My grade: D-minus.

Chronicle: Surprisingly good. I can do without the silly "found-footage" genre, though. As if at every remotely important point in a story there's always -- ALWAYS -- someone with camera filming away. My grade: B-plus.

Silent House: Elizabeth "Not A Twin" Olsen shows signs of talent, but this...thing...was a joke. I figured out pretty fast what was going on. Thisclose to an F... My grade: D-minus.

21 Jump Street: As I tweeted after I saw it, I'm stunned by how good it was. There may be hope for Channing Tatum after all. My grade: A-minus.

Dr. Seuss' The Lorax: Nice adaptation, though I'm not sure the message didn't get muddled by all of the added details and characters, not to mention the songs, which didn't enchant. My grade: B.

The Hunger Games: Didn't wow me like I expected, based on the reviews and viewer comments. The take on "reality" television was eerily accurate to the point that I was aggravated, because that's what most "reality" television does to me. My grade: B.