Sigh

WTF?

I can't bring myself to say more yet. I just want to throw up...

Quick Review: What's Your Number

In "What's Your Number" Anna Faris is a woman who is horrified when she reads an article in a women's magazine stating that a woman who's had 20 lovers will most likely never marry. After all, she'd been with 19 men -- and then ends up having a drunken one-nighter with her ex-boss, a d-bag played by Joel McHale (speaking of whom, I really like "Community" even though I didn't begin watching it until Season 2), hitting the not-so-magical 20 plateau. She decides that one of her old boyfriends must be "the one" and, with the help of her hot neighbor, who has many one-night stands of his own (but no magazine cares whether a man has too many lovers), starts tracking them down. But it's a mostly predictable plot and we all know who ends up together at the end, don't we? But I love Anna Faris in almost anything. And Chris Evans, as the neighbor/man-slut, isn't quite as wooden as he's been in the past (plus, I assumed he filmed this after "Captain America" because his chest hair was starting to grow back in). My grade: C-plus.

Quick Review: Contagion

Because of circumstances (both beyond and within my control, to be honest) it took me a while to get around to seeing "Contagion." It wasn't really worth the wait. It's competent enough, the acting is mostly good, and for some reason I laughed at Gwyneth Paltrow getting sick, dying, and being cut open and autopsied...well, her character did, anyway. But it's rather boring and cluttered with too many characters. Paltrow's character, married to Matt Damon's character, is probably in the film the least. She picked up a new, deadly disease while on a business trip in Hong Kong, stopped in Chicago to cheat on her husband (thus passing on the virus there) and then returned home to Minneapolis, dying days later. As the virus spreads both in the United States and worldwide, scientists race to try and contain it while society starts falling apart. We're supposed to follow various plots and characters in Minneapolis, Hong Kong, the Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization, and probably some other places as well. After a while I just sort of stopped caring. That's a little scary since the events come off as rather plausible. My grade: C.

My...Something...In Comics 9-28-11

I had three weird Wednesdays in a row in September. I made no trips to the comic book store, trips that used to be a given. DC may have abandoned me in favor of new, younger (they hope, desperately) readers with their DCnU business and the younger Superman wearing jeans, workboots and a baby blanket cape, but I'm still interested in the Bongo Comics books I normally get (Simpsons, Futurama) and any others that might attract me. I suppose it's possible that something DC puts out might be of interest, but right now I'm just not ready to go back to them.

Instead of making a trip each week, though, I may just go once a month and pick up whatever books I need to. That's what I did this past Wednesday, with the three Bongo books and two others I was interested in, that were either released during September or a bit earlier...

Sherlock Holmes Year One 6 (of 6): This book was marred by some sort of production error, it seems. The fourth and fifth pages have the exact same word balloons in the exact same position on both pages, with different art (so on page 4 words are being spoken by the wrong characters, or no one at all). It took me a while to figure out how to read this, and it seems there is missing dialogue that would clarify what's going on. (Good thing this was the final issue of the miniseries because it would otherwise discourage me from future purchases.) Once I got through that mixup, I found a satisfying explanation for the "Twelve Casears" murders orchestrated by Professor Moriarty.

Kevin Keller 2 (of 4): No, I won't be buying Archie Comics regularly to replace DC Comics. As with the first issue, the story revolves around a celebration (this time, Kevin's dad's birthday party) and Kevin telling Veronica stories about his life before moving to Riverdale, including how he handled some bullies at his last high school. I guess the final two issues will follow the same pattern. Once again, I found this in Barnes and Noble instead of a comic book store. And again, the cover has numbering in smaller print indicating that it's an issue of the Veronica series (plus I noticed the store receipt lists it as "Veronica 208," not "Kevin Keller 2"). It seems the publisher is trying to have its cake and eat it too. (Come to think of it, what does that saying even mean?)

Too Long For Twitter: Arrested Development? Really?

Can't believe I'm writing this while Game 2 of the Phils-Cards NLDS playoff is on, but I need to do it while it's fresh in my mind...

There's yet more talk, perhaps as definitive as it's ever been, that the TV series "Arrested Development" is making a comeback. In the works, possibly: a movie and some more TV episodes.

What I want to know is: why?

Isn't this throwing good money after bad for whatever production companies would put together the financing? The show was always low-rated. That's why it was canceled. Is there any evidence that anyone, other than Entertainment Weekly and the same small cult that has been clamoring for it from the beginning, is even interested? I know I'm not.

Summer's Over, Summer Playlist Forever

This is another of those delayed-by-travel posts. Since my last update I've added more songs to My Big Fat Summer Playlist. A few are from this actual summer, the rest are from summers past or otherwise fit the concept...

Beautiful People - Chris Brown (feat. Benny Benassi) (I feel a little bit guilty about liking a song sung by the woman-beater. It helps that I didn't actually pay for this one.)
I Wanna Go - Britney Spears
California Gurls - Katy Perry feat. Snoop Dogg
Who Do You Love - Bernard Wright
High On Sunshine - The Commodores
Party Rock Anthem - LMFAO (ft. Lauren Bennett & Goon Rock) (Yes, I succumbed to the madness.)
Summer Breeze - Seals & Crofts
Stare Into The Sun - Graffiti 6 (I saw this on one of the Logo music video shows, NewNowNext or its PopLab spinoff)
Summer Madness - Kool & the Gang
School's Out - Alice Cooper
Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run) - Billy Ocean
Moves Like Jagger - Maroon 5 feat. Christina Aguilera

This brings me to 117 songs. As always, I'm looking for more. But probably not until next summer, unless I hear some old song that begs to be added.

2011 Daily News Sexy Singles: Shrinking

I'm still in a bit of a catchup mode after my California trip, which is why I'm writing about this subject just minutes before the Phillies take the field for their first playoff game.

I got home late on September 20th, so I had my subcription to the Daily News on hold until the 21st. When I got the paper on the 21st, I found that they were in the second day of their annual Sexy Singles event. I've written about it the last two years here: about how so many of their selections either work for local media outlets or the number of models/actors/athletes on the list, not to mention its inclusion (or lack thereof) of the LGBT community.

With the Daily News under new ownership and trying desperately to stay alive, you'd think that Sexy Singles would be a major deal, as it has been in the past. But it's been downsized. This year the feature ran for only two days, and with just 20 Sexy Singles. However, the more things change, the more they stay the same: by my count, 15 of the 20 fall into one or more of these categories: model, fitness instructor, was/is employed by local media outlets, or performer of some kind (including a ballet dancer, the current Miss Pennsylvania and "Top Chef" Jennifer Carroll).

The NFL is again represented, but not by an Eagle.

2011 Division Series Predictions

You can be pretty sure of one of my picks for the MLB playoffs' first round...or can you? Could I actually pick against the Phillies? Stay tuned.

First, I tweeted the AL picks earlier since I knew I wouldn't get around to this post before the games were played. Just a little elaboration, though:

AMERICAN LEAGUE

NY Yankees vs. Detroit Tigers: My thought was that the Yankees' CC Sabathia and the Tigers' Justin Verlander would cancel each other out, and that of the remaining pitching, the Tigers had the edge. So my pick was Tigers in 5. Tonight, though, Game 1 was suspended in the second inning due to rain, and will resume tomorrow. That takes both Game 1 starters, Sabathia and Verlander, out of the picture. With Game 2 now on Sunday and no off day, it appears Verlander will now pitch on Monday in Game 3, which means he couldn't start a possible Game 5. Sabathia, on the other hand, may start Game 2 and be available for a possible Game 5. This series has now taken a turn. I'm sticking with my pick, though.

Texas Rangers vs. Tampa Bay Rays: After the incredible events of Wednesday night put the Rays into the playoffs, I get the feeling they're going to ride the wave. Despite not having home-field advantage, my pick was Rays in 5. And so far, so good: Tampa Bay blasted Texas 9-0 in Game 1. Last year these teams met in the ALDS with the Rays having the extra home game, but the road team won all five games in the series as Texas went on to win the AL title. I'd be surprised if that happened again.

Ballpark Rankings Update - O.co Coliseum

While I was in the San Francisco area I was able to get to an Oakland Athletics game. They play in what is now called the O.co Coliseum. O.co is the new name for Overstock.com. It's a terrible name but the sponsorship makes sense, since the whole Moneyball theory the A's operate on is based on trying to get quality players at a cheap price. Anyway, O.co is an old place -- older than the Vet. It opened in 1966 for the NFL Raiders and the A's moved in from Kansas City in 1968. So old that the men's room had troughs instead of urinals. I've taken a vow to never use a trough.

Being one of those multi-purpose places, the sightlines aren't so great in some areas. And even where I sat (seven rows behind the visitors' dugout; thanks for not buying up the good seats, A's fans), it seemed far away because there's a lot of room between the stands and the foul lines. That helps pitchers a lot, because foul pops that go into the seats in many places are easily caught here.

I stood up between innings of the game (in which the former Philadelphia A's beat Detroit, the day after the Tigers clinched the AL Central title) and circled around to take this video. YouTube is having issues again, or something, because the sound

Too Long For Twitter: "Whitney"

So a few minutes ago while I was finishing up some reading, I had the TV tuned to some college football game but I wasn't really interested. So I decided to see what else could be on in the background. I saw that the new sitcom "Whitney," starring Whitney Cummings (see photo) was on NBC, and decided to check it out. It started promisingly, with the hairy-chested boyfriend (Chris D'Elia, also see photo) joining the title character in the shower.

Then they opened their mouths and began to speak, and ruined everything.