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.