2009-04-30

Zack Greinke

Zack Greinke is on the cover of SI this week and the article (Zack Greinke is in Total Control) I thought was really good and worth a read by you baseball fans out there.  I remember first hearing  his story and thinking it reminded me of the movie The Scout, starring Brendan Fraser and Albert Brooks. 

You don’t often hear of the mental difficulties that ball players face, well at least not at the medical degree that Zack has struggle through.  Maybe Chuck Knoblauch.

Also I really did the cover of the SI issue.  It’s an aerial view of Greinke on top of the mound, setting himself on the rubber getting ready for battle. 

 

Yahoo Sports also had an article on Greinke today.

 

I have an affection the pitching position.  I loved being on the mound growing up.  Having the ball in my hand, taking responsibility of the game for my team.  When I would start heading to the mound and my coach would say, “Trevor, all you need is 9 pitches”, that wasn’t a burden that was a challenge. 

 

So to read a story of one young pitcher over-coming and dominating, that is just cool.

 

2009-04-27

Captain Obvious

Apparently from my last post it’s pretty obvious that I’m not a Matthew McConaughey fan. 

Sorry, suddenly realized how bitter that post may have sounded.

I don’t carry how many of his cheesy romantic comedies he wants to make, but when you cross over into the films of comic book icons I get a bit defensive. 

I’m just saying…

 

Captain America

So today I heard or read some blurb about the role of Captain America in the upcoming Marvel movie may be cast with Matthew McConaughey.

Apparently this is just a rumor and not confirmed yet.  Hold on…let me double check with IMDB…um…yeah…nothing confirmed at the IMDB page for the movie.  Although if you’re interested the movie looks to be titled The First Avenger: Captain Amercia.

Now if Matthew McConaughey is cast as Captain America I would like to offer up my review of the movie now and spare myself from writing it later.  Indulge with me:

This movie sucked.  I want to be refunded the price of the ticket.  And because the retched film oozed off the screen so much and ruined my popcorn and slurpee, I also wanted to be refunded for that as well.  (The fact that I still ate the popcorn and drank the slurpee should be of no concern).  I could give you a recap of the story of Captain America, but I’m afraid that the performance of Matthew McConaughey would seep through my words and then cause this review to suck.  Plus the script of Captain America wasn’t bad, but because of the McConaughey casting who could tell?  Who knew Captain America could be so self indulgent.  And I thought Captain America wore a uniform that consisted of a shirt.  I would rather have seen Captain America portrayed by Teddy Ruxpin than Matthew McConaughey.  I dare say I actually enjoyed George Clooney and his Batman nipples more than this disaster of a film. 

Okay that may be somewhat of an exaggeration, but…um…no…that’s exactly how I think that that movie would be.

 

But thankfully the rumor isn’t true.  Thank God for the simplicity of a Google search.

2009-04-26

Blogged Tired

I read over 500 blog post today. My reader was a little backed up and I used a few hours today to catch up.
I am tired.
My eyes hurt.
I feel bad for skimming.
I would never read all those words.
I need to cut some blogs out of my life.
Don't worry I won't cut yours.

2009-04-25

Quote: Theodore Roosevelt

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

Theodore Roosevelt - "Citizenship in a Republic," Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910


2009-04-22

Milli Vanillied

I’ve never been a fan of Howard Stern.  I think I watched his movie back in high school.  I’ve never heard him on the actual radio.  I’ve watched enough of his show on whatever cable station played the video feeds to know I shouldn’t watch his show on whatever cable station that plays the video feed.  (Of course I’m sure some of you are thinking, “didn’t you know that from the movie?”  And the answer is yes.  I should have known better.  But I’m also an idiot.)

Saying all that leads me to the reason for this post.

I was linked today to this audio clip of Beyonce singing on one of the network morning shows.  The clip is actual from Stern’s show and they are listening to it and talking about it.  It’s the actual feed from her microphone.  Of course not many of today’s current pop stars would ever dare to have their real vocals used in a concert, so a pre-recorded version is played thru the speakers instead. 

Give it a listen.

Click HERE.

 

2009-04-15

Lights, Camera, Movies!

I was reminded by another blog of my goal to watch all of AFI’s top 100 movies of the past 100 years.  I have made some progress, but after I acquired a late fee charge at Blockbuster I haven’t rented anything lately.  I don’t particularly have a time line for this goal, but sooner rather than later. 

Now there was two list created, one in 1998 and again in 2007.  I think it’s important to watch all of the movies on both list, 1998 & 2007.  Now a couple of these I have seen before but if I can’t really remember the story or if I assume I watched it too young to really understand it I am not qualifying it as read.

I recently watched Citizen Kane and can tell why it’s been given the #1 spot.  An incredible movie.   Below are the two list.  The movies in red are the ones I have seen.

1998

1

Citizen Kane

2

Casablanca

3

The Godfather

4

Gone with the Wind

5

Lawrence of Arabia

6

The Wizard of Oz

7

The Graduate

8

On the Waterfront

9

Schindler's List

10

Singin' in the Rain

11

It's a Wonderful Life

12

Sunset Boulevard

13

The Bridge on the River Kwai

14

Some Like It Hot

15

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

16

All About Eve

17

The African Queen

18

Psycho

19

Chinatown

20

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

21

The Grapes of Wrath

22

2001: A Space Odyssey

23

The Maltese Falcon

24

Raging Bull

25

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

26

Dr. Strangelove

27

Bonnie and Clyde

28

Apocalypse Now

29

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

30

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

31

Annie Hall

32

The Godfather Part II

33

High Noon

34

To Kill a Mockingbird

35

It Happened One Night

36

Midnight Cowboy

37

The Best Years of Our Lives

38

Double Indemnity

39

Doctor Zhivago

40

North by Northwest

41

West Side Story

42

Rear Window

43

King Kong

44

The Birth of a Nation

45

A Streetcar Named Desire

46

A Clockwork Orange

47

Taxi Driver

48

Jaws

49

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

50

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

51

The Philadelphia Story

52

From Here to Eternity

53

Amadeus

54

All Quiet on the Western Front

55

The Sound of Music

56

MASH

57

The Third Man

58

Fantasia

59

Rebel Without a Cause

60

Raiders of the Lost Ark

61

Vertigo

62

Tootsie

63

Stagecoach

64

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

65

The Silence of the Lambs

66

Network

67

The Manchurian Candidate

68

An American in Paris

69

Shane

70

The French Connection

71

Forrest Gump

72

Ben-Hur

73

Wuthering Heights

74

The Gold Rush

75

Dances with Wolves

76

City Lights

77

American Graffiti

78

Rocky

79

The Deer Hunter

80

The Wild Bunch

81

Modern Times

82

Giant

83

Platoon

84

Fargo

85

Duck Soup

86

Mutiny on the Bounty

87

Frankenstein

88

Easy Rider

89

Patton

90

The Jazz Singer

91

My Fair Lady

92

A Place in the Sun

93

The Apartment

94

Goodfellas

95

Pulp Fiction

96

The Searchers

97

Bringing Up Baby

98

Unforgiven

99

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

100

Yankee Doodle Dandy

2007

1.

Citizen Kane

2.

The Godfather

3.

Casablanca

4.

Raging Bull

5.

Singin' in the Rain

6.

Gone with the Wind

7.

Lawrence of Arabia

8.

Schindler's List

9.

Vertigo

10.

The Wizard of Oz

11.

City Lights

12.

The Searchers

13.

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

14.

Psycho

15.

2001: A Space Odyssey

16.

Sunset Boulevard

17.

The Graduate

18.

The General

19.

On the Waterfront

20.

It's a Wonderful Life

21.

Chinatown

22.

Some Like It Hot

23.

The Grapes of Wrath

24.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

25.

To Kill a Mockingbird

26.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

27.

High Noon

28.

All About Eve

29.

Double Indemnity

30.

Apocalypse Now

31.

The Maltese Falcon

32.

The Godfather Part II

33.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

34.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

35.

Annie Hall

36.

The Bridge on the River Kwai

37.

The Best Years of Our Lives

38.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

39.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

40.

The Sound of Music

41.

King Kong

42.

Bonnie and Clyde

43.

Midnight Cowboy

44.

The Philadelphia Story

45.

Shane

46.

It Happened One Night

47.

A Streetcar Named Desire

48.

Rear Window

49.

Intolerance

50.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

51.

West Side Story

52.

Taxi Driver

53.

The Deer Hunter

54.

MASH

55.

North by Northwest

56.

Jaws

57.

Rocky

58.

The Gold Rush

59.

Nashville

60.

Duck Soup

61.

Sullivan's Travels

62.

American Graffiti

63.

Cabaret

64.

Network

65.

The African Queen

66.

Raiders of the Lost Ark

67.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

68.

Unforgiven

69.

Tootsie

70.

A Clockwork Orange

71.

Saving Private Ryan

72.

The Shawshank Redemption

73.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

74.

The Silence of the Lambs

75.

In the Heat of the Night

76.

Forrest Gump

77.

All the President's Men

78.

Modern Times

79.

The Wild Bunch

80.

The Apartment

81.

Spartacus

82.

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

83.

Titanic

84.

Easy Rider

85.

A Night at the Opera

86.

Platoon

87.

12 Angry Men

88.

Bringing Up Baby

89.

The Sixth Sense

90.

Swing Time

91.

Sophie's Choice

92.

GoodFellas

93.

The French Connection

94.

Pulp Fiction

95.

The Last Picture Show

96.

Do the Right Thing

97.

Blade Runner

98.

Yankee Doodle Dandy

99.

Toy Story

100.

Ben-Hur