How to Piss of the Women of Terre Haute and Little Rock
Simply refuse to show "The Book of Daniel" before its first airing. As I understand it, many women find leading man Aidan Quinn to be a hunkahunkaburnin'luv and I also get the impression that there are lots of women out there that are naughtily drawn to priests and preachers (gee, a man that actually pretends to listen to them and care what they think - woohoo!). So I can't imagine that they'll be any too pleased about this.
I really can't get all that exercised about this - either the show itself or the refusal of some to show it. The show will probably suck - most shows do. So they had to find a way to differentiate themselves (since they didn't go with the aforementioned and much appreciated "hot blond" trend in this winter's new TV shows). You can't watch the ads and come to any conclusion other than that the network is playing up the most controversial aspects of the show precisely to elicit this kind of reaction. And that knee-jerk reaction is so predictable that it deserves little attention.
Bored now.
Go Ask Alice
For a long time there were no decent movie adaptations of video games. None. Period. Even Mojo Nixon couldn't save Mario Brothers. Then Resident Evil and Tomb Raider came out and they were actually pretty decent action flicks (didn't hurt that Mila and Angelina were the stars!). Now there's one that's coming out relatively soon that had better be incredible because it's got the right elements. I know this is old news for some of you, but I just found out that Sarah Michelle Gellar is scheduled to play the title role in the movie adaptation of "American McGhee's Alice". Wurf!
If you're not familiar with the game, Alice is all grown up and has spent considerable time in a loony bin before she returns to a much darker and grimmer Wonderland (and Carroll's original wonderland was pretty damn dark). I never made it too far into the game but one of the first indications that you have that you're in a weird, weird world is that if you let the character stand around without doing anything for too long, she starts to absent-mindedly cut herself with her knife. Yes, it's that kind of disturbed. The director is German-born video director Marcus Nispel, who also did the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake a couple of years ago.
I'm not a fan of splatter but this has potential to be a righteous flick!
U of Texas at Mack Brown
So congrats to UT, "Hook 'Em!" and all that stuff. Well done, well done. But it dawned on me that as obnoxious as Longhorn fans have been the last 35 years without a championship, I don't even want to think about what they're going to be like now.
And I'm all for having a little chutzpah, but can anyone tell me why the URL for the "official site of the University of Texas Longhorns" is http://www.mackbrown-texasfootball.com? That takes some Bevo-sized balls, kids.
My Annual Belated Happy Birthday Post for Lex
Direct quote from my blog January 5, 2005: "As usual, I'm a day late and a euro short, but happy birthday (yesterday) to my best bud, Lex!"One of these days I'll shock the world and actually acknowledge someone's birthday, like, you know, on or before the day itself.
Out of the Fridge - Mendocino Brewing Co Edition
I haven't blogged much about beer since the NC state legislature finally raised the alcohol limit. I tried a couple of higher alcohol doppels right after they were available and was under-impressed so I didn't think too much more about it until the Teeter started carrying Mendocino Brewing Co. beers. I noticed them first for the labels - gorgeous artwork of hawks and great blue herons - and second for the discounted price. So I picked up the Blue Heron Pale Ale and I've been drinking it pretty reguarly, despite later seeing a lot of negative reviews. It is VERY hoppy so if you're not prepared for that, you may not care for it (I like the bitter myself). I've also been drinking the White Hawk Select IPA, which clocks in at 7.0% ABV and is one of the best IPAs I've had (and I am an IPA fanatic). The Red Tail Ale is pretty good too. I haven't tried the Eye of the Hawk Select Ale (8% ABV) or the Black Hawk Stout yet but I undoubtedly will.Speaking of IPAs, if you can't find the Mendocino brews, I'd recommend Flying Dog Brewery's Snake Dog IPA (another great label - this one by Ralph Steadman) - not as bitter as the Mendocino quaff but quite good. The daddy is still the Davie Poplar IPA at Top of the Hill in Chapel Hill. Yum-my!By the way, does anyone know why most of the brewery websites I've pulled up ask you to confirm that you're of drinking age before entering the site?
Rosie Bowl
Let me get this in real quick before the kickoff - I predict a Trojan win at 38-28, with half of the Longhorns' scoring coming from defense and/or special teams.The bad thing about this game is that it lends some legitimacy to the BCS and probably ensures that it will be around at least another five years. The good thing is... shit, everything! This is probably the biggest college football game I can remember. If USC does win, they can lay real claim to being the best college football team in at least 40 years. If Tejas wins, it marks the return to the top of an ex-perennial power that hasn't made it this far since the late 60's. Should be fun!Update 1: End of the 3rd quarter as Tejas lines up for a field goal. The second half is looking much more like what we expected, after the first was full of much more defense and much sloppier offense than I thought we'd see. The third quarter had a much more precise USC offense and a much faster Longhorn O that really rocked the Trojans back on their heels. 24-23 USC with the 'horns knocking.I know Keith Jackson is like THE voice of college football, but I've never been able to forgive him for his absolute denial on the air of Woody Hayes punching Clemson's Charlie Baumann in the 1978 Gator Bowl.Wide right - still 24-23.By the way, I don't have a real preference in this one. I harbor no real ill-will towards Mack Brown - while I thought the way he left UNC was pretty classless, he did give us some of the best Carolina teams ever. My new customer is based primarily in Austin as are most of the guys that work for me, so I can either cheer with them or jeer at them, so I win either way.Continual ads for Heather Graham's horribly-titled new show, but they're using the Clash as the background music, so that's okay. Add to that Jenna Elfman's new show and it looks like this winter is all about hot blonds on sitcoms. Beats the previous trend of tubby white guys.Update 2: LenDale White is a fucking HORSE! And Reggie Bush just tightroped down the sideline and literally flew into the end zone. Dan Fouts: "It's a game of Quidditch to Reggie Bush! Where's his broom?"31-23Update 3: Six and a half minutes left and it's 38-26 - how's that for a prediction? Of course both teams are quite capable of scoring again, so I don't expect the score to stand. Young's got them moving down the field quite efficiently right now.Update the Last: 19 seconds left and Young runs untouched into the end zone on 4th down then runs the 2-point conversion in. Had Texas not taken the lead, you've got to figure that the Longhorn kicker that missed a field goal and an extra point would have been the goat. Now you've got to look at the USC defender that got called for the facemask in an early play on the final Longhorn drive.Wow! 41-38 Tejas and you've got to figure that Austin is coming apart at the seams. Kudos to Vince Young and Mack Brown - no one can say that Brown teams can't win the big ones any more cuz they don't come any bigger than this. "The eyes of Texas are upon you..."
The Christmas I Shoulda Had
I might have pretty much blown off Christmas this year, but I (vicariously) enjoyed the hell out of Bad News Hughes' (via the apostropher, whose site seems to be back up).
New Year's Resolution - Bowl Game Style
1. Establish the running game - I really let work, illness and other things get in the way of running the last few months to the point where I feel like I'm almost starting over. The goal is to be back up to 15 miles per week by the end of March and 20 miles per week by the 4th of July.
2. Prepare for away games - we haven't done much traveling the last few years, but with Damien gone, it becomes a lot easier to do so. I've gotten out of the habit of taking long weekends (as opposed to waiting until I can take a full week off) - time to get back into 3- and 4-day weekends and get back on the road to visit family, friends and new places.
3. Remember the things that got you here - in particular, my parents. As part of the previous item, I plan on getting up to see the folks a lot more often this year. I have been sorely remiss.
4. A good half-time show is a must - I need to reconnect with the music that's happening now, not just stuff recorded 20 years ago. My hatred of the RIAA knows no bounds, but despite that I intend to buy at least one CD recorded AFTER 2003 every month this year. We'll see how that goes. I have no specific goals in terms of live music - just to get out more often and not just to the Cradle. Guess that means buying a membership to the Cave (how weird is it that it's private now?).
5. Don't forget that it's a game - I've let work, politics, life all get to me in the last year. Hell, if it ain't fun, it ain't worth doing. I promise to remember that a little more often this year!
Another Year, Another Blog Template
I finally broke down and cleaned house after a number of complaints about the previous template. Yeah, the old one was a little hard to read and IE did seem to have some problems formatting it correctly, so hopefully this will be an improvement. And I did figure out how to get a chunk of one of my photos as the masthead, so that's kinda cool. Comments will be gratefully accepted.
