The Monday evening game between the O's and Yankees in New York was better than expected. Guthrie only gave up 4 runs and the O's scored 1 off of CC Sabathia. I only watched the first few innings of this one. I'm easing in slowly to my new fandom. The Orioles scored first in the third off a Matt Weiters home run. I was pretty satisfied and decided to watch Salo which please don't see that movie. I only got through the first half hour before I got so disgusted I turned it off and sent it back to Netflix.
I was pleasantly surprised by the score. I try to believe they can win every game, but when Sabathia pitching and the Yankees are hitting, it's a little harder to get pumped up. The O's do it again tonight at 7 with Burnett taking the mound for the Yankees.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010
I Bleed Orange and Black
I was inspired yesterday. I'm rarely inspired but seeing the lowly Baltimore Orioles sweep the Boston Red Sox inspired me. I'm a baseball fan and for the past two years I've been following and rooting for the New York Mets. I picked them because there was always the chance that they could go to the playoffs but it wasn't guaranteed like the Red Sox who seem to go every year. Alas the last two years have been disatrous for the Mets. Last summer was the worst summer of my life and watching the Mets lose game after game in a bewildering number of ways didn't help.
Things are slightly better now but the Mets (despite winning nine in a row) are destined for fourth or at worst third place in the division. I actually hate all of the pitchers except for Mike Pelfrey. And I don't have much fondness for any of the hitters. I still root for them and want them to win but I can only do it from afar. I can no longer watch the games. This past weekend was horrible and seeing the Mets lose 10-0 and 11-5 to the Phillies reminded me too much of the horror of last year. So goodbye Mets, for now...
Now on to a new team. I can't root for winners like the Yankees and Red Sox. I can't root for joke teams like the pirates or Royals. I only get two teams on my tv on a regular basis (I like watching at least 80% of the games because that's what a true baseball fan does) Nationals and Orioles. Three years ago I watched most of the Nationals games because I like the National League style of play. I had just started watching baseball and didn't realize that at that point in time the Nationals weren't meant to win. They were just building. Three years on they're getting better but they're still not meant to win. Maybe three years more and they'll be in a position to win.
The Orioles have been bad for the past 4-5 years, never winning more than 74 games in a year. This year they declared they were playing to win. Which is nice to say but hard to do. I think they've won five games so far. I watched the first game where the bullpen gave the game away that they were about to win. It was heart breaking and it was the first game! So it was with great surprise I saw them sweep the Red Sox this weekend and the determination and patience I saw on this team was great. The Mets are fatalistic, they play down to their potential. They have one of the highest payrolls in baseball but win less games than the Marlins who have the lowest payroll in baseball. The Mets have great expectations and fail every time. The Orioles have nothing to lose but want to win.
I would hope that describes myself. I'll be watching the Orioles take on the Yankees on television tonight. My brain says they're going to get slaughtered but my heart says they're going to win.
That's how I feel every day- I know I'm not going to win at this game of life but maybe just maybe if I try and keep trying every single day. I can beat this thing. God I hope so. Go Orioles!
Things are slightly better now but the Mets (despite winning nine in a row) are destined for fourth or at worst third place in the division. I actually hate all of the pitchers except for Mike Pelfrey. And I don't have much fondness for any of the hitters. I still root for them and want them to win but I can only do it from afar. I can no longer watch the games. This past weekend was horrible and seeing the Mets lose 10-0 and 11-5 to the Phillies reminded me too much of the horror of last year. So goodbye Mets, for now...
Now on to a new team. I can't root for winners like the Yankees and Red Sox. I can't root for joke teams like the pirates or Royals. I only get two teams on my tv on a regular basis (I like watching at least 80% of the games because that's what a true baseball fan does) Nationals and Orioles. Three years ago I watched most of the Nationals games because I like the National League style of play. I had just started watching baseball and didn't realize that at that point in time the Nationals weren't meant to win. They were just building. Three years on they're getting better but they're still not meant to win. Maybe three years more and they'll be in a position to win.
The Orioles have been bad for the past 4-5 years, never winning more than 74 games in a year. This year they declared they were playing to win. Which is nice to say but hard to do. I think they've won five games so far. I watched the first game where the bullpen gave the game away that they were about to win. It was heart breaking and it was the first game! So it was with great surprise I saw them sweep the Red Sox this weekend and the determination and patience I saw on this team was great. The Mets are fatalistic, they play down to their potential. They have one of the highest payrolls in baseball but win less games than the Marlins who have the lowest payroll in baseball. The Mets have great expectations and fail every time. The Orioles have nothing to lose but want to win.
I would hope that describes myself. I'll be watching the Orioles take on the Yankees on television tonight. My brain says they're going to get slaughtered but my heart says they're going to win.
That's how I feel every day- I know I'm not going to win at this game of life but maybe just maybe if I try and keep trying every single day. I can beat this thing. God I hope so. Go Orioles!
Saturday, April 3, 2010
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls by Robert Heinlein
I expected this book to be much worse than it actually is. I've never heard many great things about the 80's Heinlein books and as a high schooler I remember being impressed by a few of his 50's and 60's books. I had read Puppet Masters, The Door Into Summer, Farnham's Freehold and Citizen of the Galaxy. I remember being impressed by them but I reread A Door into Summer recently and found it almost unreadable. The dialogue is terrible and the "science" is hopelessly outdated. Also the relationship between the twelve year old and the main protagonist is very odd and creepy. The main character freezes himself to speed up the time when he and the twelve year old can get married (I think he waits until she is twenty-one).
Henry James wrote a book in the 1800's (I've never read it but I've heard the plot described) Roderick Hudson. Hudson takes in an orphan and raises her and marries her when she turns 18 (the old Woody Allen routine).
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls moves at a fairly brisk pace but some of the dialogue between "The Col." and his centuries old (but good looking) wife is sometimes excruciating, especially when it's sexual. And there's a twelve year old girl involved that the Col. is tempted to sleep with (who is his wife's granddaughter). Again very odd and very, very creepy. I'm only 2/3's the way through and I've read many reviews where people say it slows down considerably half way through. I haven't noticed any considerable slow down yet but the plot is getting convoluted.
So far this book is about what I expected but a little better than I thought it would be. Heinlein's grasp of what the Internet can do in 1985 is pretty spectacular. The "terminal" that's in every home handles all news, shopping and personal correspondence and the fact that he is projecting 150 years into the future but we have this technology 25 years after he wrote this shows just how fast we are moving technology wise.
Henry James wrote a book in the 1800's (I've never read it but I've heard the plot described) Roderick Hudson. Hudson takes in an orphan and raises her and marries her when she turns 18 (the old Woody Allen routine).
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls moves at a fairly brisk pace but some of the dialogue between "The Col." and his centuries old (but good looking) wife is sometimes excruciating, especially when it's sexual. And there's a twelve year old girl involved that the Col. is tempted to sleep with (who is his wife's granddaughter). Again very odd and very, very creepy. I'm only 2/3's the way through and I've read many reviews where people say it slows down considerably half way through. I haven't noticed any considerable slow down yet but the plot is getting convoluted.
So far this book is about what I expected but a little better than I thought it would be. Heinlein's grasp of what the Internet can do in 1985 is pretty spectacular. The "terminal" that's in every home handles all news, shopping and personal correspondence and the fact that he is projecting 150 years into the future but we have this technology 25 years after he wrote this shows just how fast we are moving technology wise.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Film: Sour Grapes
This is a film written and directed by the great Larry David. Seinfeld taught me everything I know about life from the years I was 12 to 17. I think it permanently warped my view of the world and perception of reality. But it's so damn funny who cares if it made me neurotic? Curb Your Enthusiasm is a little more hit or miss but still one of the best TV shows out there.
I had heard this movie wasn't very good (even in interviews with Larry David) but I figured that it had to have some redeeming qualities because of the pedigree of writer/director. I was wrong. The two main leads are very bad actors. One is the other guy from Wings (not Thomas Hayden-Church) and he's the better of the two. That should show you the level of acting. In another post about this movie someone was talking about the lines and how they are "Davidesque" and looking at the lines on paper they are quite close to Curb Your Enthusiasm but David hadn't developed a way to deliver them yet. The actors just kind of recite the lines and don't know how to emphasize them correctly and they end up just sounding odd, not funny. If you put Larry David in one of these roles it might have been halfway funny.
But as it is the movie is fairly poor. But I think that maybe in the end this movie did a great service to mankind. It let Larry David see that he needed to develop a way to deliver his lines the way he probably said them in his head. Because in this case it didn't translate from paper to actor at all. I know Curb is improvised and that makes it even more clear that Larry David himself is what makes that show funny. If you took David out of Curb and replaced him with an actor who said the exact same lines David said, the show wouldn't be half as funny. And I think he might have learned that from Sour Grapes.
I had heard this movie wasn't very good (even in interviews with Larry David) but I figured that it had to have some redeeming qualities because of the pedigree of writer/director. I was wrong. The two main leads are very bad actors. One is the other guy from Wings (not Thomas Hayden-Church) and he's the better of the two. That should show you the level of acting. In another post about this movie someone was talking about the lines and how they are "Davidesque" and looking at the lines on paper they are quite close to Curb Your Enthusiasm but David hadn't developed a way to deliver them yet. The actors just kind of recite the lines and don't know how to emphasize them correctly and they end up just sounding odd, not funny. If you put Larry David in one of these roles it might have been halfway funny.
But as it is the movie is fairly poor. But I think that maybe in the end this movie did a great service to mankind. It let Larry David see that he needed to develop a way to deliver his lines the way he probably said them in his head. Because in this case it didn't translate from paper to actor at all. I know Curb is improvised and that makes it even more clear that Larry David himself is what makes that show funny. If you took David out of Curb and replaced him with an actor who said the exact same lines David said, the show wouldn't be half as funny. And I think he might have learned that from Sour Grapes.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Film: Gun Crazy
This movie was helpfully recommended by the great book, "1001 Movies You Must See." It's a wonderful read with many, many movies that I had no idea ever existed. Some are so obscure even the powerful Netflix doesn't have them, go get yourself this book and a Netflix subscription and enjoy some of these films. It's a treat.
"Gun Crazy" is a film noir from 1949 and begins with a twelve year old boy staring at a revolver in a store window. He's staring lovingly and longingly at it. He immediately takes a brick and smashes the display window to get at it. And that's just the first five minutes.
It gets darker and more intense from that point on. One of my favorite lines (it's corny but it's got flair) is when the main character is talking to his wife (they stick up stores together) and says "We go together like guns and ammunition." Another really dark but great line is when the main character has doubts about his life of crime but his wife drives him to it and he says something like, "This is all so unreal." He turns to his wife, "You're the only thing that's real. The rest is a nightmare." Good quality noir. Check it out.
"Gun Crazy" is a film noir from 1949 and begins with a twelve year old boy staring at a revolver in a store window. He's staring lovingly and longingly at it. He immediately takes a brick and smashes the display window to get at it. And that's just the first five minutes.
It gets darker and more intense from that point on. One of my favorite lines (it's corny but it's got flair) is when the main character is talking to his wife (they stick up stores together) and says "We go together like guns and ammunition." Another really dark but great line is when the main character has doubts about his life of crime but his wife drives him to it and he says something like, "This is all so unreal." He turns to his wife, "You're the only thing that's real. The rest is a nightmare." Good quality noir. Check it out.
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