Deadpool

Let me start with the most obvious -
I cannot believe that Marvel had the sack to stand up and make this movie.

It's not art.
It's not compelling.
But it is a dart right to the heart of the same age group that watched Porky's and American Pie, and Animal House.

Deadpool is a marginal character, but he has some depth, and he's the funny one, Marvel finally got that.

I did not see what they did with this movie coming, even with the trailers.
I was pretty sure this movie outdistanced the f-bomb, record, but I was worng. It still felt like it.

The most important part, I laughed througout.

Ray Donovan - Binge Watch Review

I'm going to start out this by dragging this show down, with two reasons that I had for not catching it when it was first released.

Ray Donovan looked to me like a full waste of time when I first saw it released. The star, Liev Schreiber, didn't seem to me to be any type of leading man. Let's face it, he was just creepy in the Scream films, and if he did anything else, I can't recall or didn't see it.

The premise seemed like a stretch as well, Hollywood giving itself a gangster tinge, and so I never bought it. I was surprised that it hung around, but not enough to jump in, until now.

The show stretches my comfort level, with enjoyment and some celebration of these awkward characters. This review is done after watching the first two seasons.

Writing -

I've found a lot of depth in this writing, maybe just because the bar is set so low with regular television, but I think I've mentioned that shows on HBO, Netflix, Showtime, AMC, and sometimes even USA or FX, raise the bar.

I'm not sure that it is all scripted into the scenes, but this show takes the non-verbal response to a full plot device. I'll cover this more in talking about the acting in this show, but some belongs here. These are characters whose maybe sole cross trait is their inability to communicate verbally, except for Jon Voight, whose character apparently can't shut up.

This show does a really good job of juggling plot lines, across episodes, and even seasons, there are a good many plot threads and none are obviously left hanging. This show revolves around the character Ray Donovan's ability as a fixer, while showing in the end that nothing is ever really fixed.

The characters are filled out, believable, evolving, and outside of the stereotypical lines usually drawn. Maybe the only one that is overstated is Mickey Donovan, but Jon Voight makes it work, and is clearly enjoying himself as the deeply flawed, self-centered matriarch who can both ingratiate and alienate everyone in a block radius.

If not for the people around him, Ray's character could be the least inspiring, but the nuances of his brothers are reflected subtly in the tough guy lines and scowls.

His brothers are my favorites. His brother Terry, a retired fighter, running a gym, with Parkinsons Disease, possibly brought on by his father allowing him to stay in the ring too long in a fight. This is the guy I bet everyone roots for, and who seems to take on the brunt of the other's failures.

Ray's other brother Bunchy is also severely damaged, mainly because he was abused by a priest as a child. Season 1 he was a drunk, Season 2 recovering but finding obstacles. Through the changes, the character remains strongly drawn.

Ray's wife is also drawn with consistent complications, and evolving through the show.

One point I notice as I go through the seasons is the way that a season has a way of quickly tidying itself up as episode 12 rolls up, taking care of some insurmountable looking issues while now reserving the premise that nothing is really ever over.

Acting 

Liev Schreiber

The King of the non-verbal response, is Schreiber. That weird, creepy face from Scream can be stretched out into long silences in this show, some whole scenes, with a well staged flashback, are framed and narrated by just this scowl, or variations of it. Sometimes I hear the Christian Bale Batman in some of his comments, more like grunts, but then he will have some on target sequences that make the rest of it seem valid. This performance does make the Scream part seem again like a cameo.  

 

Eddie Marsan

 This actor looked familiar, but nothing I saw in his IMDB listing told me where I saw him. his portrayal, a very physically demanding one, is hard to do correctly and can look ridiculous, but he is compelling.

 Many of these characters make me uncomfortable, you watch them deliver scripted lines that they truly look like they are random and could be anything in each reaction.

Terry is the demarcation line for the characters that cause discomfort, you like the guy, you are rooting for the guy, but some shots of him, are of a man in constant stress, pain, with his core goodness spilling out and around it.

Star Wars - The Force Awakens - Pro's and Cons - Spoiler Alert

If you're a well-read, or well-watched, sci-fi person, Star Wars is the lightweight of the genre. There is no getting around that. ,

It has had much more impact than other offerings because it was able to find an audience larger than any of them before it, and even since, maintains it's own type of loyalty. George Lucas will tell you it it is because it is a widely appealing action romance that just happens to be in space. This is what allows it to overcome some serious shortcomings in plot development, and twists.

The Force Awakens demonstrates this, both with it's popularity now, already becoming the highest grossing film in history, and it's content.

To judge it as a shrewd sci-fi fan is not fair, it was born into a world, nay, CREATED the worlds in which we compare star fighters for their performance, and alien species dialects. Star Trek dragged a cart down this road, Star Wars put it in hyper/warp speed.

Star Wars lives on it's entertainment value.
That's what I am writing towards, after letting it all settle in for a couple weeks.

• New characters
• Poe, Ray - these are good characters, good young actors, and hold some promise.  - Pro
• Fin - I really like Fin, and he is a good addition to this story and theme, but why did they have to be so lazy bring him in. I cover this in further detail below, but realized as I edit that I forgot to mention him as a character. 
• Kylo Ren/ Ben Solo, not sold yet. The character premise itself bothers me because he very much feels like he's been dropped in, and a thought I had in the theater seat was 'Wow, they could actually pull two films out of his training and turn just like they did for Anakin in Episodes 1-3. ' The actor, I had to look it up after the movie to make sure he wasn't Nick SImmons, son of Gene Simmons, except that he looked a lot like Nick back when they were doing the show, ten years ago. I am not sure how I feel about how awkward looking he is, the actor, but I suppose he does have some chops, so in my edit I am calling this a half-Con, still not buying in 100%.  - half -Con
• Technology, used correctly, polish this up very nicely. I will probably go back to see it again soon, and looking forward to just enjoying the visuals, which they took full advantage of. - Pro.
• Han Solo getting killed -
  If any actor and character deserve to do a victory lap, and just enjoy playing a character they know well, on film, Harrison Ford and Han Solo do, and this was what this felt like to me.
  
  There were clear times where he seemed to be just reveling in the fact that there he was shooting off his laser, fighting in spaceships, at his age, after all these years. You see other actors that do it, The Lethal Weapon movies after 2, Oceans 11+, Rocky and Rambo, and maybe a little in Indiana Jones.
  
• If they are following in the form of Obiwan for Han, that is fine for me, it was surprising, and made me gasp out loud. The death was not convincing. He could have gone into a vent, like Luke did, or survived in any number of other ways, which is also fine with me. - Pro
  
• Parallel's to Stars Wars (aka A New Hope)
• It starts on the same world, with a cute but different droid than R2D2. They work their way through the galaxy, and in the first big scene, Obiwan/Han dies. It's been long enough since the first offering that this seems both an homage and offering up slightly better chops to keep us guessing. - Pro
  
• Just happening to bump into Han out in space? Yeah, what can you say, it's a small universe, right? - Indifferent - Trekkie level concerns. Some happenstance is necessary for plots.
  
• The switch of Fin - 
• Let's get this straight, he is a lifelong storm trooper, then his buddy gets shot and dies, leaving a red Monster Logo on his helmet so we can track him, and this makes him despise fighting so much he goes to the other side with the very guy that killed his buddy, to whom he professes love not 30 movie minute later? Lazy effort that falls short of even below trekkie level attention - Con
  
• Ray's sudden knowledge of the force -
• Accepting that her brief flashback reveals that Luke was her father and that she has the lineage, how did she immediately adopt the mind control rhythm when never showing it before? - I can accept it.

Avengers 2 - Ultron's Movie treatment

Cleaning up some old drafts where I want to think I made some good points, this was from early last summer. ---
I've now seen Avengers 2 twice, once on the regular screen, then again on Imax 3D.
It holds up.

One thing I noticed in the first showing, in the first scene, the CGI seemed almost purposely ridiculously bad until they got to the compound, did not show up in my second viewing.

What is very clear is that the producer and writer of this are all on the same page. The dialogue is real, the graphics perfect, and the mild work done with the subject matter is done well, with respect to those that are invested in these characters.

Someone gets it.

A voice I never heard from Ultron as I read comics with him in them, James Spader, brought something genuine to the tired, is it pre- or post- Terminator 2 type storyline. Acknowledging that the Ultron saga began far before Terminator, otherwise I think it's a lot of trade offs.

Now, my take on Avengers 2 after initial impressions have faded and or taken hold.

It hasn't held up as well as Avengers 1 or Captain America 2, but I still appreciate it despite using Ultron as the subject matter, and that is because of James Spader, who DID nail it, and yeah the Director gets it all, but Ultron is the most tired of the Marvel themes.

I am very excited about the upcoming Civil War, and many of the other Marvel Projects, hopefully, I will blog about them.

The Emergence of Netflix and other streaming content

Haven't dropped off the planet, even though there haven't been posts here lately, and I haven't failed to notice that the landscape of entertainment has changed drastically, even in the time since my last post.

The relevance of the networks is dropping of the cliff, HBO is the old hand in the game now, and is getting challenged by a company that was busy mailing us videos around the time I started this blog and web entities like Amazon and Hulu that are making surprising pushes themselves.

I'm enjoying it. I was waiting for this fight back in 2008 or so, as network scripting stagnated and nobody was quite sure how to use the new mediums we had. I have an off/on relationship with Netflix over the years, but now watch a lot of it, and still find gems in the forms of series that I can binge watch and maybe later catch in Real time on whatever network they originally started on.

I also realize that Blogs themselves have kind of slipped out of relevance, but for my own use, I plan on making one more run at it with them. Ideas I've had for articles over the last couple years, I've just swallowed, but for the next few weeks or months or until it's again tiring, I will start putting them here again.

Arrow - The Episode where Slade kills Moira

Sorry if you googled this and I spoiled it for you, but the episode is 3 days old, and I have some questions about this whole plot stream. While the flashbacks throughout this series have allowed for what seems to be displayed insight so far, this latest episode seemed thrown together, and I sniffed some continuity issues.

Now, I'm really not one of those fans that pays close attention to each detail and harps over it, I don't have time for that, and can suspend disbelief pretty well. I have written about this before though. Sometimes, the writers will completely disregard any precedents set. I'm wondering if Arrow didn't get close to that this last week.

It was a good episode all around, with Roy going ballistic because of the mirakuru, and Slade now making his next move to continue destroying Oliver. Within the episode, Oliver's mom begins making 180 degree turns, she wants to drop out of the mayoral race to try and bring back Thea, then doesn't after Oliver talks to her and explains that maybe if she showed that she was ready to do good, Thea would come back. They also show flashbacks about Oliver getting some anonymous girl pregnant, and how Moira gave her $2 million to go away and tell Oliver that she lost the baby. (Yes, watch out for 7 year old baby Oliver to appear soon).

She also tells Oliver that she knows his secret, never really laid out, but truly implying that she knew he was the Arrow. He asked her when she knew, and she said something like, "For some time now, I think I knew.."

But hey, did she know when Diggle kidnapped her as the Arrow and threatened to kill Oliver if she didn't reveal her plans with Malcom? That wasn't too long ago, and that was a big plot swing.

This is the continuity of which I speak. It could have all been wrapped up with a line, " I was even willing to play along with your charade with diggle..", but of course there was no time for that, because by the end of the show, she gets skewered by Slade.

I can let it all go, it's fine. Her character had sort of run her course, but it wreaks of desperate on-the-ratings-bubble plot twists. In one episode, a main character flips, dies, and a phantom child is revealed. AS far as I know, this is a safely renewed, and supported, show.

Meta4worldZ - Back to a Blog

Recently, I have begun writing again, and rediscovering these blogs I started what seems like a lifetime ago. I've decided to begin again.

As I remember conceiving it, this was the pop blog, where I wrote my miscellaneous media commentaies and reviews and things like that. I have another of the same name on wordpress, but that was directed more to my writing, and personal stuff. So when I wrote a review of Winter Soldier a few nights ago, it seemed weird.

As my last post said, I moved this blog and it's contents to a regular website and, and continued, somewhere that content is saved, but for now I will just continue with what we have here. As the theme says, blowing off steam to virtually nobody.

Here is the post I made on the other blog:

Winter Soldier – Coming out of hibernation

POSTED BY META4MAN ⋅ APRIL 7, 2014 ⋅ LEAVE A COMMENT

One thing I thought about the most as far as writing something again is that I wanted to write about Captain America 2: Winter Soldier.

I began doing reviews about the beginnings of the comic book wave of movies we have been able to enjoy now for more than a decade. I even totally fan-boyed over Spiderman 3 despite the rash of hate it got elsewhere on the web. I enjoyed them, and even at my age, seeing the stories I grew up reading come to life has been magical.

I am not alone as the old guy going to these movies, sometimes I will find a nephew or a date that will go, but mostly, these are my escape times, and this last weekend it was great. Because, now, it’s not as much about my childhood comics as those that I found a few years back when I started collecting. Winter Soldier is a fairly recent phenomenon that I discovered when I once again found a comic shop and looked for something to latch onto.

Mostly, I’ve felt like i used to, abused by the comic companies, stringing plots across titles, faking deaths as promos, yeah, they still do that, but the Winter Soldier plotline was a little better than that.http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/03/25/why-is-the-winter-soldier-cool . That post explains it much better than nI will biother to try, but I caught a lot of what he was talking about when I started following it some years ago. Like Venom in Spiderman, and Phoenix for X-men, these were the plotlines that Marvel really nailed. (Even if they abused the crap out of Phoenix and ultimately drove me away for a decade with the way they dragged that plotline on and on.)

The movie Winter Soldier is still fresh in my mind, I’m sure the luster will wear off, but by that time, the next one will be coming through, along with Guardians of the Galaxy and more Marvel stuff coming out this year. Best of all, and I have not yet even browsed to see what others are saying, is that this really is a set up for what I hope will be the Civil War Plotline coming to the screen.

That alone was the plotline that got me back into the store, after reading a release about it. And it is already being laid out in Winter Soldier.

Cap is questioning things, and nobody is better suited to maneuver Tony Stark through that than Robert Downey Jr. I can see this coming together over the next couple of summers.

Smodder's Day Put a Smile on My Face

Smodcast keeps me coming back. I like it, and I like Kevin Smith.

I'm not one of the frenzied followers that filled his message board with pleas to come back throughout the hiatus in the podcast release while he was filming Zack and Miri Make a Porno, but I check in every Monday or so and see if there's a new podcast to upload, because honestly, nothing goes better with morning workouts than listening to the world's premier couch potato talk about regular stuff with his best friends and family.

Since the hiatus, he quickly quashed any high expectations and fell into his old groove with his buddy Scot Mosier, and sorry Scot, still not sure which guy you are, but I like you as a voice and person. This is not a wait up until the minute you can upload it podcast, it's a nice way to spend half an hour or so when you can't do much else and beats tuning into MSNBC or something on the gym TV's.

Read more at the new blog area

Moving Day - All the Eggs into another basket

Image by jim270 via FlickrHello, this is the day I've been thinking about for a long time. Meta4worldz has always been a multi-faced, splattered, web site. Today, everything is getting moved to my own domain, using Wordpress(for now).

I'm hoping that those of you that drop in or find me will follow over there. Lets just pretend I go on to extoll the new features and everything else that will be available in my new realm. Surely it will be nice, but we have all heard that.

I'm not even going to say that I won't be updating here, but it's less likely, so if you're following, follow me on over.

Battlestar Galactica Cannot End Like This

Image via WikipediaIf you haven't seen the latest episode of Battlestar Galactica, and care, don't read this.

Otherwise, can you believe what they've gone and done?
Found earth? It's a husk, I'm guessing those remnants of buildings in the frozen foggy distance are New York and Manhattan. For a second, I thought that was the end, but then, thankfully, previews of a next episode.

The fact that the next episode does not air until next year, and that they called this latest episode a "mid-season" finale, does not in any way detract from how good it was. From the other column link, ti seems like everyone that follows this show is sued to the long layoffs between episodes, and the dysfunctional way of airing them that SciFi has.

This show, which I two years ago decided to catch up on with DVD's and start following week to week, continues to be riveting. I was prepared to be strung out for the entire season, as one by one, the final five were revealed, and then maybe, as the show ends, they set foot on earth, epic music plays to the cast stargazing to where they'd been from where they were always searching for.

But, NOPE. And I have no clue who the final Cylon is. I'm very impressed with this series and glad that I got on board to watch it crash land into it's final episodes, even if it will take them two or three years. Whatever happens, it won't be predictable.

This cast and writer's have earned the right to go out in style, but if there is not another season of this show, I can't see how they can end it anytime soon, in episode time, not actual time, which has already been extended. At least a spin-off is in order, or maybe a full-feature movie.

It's Summer, Time for Trash TV

Image via WikipediaWe already sat through the bad television of the writer's strike, but that doesn't mean that the summer course of garbage still won't be served. Looking to put up long hours of cheap programming for the dwindling summer eyeballs, the usual course of game shows and second tier reality shows.

Yes, I said Second Tier reality shows, coined that just now, all by myself, or from somewhere in my reading that I am unable to conjure. Until I hear different, that's my term. "America's Got Talent" defines second tier reality shows. This truly is the revived Gong Show. So bad, the girlfriend could watch it topless and I'm not going to be there.

Nearly as bad, Last Comic Standing, an at least decent premise as reality shows go, but so poorly handled that it's near unwatchable. They spend more time doing the obligational waiting line shots, something called the comedy booth, and backstage shots than they do with the stand up. And, they cut far too deep too fast, using celebrity judges that usually get it wrong.

In the same category as "America's Got Talent", "So You Think You Can Dance," is so bad I have to leave the immediate area if it is on. For some reason, the g/f can't get enough of the three judge, people backstabbing, formula. I get used up with it pretty quick.

I'm just happy that I have Rescue Me, a few more episodes of Battlestar Galactica, and Cubs Games to watch.

Plurking, Pownce-ing or just Tweeting, what shall I do?

3Have to admit, I don't really understand what Twitter is good for, but I found myself liking it. I was first drawn in by the app, Twittervision, and found myself pulled in. Of course, there was more action on it when I got dragged in, all those long months ago. I've noticed lately, more from other blog posts about it than personally at first, that Twitter is less active, often doesn't work right, let's face it, it's just not Twittering like it used to. Apparently the swarm is moving along, due to mismanagement, and short attention spans. Hey, if you are going to cater to my crowd, don't be surprised when our time together is fleeting.

Still, as fun as it was, what the hell is Twitter really for? I used it like an open IM, and even more so when I put the twitter widget on my blog. I used it just enough to be hooked, and I'm looking around now for a substitute, stepping out a little. So far, through other blogs and such, I've found Plurk and Pownce, and more than my initial use of Twitter, have jumped on board quicker. At this point, Plurk feels better and has put a few more interesting voices in my world.

I am meta4man on all 3 if anyone wants to track me, as if you couldn't guess.

The White Sox Fan Chirping Begins

Image via Wikipedia

The Cubs don't want any part of the Sox right now.
-heard on WSCR, Mike North, this morning.

And the chirping begins. It's been a while, as the Sox struggled to stay above .500, apparently the line of demarcation is their ascendence to 10 games above the .500 mark. Congrats, Sox Fans, it's rareified air. Why can't you just enjoy it?

I know, because you're a White Sox fan. You get ahead in a bad division, (Yes, the division is bad. Let's all quit being stunned), made worse by injuries to your key rivals, and the first thing you do, take a shot at the Cubs.

To be frank, you would be in Third Place in our division, and you are exactly the type of flawed, puffed up team that we have made meals of this season. Read More

If I Won Ten Million Dollars

Image via WikipediaAnother blog I linked up to thru Twitter put up a cool question, surely one of the generic but eternally interesting ones. Mega-Millions
What if you won ten million dollars?

Every one who buys a lottery ticket buys the chance to run down that pleasant mental lane, at least until they check the numbers. I wrote a song about it, long time ago, and posted it as a comment in that blog, as well as on my writing blog, and here.

Ten Million -

I actually wrote a song about it for a girl a long time ago when she told me that I would dump her if I won the lottery.

If I Won the Lottery

There’s a lot of things that I’d change in this world
But none of them have to do with you girl

There’re a lot of things that I would do
Baby all of them would still include you

I’d quit my job at the factory
Give my car and house away for free
I’m in love with you, You’re in love with me
None of that would change,
If I won the lottery

Baby Baby the day my ship comes in
We will never eat Mac and Cheese again
Never drive junk cars, Never wear old clothes
Never worry ’bout where my pocket change goes

We’d buy a house, no an estate
hundreds of acres of land behind a gate,
We’d stay up and party and sleep in late
That’s what I would change,
If I won the lottery

That’s what I got, not usually the type to leave prose in comments, but what can I say it’s in the moment.

How to Know Your Password is Strong Enough

We are living in a world of passwords and usernames, one is getting simpler, the other is getting harder.
User names are no longer the exercise in clever letter play they use to be, as far as I can tell, most of us can get the name we want these days, with a minimal amount of added numbers or initials.
Passwords are a different story. These days, my old standby passwords don't quite pass muster, and as I continue to submit new variations, frustration brought about this revelation.

If you end up having to write it down, then your password just might be strong enough. Of course, you will lose that slip of paper, and have to get it reset, and the cycle goes on.

Four Reasons Iron Man is Cooler than Spiderman ..

Four Reasons Ironman is cooler than Spiderman and Four Reasons He Isn't - and a tiebreaker.

Now that the initial rush is over, it's time to assess the true validity of Ironman, now a movie star, and while I'm at it, let's compare him to his recent Marvel theater blockbuster counterpart, Spiderman.

In the Marvel series Civil War, Tony Stark and Peter Parker start out being buddies, and Tony trying to turn Peter into a corporate drone. He even started wearing s special Spidersuit that Tony made for him, with all kinds of big brother gadgets. Of course, that didn't last, and they put on a good fight in Amazing Spiderman #535.

In the theaters, despite Iron Man's good numbers so far, Spiderman is the grizzled veteran, with as many good movies made about him, arguably, as Superman. So, who's better?

Iron Man

Cooler Suit - Without this, there is no point in going on, of course he has the cooler suit. And int the Movie, wow, they do a good job with it, there are only a few Power Ranger moments in this movie. Credit better CGI and John Favreau for doing that.

Cooler Actor playing him - Robert Downey acts like he was built for this part, because he's an excellent actor. Still, he's mailed in some performances before, and this time, he just cruised through it. Have fun cashing that bumped up sequel check Robert, and if you're going to go out and do drugs, hire hookers, and trash hotel rooms, go to Amsterdam or somewhere that it's legal.

Read More

Top 3 New Television Shows of the 2007-2008 Season

Except for the Summer shows like Rescue Me, and the pile of Reality Shows coming in as filler, the "scripted" television season is finally over. It sure took a while, and the writer strike might have changed forever how everyone looks at and appreciates television programming.

However, there was some good, new television happening, and some breakout characters worth writing about.

Breaking Bad - the Jury was in for me about this show after I caught the first three episodes off the DVR. How can a lower level cable channel put together an ensemble of off-the-rail writing, excellent acting, and plotting that kept every episode interesting. Bryan Cranston has probably put being "Malcom's dad," behind him with this performance

Reaper - How this show only limps to getting renewed for next year I don't understand. It's original with a fun cast, and manages to continue to put new, funny, and interesting spins on the "Soul sold to the Devil" type-plot. Ray Wise, who plays Satan, or Jerry Belvedere to those that do not know his real name, is a special kind of slimy. Previously seen by me in "The Closer," as a cut throat attorney, he is perfect for this part.

Big Bang Theory - The collection of geeks and their weekly, hilarious dialogues, wrapped around the standard sitcom romantic plots, make this show one of my favorites. Sheldon, the uber-geek that makes Adrian Monk seem well-adjusted, is the weekly attraction.

Sharon Stone's Still Making Movies??

Sharon Stone is making news lately, not her normal kind, you know, for flashing on film or picking bad movie roles, this time she opened her mouth about the chinese. Commenting about China's recent natural disaster, she said it was Bad Kharma. Nice one Sharon, should have stayed home and wrote your worthless, uninformed, insensitive, opinion into a blog where nobody would notice it.

She stepped on some toes and now the founder of a major movie theater chain and chairman of the Foundation of Hong Kong Filmakers is pissed at her too, threatening to boycott her movies.

Which begs the question, what movies has she made lately?
Surely Basic Instinct 2 was the last to see of Sharon Stone, right, both figuratively and literally? Personally, I thought her appeal was gone after she tried her Dr. Jane Medicine Woman impersonation. Does she have some Hasselhoffian foreign grasp on the chinese, well, not anymore. Apparently, she had four movies in the works, not worth typing in because they are probably all in the can now, and not the film can.

You Tube is probably as close as she's going to get film after this last stunt, here's video of a very hot girl telling the story, but not as nicely as I have.

Tommy Lasorda - Superstar 7th Inning Conductor

I'm glad they had Tommy Lasorda come up and do the 7th inning at Wrigley Field last night, one fo the few times the ritual didn't irritate me. Even with Fergie Jenkins in the booth, I got irritated because the game was going by below these announcers that seem to forget they are on air when a quasi-celebrity walks through.

Tommy Lasorda is a different story. He could sing every night and sit through tow or three innings if he wanted to in my book. Not because he sang "Root root root for the Dodgers.., " or because the Cubs rallied while he was in the booth. I can forgive the Dodgers reference, this guy bleeds Dodger blue more than even Ron Santo does Cubbie blue. Read the rest at Cubs Obsession.

Something I Am Proud to See

On my mind constantly these last few weeks, and not because I am driving over 500 miles a week these days is how we are going to stop this whole oil ordeal. If it was ever a driving force, obviously, bombing the hell out of the oil producers isn't going to work, but reducing our dependence on it is.

USA Today's article is the first hint that things may be changing for the better.