Monthly Archive for October, 2006

Published on October 28, 2006 in ..The Dude, Television and The Ill-Literates. 0 Comments

A little Lost a little Battlestar Galactica.

From the past episode or 2.

Again I have to say the show is very watchable but it feels more and more like the empty consumption of cotton candy or some other sweet and nutritionally valueless confection. More and more questions, less and less answers. And as more episodes come and go it seems more and more likely many things will never be addressed and that coincidence exists within the show just for its own sake and the conceit of its creators.

Where’s my monster?

Where’s Penelope?

What’s the Dharma initiative (a question also asked by Dwight on Office Space last week as pat of a traing initiation).

What’s with all the conincidental connections between characters?

We get further away from some of these early questions and get new less interesting ones thrown in instead.

Why didn’t the Polar Bear eat Eko?

Is or was island #2 cloaked as well?

Does Ben have a spinal tumor and if so why doesn’t the island heal him as it does others?

What’s with Desmond getting all clairvoyant?

Why are the Others so creepily into the nature of Kate and Sawyers relationship?

Does Jack have a magic intercom in his subterranean aquarium room?

Is the father of Sun’s kid language guy who jumped onto Jin’s car?

Will anyone still care in another year?

As for some recent particulars the whole fake chip in Sawyer was kind of lame. And then Ben playing it off as some ultimate con was even lamer. As was the final reveal of that place George always wanted, that Ben was taking Sawyer to see, being that damn island.

Jesus frakking christ haven’t we seen enough of that island? I got to get all worked up about getting a different view of it?

All that Of Mice And Men stuff was nice though. That Sawyer is such a reader. Took advantage of his jail and island time to touch on the classics. Ben of course used to be in a book club.

Being alone will drive a man nuts.

Why aren’t the Others more worked up about the whole EM event at the end of last season?

Perhaps the only new question I care about is what if any connection they have with the hatches and the Dharma Initiative.

I mean when it went down Gale, as we knew him then, and the rest didn’t seem all that concerned. And it was Gale that tried to fool Locke into not pressing it. Why do that if it could take away the islands protective whatever or have even destroyed the island if Desmond doesn’t turn the key. How could Ben have known desmond was even there with a key and would turn it? He didn’t even know Desmond had a boat.

Does this mean the Others have little clue about what goes down in the hatches? It seems unlikely since the islands cloaking seems to be something they must be aware of.

So why set Locke up to not press the button?

Now there’s 2 shows left before they go on a 3 month or so hiatus. If the show is really reaching and filling as much as it sometimes seems what do you want to bet the big exit into the break will deal with them killing off another character. It seems a couple of times a season they pull that out for shock value and to make us think anything can happen. Anything but get realistic interaction and a few answers that is.

So I’m guessing in the next 2 weeks either Charlie, Eko, Ben, Hurley, Jin, Sun, or less likely maybe someone bigger like Kate or Sawyer, get offed.

And a new question will get thrown out there with no sign of resolving any old ones.

Then in late February or so something huge happens that many will refer to as the shows official shark jumping moment.

But I hang in for my dear Penelope.

And Sawyer coming up with stuff like Chinatown and Costanza as he did this week.

And Hurley and non-clairvoyant brother Desmond.

And what still is a well written and acted even if plot-challenged show.

But it’s not gonna last forever.
________

On BG I’m only past the opeing 2 hours and was torn by some things.

An occupation.
Illegal detention.
Torture
Talk of winning hearts and minds but with fear as the old Cylon guy puts it.
Welcome us with…oh never mind, as he later says.

Ok I get it. Iraq parallels.

Let’s not go too crazy with them. I say this because the suicide bombings were a stretch. Seems pretty unlikely that people would be willing to blow themselves up after just 4 months of a rather vague sort of occupation, or that they would have gotten to that point despite knowing you can’t really kill the Cylons.

It’s also hard to imagine Apollo letting himself go this much at all, much less in such a short period.

Or the old man getting all friendly with #8.

And Starbuck as the captive bride of an obsessed Cylon reeks of 80′s Soap Opera storylines I’ve seen dozens of times.

I’m iffy on all this hybrid stuff too though in the real world I welcome the merger of man and machine.

It’s just kind of X Files for TV.

But the overall intensity was good, I liked Gaeta playing both sides, Tigh and Tyrol as the lead resistance fighters, and the whole execution order thing.

New Caprica makes me long for the confined dreariness of a battleship.

I hope we’re not going to be there all season.

And I hope Baltar has fun again.

Poor misunderstood Baltar.

And maybe someone can give me a rationale for how Cylons evolved from Centaurian toaster units to perfect human replicas and yet have had such issues with the whole pregnancy thing? Especially when the original metal Cylons don’t seem all that creative.

And I can’t wait for Adama to shave.

Or 6 and 8 to make out.

And speaking of sex BG totally riffed on Seinfeld with that whole swirl and circle move stuff with Ellen.

Just as Lost referenced them with that Costanza nickname.

Again we see all things come around to Seinfeld in the end. All that was and ever will be was contained in those 9 seasons.

Gold, Jerry, gold!.

Published on October 25, 2006 in ..The Dude, Religion and The Ill-Literates. 4 Comments

This guy gets a bad rap.

The bad part of the whole Judas thing is that it provided rationale for Jew hating. Never mind that all the apostles were Jewish. Hell Jesus was Jewish and proud of it. Committed to it. Willing to die for it perhaps. But for idiots in later centuries looking for examples of Jewish avarice and duplicity, Judas made for a nice leaping off point. Eating babies, controlling global finances, tasteless cousine, all of it may have started in the Judas thing.

Just look at DaVinci’s The Last Supper. All the other Jews look pretty cool, healthy, even heroic. Bunch of nice looking chaps. Yes John looks quite the bit feminine, but whether that’s a code and its Magdalene, or John was just rumored to be taking the staff of life from Jesus in a quite literal way is debatable.

Take a close look. John or Mary you know after a few glasses of wine you’d hit that.

But what is not debatable is that Judas looks like the quintessential nasty stereotype of the fictionalized and demonized Jew. He has a ridiculously hooked nose, and upturned chin that almost meets it, and a dark swarthy, ethnic look none of the others have.

Some of this may have been Davinci’s fault. But apparently not all. Later decades and centuries added to and altered Lenny’s original masterpiece. The original was done on a wall that was badly situated for preservation and the thing decayed pretty fast. So every now and again someone added layers and in doing so made changes. Over the years Judas became more and more sisnister looking while everyone stayed as biblically cool as anyone on a crumbling wall could look.

But if it weren’t for Judas, known to some fans of 1st Century bibilical fantasy world as “the other J Man”, Jesus wouldn’t have been martyred. We see in paintings like The Last Supper where Jesus has this look of great sadness because he knows he is about to be betrayed and what it will lead to. This is based on the bible (I don’t capatilize it because I don’t consider it a real book title and barely a real book).

But if he’s all about dying for the sin of man and making this extreme act of courage and selflessness that has saved our kind, he kind of needed Judas to set things in motion. Judas made Jesus great. Call him the Vader or Palpatine of the bible if you will (and there is a Star Wars Last Supper painting out there somewhere with Luke in the center seat), but Jesus needed Judas the way a nuerosurgeon needs someone with a hole in the head.

Knock him though they will Christians need him. If there is any remote basis in reality to events that occurred around the year 33 C.E. there would either be no Christianity or they’d be devoted to one of the many other guys running around the Middle East pretending to be prophets and the living culmination of old testement prophecy.

Jesus owes everything he later became to Judas just as much as to Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul after having a seizure or guilt attack on the road to Damascus, and who soon after realized there was a living to be made off of bringing the wretchedly oppressed of the cities a symbol of consummate failure and wretchedness from the desert to rally behind and provide a much needed sense of esteem and hope.

And if some of those events really did go down around 1,973 years ago Jesus carrer wasgoing to be fizzling out soon if nothing big happened and he knew it. So even if he had an inclination Judas would turn on him he needed the publicity. Every good tragedy has some betrayal and Judas played his part. You might say he was abandoning a sinking ship like a rat, a ship that became a mighty vessel, but would it have become a seagoing luxury liner as Christianity is now without Judas’s actions?

And if Jesus knew he was about to be betrayed, as well as denied 3 times, why not say something?

Why not head things off at the pass?

What is he a martyr?

Never mind the fact that the bible is all hearsay and gobbldegook completely discredited as an historical source. Let’s play the game and pretend Jesus really did know what was coming.

If so he wanted it to play out that way. Maybe even orchestrated things to give himself a leg up over all the rest of the desert prophets with messianic complexes. It was a dog eat dog business and one needed to distinguish oneself. Have a really memorable act.

And Judas only played the part Jesus wanted him to play.

So stop hating on the Judas people. Jesus would have died a nameless no one without him. Or he would have had to cause even more of a ruckus to get himself killed and then Christians wouldn’t have had a horrible Jew to blame for turning on Jesus for money. And then we may not have had Shylock or Fagin or any of the fictional rich Jewish stereotypes to provide motivation for atrocities, inquisitions and turning blind eyes to Holocausts.

Nervous about dying he may have been but there is reason to believe Jesus knew exactly what he was doing, and was deliberately provoking messianic imagery that could only culminate with his crucifixion. So don’t believe the tears of betrayal. Jesus may be just allright to you but in all probability Judas was just allright to him.

So let’s hear it for Judas!

Published on October 20, 2006 in ..The Dude, Sports and The Ill-Literates. 0 Comments

Last night the Mets season ended as ignominiously and pathetically as I predicted. THe vaunted offense didn’t show up. The opportunities for greatness were there and no one could rise up to the energy of the crowd and a miracle saving catch by Endy Chavez in LF. Although in my dreams the Kirk Gibson-esque moment we all wanted our boy Cliff Floyd to have actually happened.

Last night FLoyd limped to home plate in the 9th with 2 on nobody out and down by 2. Everyone wanted that homer by a guy we love. A guy who has suffered here and has been a gamer enduring many hardships. He struck out of course. BUt later as I slept I actually dreamt that he hit a home run there. I dreamt the response to that homer. I wallowed in it as a fan up close enough to be a participant. I guess I didn’t want to go as quietly into the long dark winter just yet. I’m not going to talk about the game but instead leave with this quote from former Baseball Commissioner Bart Giamatti:

“It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.”…

I woke from my dream with that chill rain pattering my window.

And a broken heart.

The free agency period begins in 3 weeks.

Winter meetings in about 7.

Pitchers and catchers report in 16 weeks.

On into the lonely winter.

Published on October 19, 2006 in ..The Dude, Sports and The Ill-Literates. 0 Comments

I made the decision to not watch this thing. Couldn’t deal with seeing it happen on our field. But in the end I couldn’t resist.

Despite another meltdown in the 9th by the gutless and or mediocre Billy Wagner the Mets held on for a 4-2 win and forced a winner take all game 7 Thursday night.

Maybe I won’t watch that one. I don’t feel good about this and can’t ake much more. I wasn’t going to watch tonight but couldn’t find anything to do and went home just to eat right around the start of the game. i told myself I’d just watch the first couple of innings while I cooked and ate then get out of the house. So I kept my shoes and clothes on which I don’t usually do when I come in. Certainly the shoes go off if I’m going to be in a while. But I wanted to be ready to bolt. The shoes were feeling uncomfortable. But after those initial couple of innings went by and John Maine hadn’t given up a run I felt like I couldn’t ruin the universal balance and leave. I had to wait for that first Cardinal run.

The Cards didn’t score in the 1st and Reyes led off with a homer for the Mets.

Did I dare jinx this thing?

No.

So inning after inning I watched. I stayed in the same seat with shoes on feeling a tad uncomfortable but not wanting to set off a butterfly like effect and change anything that was working. The Mets scored again later and I was further committed to not messing this up on my end.

By the 10:30 range it was obvious I couldn’t go anywhere since Barnes & Noble would be closing soon and diners are lonely places. Bars are out of the question for teetotalling half deaf people who have to fight an irresistable urge to slap and or make fun of drunk people, like myself.

I wanted to remove the shoes and pants. But would that start a chain reaction leading to catastrophe at Shea?

So I stayed in the same seat wearing the same stuff with my shoes kicking at my desk, occasionally resting on its pull out slidedraw. I couldn’t even go online because I didn’t start the game doing that and it seemed like it was further committing me to being in for the night and having to face the horror and sadness of the end alone in front of a 50 inch television bringing the horror vibrantly into my room in excruciatingly crystal clear high definition.

So I stayed dressed and perched as if I was about to bolt. Just hanging around temporarily until my ride showed up or I got the call to leave. Something of that attitude in my head and my posture.

So some time around 11:30 we get to the 9th with a 4 run lead. Still no runs given up. Wagner comes in. I said to my tv earlier at 2-0 Wagner would blow that. We needed at least a 3 run cushion with our $10 million a year wreck of a closer.

In no time at all it was 2nd and 3rd nobody out. he gets a couple of outs but chokes and its 4-2 with the tying run up. Crowd shots showed alot of very distressed people. Actually alot of the crowd looked that way all night long. Alot of life and death tension in the air at Shea tonight.

SO after the runs it seemed the butterfly effect rule was no longer in play and I should bolt. Get out now rather than watch the ultimate meltdown and choke!

BUt it was too late to leave. Leave it to the Mets to con me into staying and watching and then when I was trapped to slap me with my silly superstitious baseball mindset.

But Wagner got the out. Grounder to 2nd. Not pretty. But we got a game 7.

What to do tomorrow?

Do i sit in the same clothes and shoes in the same spot?

Do i go and sit in a dark movie theater or the book store?

Do i drive to Manhattan and wallow in it with my beloved New Yorkers?

I don’t know yet.

I’m not optimistic. This is not a great team. They’d have little shot against Detroit. Neither would the Cardinals. What we are seeing is a battle of mediocrity.

But the Cards have more on the bench right now. They have deeper starting pitching. Hotter hitters. More experience in these situations. And they don’t have Oliver Perez pitching.

Oliver Perez is pitching game 7 of the NLCS for the Mets.

THink about that.

Say it out loud a few times.

If you know anything about Baseball you know that this is akin to saying The nukes will hit the U.S. unless George Bush can outwit Kim Jong Il in a game of chess.

Or your movie franchise will die unless the next version is great and the man you’ve hired to direct it is Tim Burton.

And Perez is pitching on a days less rest than usual.

He wasn’t even on their roster for the Dodger series in the 1st round.

He was basically given away by the Pirates.

The Pirates!

Not the cool kind.

The ones form Pittsburgh.

Yes he was great 3 years ago but he’s been a mess since. Mets actually tried to trade him and did indeed trade him within hours after acquiring him. Moved him to San Diego but the Padres GM suddenly nixed the deal when word leaked that the Mets best reliever was injured in cab accident the night before.

The guy is basically a reclamation project. Someone to have pitching coack Rick Peterson work with for a year and hope we can salvage a decent pitcher who does have some good stuff. But now 2 months or so later with him having improved numbers in his Met appearences but still pretty bad ones (his Pittsburgh major and minor league numbers the last 2 years were absolutely mind bogglingly bad), he’s on the hill with the season on the line.

He’s been getting props for his Game 4 showing. But he gave up 5 runs and 9 hits in 5 innings for gods sake. (5 and two thirds to be exact). It shows you how far our standards have dropped when that’s a good outing.

He is still young (I think around 24), and Willie is playing the natural talent card here as opposed to experience or consistency.

BUt I don’t think it will work. The Card Suppan shut us out in Game 3. he’s not great but he’s credible.

And the Mets offense just hasn’t really showed up.

So between this, the non existent bench, the overused bullpen, and the mostly useless offense, I don’t have much hope.

We are at home and the Cards aren’t exactly the 27 Yankees.

Hell they’re not even the 06 Yankees.

But the Mets are thinned out and hanging by a thread. They can’t win much more like this. I think despite all the sudden optimism after tonight I think the Mets don’t have 2 straight wins left in them.

If my some chance we have a 1 or 2 run lead in the 9th I can’t see our wonderful lefty closer not choking it up.

Either one of these teams is probably Tiger bait but it would still be nice to get there. I think the pressure would be off. I could handle just showing up against Detroit.

But at least we forced it to 7. That’s more revenue for the Mets the more games they get and it’s that much more they can put into the team in the offseason to improve it. Once I settled in and watched I was on edge every inning despite the teams limited chances to do much beyond.

I didn’t want it to end that quickly though, or with me watching alone to wallow in my increasingly lousy month. October is my favorite month but it’s been a lousy one on many fronts. I’d still like to see this team drag another week out of this season-week and a half if they can scratch out a win or two against Detroit-but losing tomorrow will be better in some ways than tonight. Some ways worse because you can move on with a win. But they didn’t just die. Maine showed a little something. And we get more money. There’s more respect in losing in 7. Especially when you have no starting pitching staff.

But I’m not sure I can watch.

Published on October 18, 2006 in ..The Dude, Politics and The Ill-Literates. 0 Comments

[image:188:l] In an effort to destract myself from the embarrasment of the Mets pathetic albeit predictable NLCS showing here’s some political ranting I’ve been meaning to do.

Dick Cheney said the war in Iraq is going “remarkably well.” Rick Santorum compared our efforts in Iraq to the Lord Of The Rings with terrorists being the eye of Mordor and Iraq being the decoy drawing attention from Frodo and Sam making their way to Mount Doom.

Disconnect anyone?

And how about Mark Foley, Dennis Hastert and the rest of NAMPLA (North American Man Page Love Association)?

More proof that conservatives care more about fetuses than actual children or teenagers?

Or a Republican attempt to capture the heady atmosphere of the ancient Greek philosophers who appreciated the aesthetic qualities of the young male form?

Now Foley is playing the great American game of poor me trying to play the victim and whining about being sexually abused by a priest and having alcohol problems. I’m so sick of this bullshit. More and more we are a nation of crybabies who can’t stand up and take responsibility for their actions. Molested by a priest?

Get the fuck in line sissy boy.

Everybody who does anything wrong has issues in their past they could blame. You’re like 50 fracking years old. Get a handle on your shit and don’t screw with other people. Come on people like this are just weak and gutless and lack the desire to change or overcome their shit. They prefer to wallow in it and use it as an excuse to do whatever pleases them for the moment.

He’s about to tell the archdoicese of Miami the name of the guy who filled him with the holy spirit, if you know what I’m saying, thusly creating a new focus of shame to replace himself. This pussy boys attorney said, “This is all part of the healing process for Mark Foley. He thinks it’s important to go ahead and bring this information out and hope and encourage other people who have been similarly abused to go ahead and come forward.”

And we’re all about the healing process of Mark Foley the guy who has abused his political position as a Congressman to harass and exploit underage kids.

As long as you’re ok Mark.

Little prick.

The attorney also had the nerve to tell us that those who have doubted Foley’s history of being abused are going to regret it. “It’s going to be very clear in the coming days that it is a fact as opposed to any possible allegations that it was a fantasy or something made up for political purposes,” Richman said.

As if it alters what he did.

It’s just another lawyer/politician ploy to recast the story in their terms. Instead of it being about his transgressions it becomes about whether he can prove there were transgressions against him. If the priestly vestments fit we must acquit.

But it shouldn’t matter. And Hastert and the others didn’t know about his past anyway. And how do we know he wasn’t asking for it?*

I mean come on. A young boy hanging around priests? He knew the risks.*

And then the GOP hate machine tries to infer that not only is this somehow Democrats fault because the timing is just too coincidental, but also suggesting that they couldn’t deal with this appropriately because they were afraid to appear homophobic.

THEY FRACKING BASE ONE THIRD OF THEIR POLITICAL PLATFORM ON BEING GOD DAMNED HOMOPHOBIC!

Now I feel as much sympathy for the abused as anyone. I consider myself a student of the mind and its many levels and understand that we are products of our past. I’m certainly no fan of priests in general much the pigs who molest children. It’s all very sad. But any reasonably educated, mature adult has no excuse to continue the cycle of abuse, or to visit their pain on others no matter what was done. There is a point where you have to suck it up and deal with it. Get over it or put a bullet in your head. Whine about it in the night if you must. Do some hallucigenics. Overeat. Self flaggelate in the name of Jesus.

Whatever.

But keep the pain to ourself or your therapist.

Foley’s an ass and he wants our sympathy now.

He’s not getting mine because he knows better and he didn’t care until he got caught.

Of course the Foley fall out is not helping the Republican mid term efforts as we near election day. But there are alot of close races still in contention and I remain cautiously optimistic that the Dems can get a enough seats to start throwing some weight around in 07. Of course the pussies won’t move for impeachment, but maybe some more hearings of an embarrasing nature. Round up all those generals who are fed up with this administrations** incompetence. Maybe a hearing or two on the increase of disease and asthma and its environmental connections. The White House ties to Jack Abramoff. Whatever. Just put more heat on.
_______

Why the hell are people getting on Madonna’s case about adopting that kid from Malawi? Now there is talk of legal action as social service and other agencies question the legality of the adoption. They are concerned she didn’t go through all the normal steps and that her and her hubby Guy Ritchie weren’t evaluated to see wheather or not they’d be able to proved a suitable home.

Yeah let me see if I understand this. They’re not sure Madonna can provide a better, safer home than an orphanage in Africa?

Michael Jackson could do better by this boy than he’d likely get staying where he was. His own fatehr knew that and wholeheartedly supported the move. If I have any criticism it’s in leaving the dad behind.

Set him up in London. Let him be in the picture with the agreement you and the director nobody cares about do the primary childrearing. Seems kind of cruel to use his spawn and let him wallow in misery.
____________

Bill O”reilly said women are in no danger during pregnancy under any circustances so there are no grounds for abortion in any case.

He continues to live on as proof to the contrary.
__________

*Just kidding.

**This is my one thousandth use of the words “this administration,” in the past 6 years.

Published on October 13, 2006 in ..The Dude, Sports and The Ill-Literates. 6 Comments

Well it was inevitable. THis isn’t a great team. The pitching staff is garbage. Much of the lineup is old, and the bench is a mess. You don’t win championships like that. And tonight the Mets played a disgraceful game at home and go back to St Louis with the Cards having all the momentum and confidence.

The Mets blew 3 seperate multiple run leads as John Maine was as lousy as one would expect of these Mets starters but the pen didn’t get it done either. They were going to hit a wall and hit it ugly the way they’re overused due to the lousy staff and tonight they hit it and hit it hard.

And I don’t think they’ll recover.

With the Cards fired up and seeming like a team on aa mission, being home and us throwing Trachsel, Perez and Glavine on 3 days rest the next 3 ini St Louis, and with no day off for the overused pen, I think we’ve played our last game at Shea in 06.

That’s right. I’m saying it’s over and the Cards win the next 3, 4 in a row total, and take it in 5.

Mets look like a mess. It’s almost embarrasing having guys like Franco off the bench who is completely shot as a major leaguer. He steps in and I shrug for the automatic strikeout. And it always is. Green is a joke and his pathetic defensive skills cost us tonight. Wright can’t hit a deep fly out anymore much less a homer or ball in the gap. Valentin has been shot for 2 months and hasn’t had a hit in the playoffs. We have no starter besides Glavine, who can’t pitch on 3 days rest but will have to on Monday. He’s been horrible in that role in October over the years with Atlanta. Wagner imploded in the 9th tonight proving he’s really as gutless as I’ve always said. All those regular season meltdowns mean something and I always thought he’d have at least one in October. We have a wasted roster spot with Floyd being a gimp.

I said last week if the Mets win it will be all Delgado adn indeed he and Loduca are the only Mets who have done much of anything in October. But that’s not enough. Especially when you have so little pitching.

There’s more about this team and this game which I’m too disgusted to discuss. I almost called out from work to watch this and thank goodness I didn’t waste my time. MInaya did some good things for this team but the mistakes are coming home to roost now.

Steve Trachsel has never shown much clutch or guts and he’s pitching with the season on the line Saturday night in St Louis. Game 4 you have Oliver Perez who the Pirates gave up oon because he’s such a mess. THis is a guy who was picked up to be a long term reclamation project and now a couple of months later the Mets are so hard up he’s going to pich in the middle of the NLCS.

There is absolutley no way the Mets win that game.

I don’t think they are winning another game this year but I can’t rule out tomorrow or Monday with 100% confidence. But Sunday with Perez is just giving a game away.

And the other 2 in St Louis are very unlikely.

THis is the beginning of a very ugly weekend and probably an ignominious and pathetic ending of the Mets season.

Published on October 12, 2006 in ..The Dude, Sports and The Ill-Literates. 0 Comments

Mets win game 1 of NLCS 2-0.

My kind of game. Wish the Mets could play these every night. This kind of game keeps my panic under a semblance of control. But it is worrisome that the Mets aren’t hitting much since that is our strength.

But it was kind of predictable too. David Wright in particular is a problem I think. THe guy hasn’t displayed any power in 2 or 3 months. Tonight he was up in the 8th with a chance to get a key insurance run in with a man on 3rd and 1 out and you could just feel he had no chance of getting the ball out of the infield.

As many expected Valentin has hit a monster sized wall.

But he did make a great play in the 9th with an assist by Delgado who made a sweet scoop.

Floyd is of course hurt again. Yanked from the game early. That did get our boy Endy Chavez in who made a great diving catch very few players would have made.

Both runs came on a big fly by Carlos Beltran. I love that. Great pitching 1 or 2 homers, some good defense and lets move on.

And Tommy Glavine pitched well. He has 13 scoreless postseason innings now for the Mets. He was a bit lucky in spots tonight but if he can give a 2 or 3 more of these the Braves years are officially forgotten and i’ll do the Tomahawk Chop on my kneews in front of Ted Turner and Jane Fonda.

But that’s unlikely. A sense of calm is starting to settle in now. THis is very unlilkely to go the distance and I know that. It was unlikely all season with our staff. And much of our vaunted offense seems shot. But we didn’t go down in the 1st round. We’re getting some playoff experience. And we’re better off than the Yankees.

And not to make light of it but we’re certainly better off than Cory Lidle.

But of course it was still a tense game early on. Gave me chair a good wprkout with the rolling and spinning. The crowd at Shea didn’t seem as electric as I’d like. I don’t know if they were nervous or if too many tickets went to celebrities and corporate suits who are too good to make noise. But I need to see some steadier excitement tomorrow.

IT is hard to maintain that kind of energy and NY crowds generally know when to take it up a notch. I suspect if we’re back here for a game 6 or 7 the buzz will be steadier. On the otehr hand they could be a bit scared like I sensed they might be tonight. That underdog role we were suddenly cast in in the Dodger series is just as suddenly off as we’re not most peoples pick to win this one.

Also I didn’t realize it but tonight was the first time a game 1 of the CS has taken place at Shea.

The Cards have their ace on tomorrow against one of our men of mediocrity John Maine. On paper this is a mismatch. Especially the way the Mets are hitting. Or not hitting. The rainout allowed Carpenter to come back a game early. One of the disadvantages from the cancellation. And Pujols is due. Glavine kept him off balance tonight. John Maine won’t do the same.

And thanks to the rainout I now have to work for game 2 which should have been tonight. Not sure how I’ll handle it. I’ll DVR the puppy either way but don’t know if I’ll catch snatches at work. Might depend on who I work with. I can’t be bothered by work problems or needs during an obviously more important event.

As a matter of fact I think I should get paid time off for these games. Or at least time and a half for the duress and sacrifice I’m enduring in order to accomodate these people.

Item 1 when my people take control of the White House.

Published on October 12, 2006 in ..The Dude, Television and The Ill-Literates. 3 Comments

I’ll beat my peers here to the punch and do a Lost post. Plus Heroes, Studio 60 and a slightly behind the times view of Gallactica.

Decent enough episode. Clearly Sun’s ex maid is behind all of this.

And Sun is a bad, bad girl.

And perhaps it is not the islands amazing restorative powers that healed Jin’s sperm. Is she carrying the bastard of the kamikaze Korean? Was Jae aiming at Jin? Was he pushed? Will Luke and Laura ever get back together?

The answer is I don’t care about any of the questions in the above paragraph. If he didn’t kill himself the whole necklace in the hand thing doesn’t work. Either way Sun’s lies killed him just like it got her maid fired. A maid who went on to work at a sweatshop owned by Widmar. That was where she met the young, loyal, and beauteous Penelope who upon touring one of her father’s deathshops started her inclination towards rebellion. An inclination that led her to later hire that ex maid as an executive in her advocacy agency where the maid went on to run a string of therapuetic mental institutions. In one of these she met Hurley and Libby the latter who was having an affair with Hurley’s imaginary bald friend. Like Hurley she couldn’t get the numbers spoken over and over by that other patient playing connect four, or some such retarded game, out of her mind.

Yada yada yada, the ex maid is the Lady Macbeth behind Alvaro Hanso.

Of course I kid. Back to the real show.

The Others didn’t know about the sailboat. Are they at all attached to the hatch activity then? Seems as if maybe they had nothing to do with Desmond then.

Sayyid becomes to last to fall prey to stupid island disease.

Sawyer continues to rock though he really doesn’t do much of anything. All that Cool Hand Luke “boss” stuff was pretty amusing. As was his interaction with my fair Juliet whose light by yonder window breaks or something.

All that rock chopping/clearing work/scenes were yet more timewasting but I’m growing more and more forgiving of this because they waste time on this show so stylishly and with good writing and acting. Not to mention how good the show looks on a 50 inch tv in hi definition.

And of course everyone’s so damn good looking. This is of course the unspoken truth behind all tv casting. Get good looking people that can vamp without it getting too old because they’re cool to look at. Hell, I have a mancrush on Sawyer. And so do you. And they know this. You don’t think average looking people can act? Sure they can but they get filtered out of the system early on so casting directors can find pretty people that we can find things to relate to and thusly be foooled into thinking were as cool and good looking. really why do you think they use good looking people to sell products? Do people really believe they are going to hang with hot babes if they drink beer like they do in commercials?

No.

But do they subliminally think they are taking part of the image and somehow better, even more attractive.

Yep.

But the writing is good and even if every ep doesn’t have tremendous rewatch value in total most are riveting. The pacing, as slow as it is, must be said to contribute to it. I accept it. Just as the Others want me to. Like Jack they have been using their stalling techniques and parsiminously parcelled out nuggets of information to change my perspective.

And that brings me to Jack and the ending.

The Red Sox game was pretty cool. Especially in light of Jack’s dad making reference to them at some point in the past (I can’t remember exactly where when and how). Clearly Jack’s a Baseball fan if not a Sox fan. And clearly he was hungry to see images from the world and culture that he clearly misses.

Of course it is a revelation that is just reaffirming what we had already figured out. The Others have access to info off island. But Ben was generally excited about that Red Sox coming back from 3-0 vs the Yankees (biggest…choke…ever) and also seemed a bit condemnatory or bitter when he said that Bush was reelected.

Taken together it affirms my long held belief that the Others are not all that bad.

Sure some of their tactics leave something to be desired. Are rude even. But give them a chance people before you go all ra ra over Sayid taking them out or Sun shooting one of them.

Sun may indeed be the ultimate evil on the island. She’s a bad, bad girl.

But the Others?

Don’t think so. Again there may be factions and all that. But when Ben asked Jack to change his perspective you have to wonder if the Others are not out to expose the deceptions of civilization. To take the red pill. Or was it the blue one? Whatever.

But any reason Ben threw in the Chris Reeve reference?

Jack is a spinal surgeon after all. Reeve was big on stem cell research and the island may be harboring some kind of scientific testing that some believe includes life extension and or genetic manipulation.

But if Jack cuts a deal and goes bad the show will jump the shark for me. I don’t think that will happen though. Jack is good. Maybe not Penelope good. But good.
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Heroes is doing pretty well and got picked up for the entire season unlike Smith and Kidnapped which already got the ax. Shame on the latter which was a really well done show. But Heroes has issues. Perhaps too many characters. And i get the feeling its secrets will be of a mundane kind that people with any past interest in sci-fi or comics will see coming. But it might be worth getting there with a show that looks pretty good, has some likable and interesting characters, and brings a bit of wow factor to network tv. And then again maybe its mysteries are going somewhere different and all the cliffhangers can be tied to something a bit larger than just the needs of the moment.

In that cae the how would be really good.

It could use better writing. Dialogue particularly. But the show does go for a comic book feel in some of its shots and graphics/text, so maybe they’re keeping the characters a bit simplified to try and get that spartan and to the point essence.

Anyone on here watching it? If so there’s plot points to discuss here as well.

Oh yeah Studio 60 is really good. Yeah it’s a platform for Sorkin to vent his political and religious views and I doubt everyone behind the scenes at these shows is so quick and well spoken. It’s pretentious. It’s self-indulgent. It’s very insider and full of itself.

And I love it.

The show is still really compelling despite these things and what should be light subject matter. There’s so much stuff going on in both the dialogue and the background. Of course if I didn’t happen to agree with Sorin’s political and religious worldview to a large extent I would probably not watch.

Of course if I didn’t agree with it I probably wouldn’t understand the show either.

Just kidding Bush loving Christians.
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I’m trying to get through Battlestar Gallactica’s 2nd season so I can watch the premier from Friday which is DVR’d. I’m a few into the 2.5 DVD collection just having finished the whole Pegasus and Admiral Cain storyline. A little disppointed Starbuck didn’t take her out though. Number 6 version 3 or 4 or whatever did it anyway but I wanted a showdown on both ships CIC’s.

But I can see Thrace sympathizing with Cain somewhat. In a way she did only what was coldly logical at the moment. Not enough room for everyone? Kill the expendable on the ships you strip for parts. Let your officers rape and beat a woman? Well to them she is a machine.

At least this is how BG tried to present it in Starbucks eulogizing speech.

But Adama summed up what should be the overriding theme of the show and perhaps even humanity in general when he talked to Starbuck calling off the assasination. “It’s not enough to survive. You have to be worthy of survival.”

And Cain, like our present administration didn’t get that.

Plus her people raped Grace Park.

The whole crew was dead to me at that moment.

And when Adama got all “Send a military force over there now and take out boys back” and that music kicked up I got all fired up and yelled “that’s what I’m talking about Bill!,” at the screen as I pumped the fist a couple of times.

And if the Resurrection ship was destroyed later does that mean the original Sharon, Tyrel’s SHaron, is out there downlaoded into a new Sharon? Or a Leobold or tour ship guy? That would kind of be amusing.

Oh yeah Zena is a Cylon. Lesbian too?

I’ll have to wait and see.

Mmmm lesbian Cylons.

I love the future.

Published on October 11, 2006 in ..The Dude, Politics and The Ill-Literates. 0 Comments

A Chronology of lies for the informationally, logically, and factually impaired is available as part of an interactive timeline on Mother Jones

It starts in 1990 with the Gulf War and goes up to the start of the Iraq invasion. I haven’t had a chance to view the whole thing but it appears it’s all there. Every irrefutable lie, contradiction, and agenda laced decision and policy. For those wanting an at a glance overview of what these evil bastards have done this is a nice place to get it. Go from point A to Z and feel the outrage.

And it’s all documented facts.

On the subject of Bush. We know he’s not terribly bright but I couldn’t resist throwing another little example of this out there that I just stumbled across.

Bush was chiding Kim Jong II over the nuke testing. In discussing his approach to ahndling the situation he had the following to say:

“…That is the best strategy to solve the problem. I mean, I – you – one has a stronger hand when there’s more people playing your same cards.”

I’m no Texas Hold Em champ but that’s not how you win at poker. In fact I’ve confirmed you usually want to do the exact opposite. HAve opponents playing different cards.

But this is the opposite president after all.

Published on October 11, 2006 in ..The Dude, Sports and The Ill-Literates. 3 Comments

Surreality hits NY Baseball the day of scheduled Game 1 of NLCS leaving many of us Mets fans a bit torn.

Ok a perfectly innocent and not unprecedented accident takes place in Manhattan as a small plane hits a building. Obviously not terrorism although the media seemed to want it to be the way they were all over this. Just a byproduct of the Bush administration fear mongering hype I guess. Fighters were scrambled over major cities including NY as a precaution which is fine. But it was still obviously not terrorism from word go.

There were initial reports of 2 deaths. Truly tragic and horrible. But I didn’t know them and it was a relief in comparison to 9-11. So I felt ok making a joke.

After Yanks owner George Steinbrenner manufactured the whole firing Torre thing after their eilimination there were alot reports that it was an part an attempt to keep the Mets off the back and front pages after they clinched. Nothing new on Steinbrenners part. he’s fought the back page war in NY for decades.

So I and others joked that Steinbrenner had someone crash the plane to keep the Mets off the frontburner on the day of Game 1 of the NLCS.

A bit later CNN tells us it was Corey Lidle piloting the plane.

HOLY SHIT IT WAS A YANKEE FLYING THE PLANE!

Kind of feel bad making the joke. Harmless at the time though. OF course I’m sorry this happened and Lidle was killed. Just a crazy coincidence it happened on not only the day of Game 1 but also the 11th of the month following September.

Ironically if the Yankees had beaten Detroit he wouldn’t have been up there heading home. Or if he hadn’t been included in the Abreau deal from Philadelphia.

Too bad. He had a 6 year old kid.

Can’t help thinking of Munson August 3rd 1979.

But the game must go on right? Got to give my pre series viewpoint and feelings. Although there is talk of cancelling the game right now due to either or the rain or this accident. Due to pitching situations rainouts or cancellations of any kind would hurt the Mets and facor St Louis. But hey it is just a game.

But they didn’t cancel games when Munson dies so I’m kind of torn on this. Lidle did pitch for the Mets a few years back. THis happened in NY. But I doubt they’ll consider cancelling the AL game tonight and I’m not sure geographical proximity is reason enough to single out the Mets.

But whenever they do play I’m worried about the Cardinals. They’ve been the best NL team the past few years and were kind of lost in the shuffle suddenly this year as the Mets got the acclaim as consensus for the NL’s best. So now the Cards are back with the experience but without the expectations. There’s a load off them since they’re not supposed to win for the first time in their run of NL Central dominance.

And they have Pujols. The guy is a monster. Simply the best. The Mets couldn’t get the ugly evil Jeff Kent out in the Dodger series i Don’t see what chance they have of getting Albert out. And he can do alot more damage than Kent.

And man is our pitching thin. Good news is that theirs isn’t great either. Our bullpen is a bit better. But there’s still some bad matchups coming with Trachsel and Perez in St Louis games 3 and 4. I think the Mets really need these first 2 home games. Reyes needs to get on more and Delgado has to carry the offensive load since Floyd is a gimp and Beltran doesn’t hit when he has boo boos. He has 2 of them right now. Leg and abdominal strain of some sort.

I don’t think either of these teams hits the Tigers in the World Series but I’d still like to get there and take a shot. Maybe those young arms hit a late season wall again. But it will not be easy getting there. Not as easy as some are forecasting. Not that the Mets winning in fairly routine fashion would surprise me either. But as usual I’m not counting on it.

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