Experiment Farm

This is not Project Runway 8, Episode 1

2010-07-30T12:00:00.000-07:00

Apparently that wasn't an episode of Project Runway I watched last night. How could it have been? They kept saying it was the last stage of the audition process and the 17 of them weren't on the show yet. So if they had to survive that challenge to be on the show, then clearly that 90 minutes of sewing, Loreal ads, and Lifetime promos wasn't Project Runway.

This is why I'm not sure I want to blog the show anymore. All I seem to do is bitch about the things that annoyed me or pissed me off.

Like keeping backwards-kimono-salon-smock-bowler-hat-wearing-so-insecure-in-my-sexuality-I-have-to-constantly-make-a-display-of-my-straightness dude on the show. (All you Bay Area theatre peeps, didn't he look exactly like Gabriel Marin? I know, right.) Ok, I'm not necessarily saying I would have kept Utah-Dreadlocks in his stead, but at least her dress was sewn and not stapled and pinned. (And how exactly can I link to her profile on the website if she was never on the show?)

Or picking that incredibly blah black thing as the winner.

So you see my conundrum? Was there anything about the show last night that I actually liked? Hearing Nina Garcia speak Spanish was fun and seeing Tim Gunn get his own confessional interview. I hope that becomes a regular thing. Other than that, the episode was pretty boring.

Did the extra time make it boring? I don't know. I definitely noticed the difference in pacing. I think they'll hit a sweet spot about halfway through the season where 90 minutes is just the right amount of time. Right now, it's still not long enough for that many designers. At the end, it will be too long for so few.

So in the meantime, as the next few weeks go by with me likely too busy to post, I'll see if I can come up with a new hook or angle to keep my posts interesting. Because catty bitch-fest might be cathartic, but it's getting old.

Knockbusters

2010-07-29T17:00:00.000-07:00

From The Asylum, the same production company that specializes in direct to DVD knock-offs of blockbusters (or "knockbusters"), the very same folks who brought you Snakes on a Train (yes, I said "train"), comes the sequel you've all been waiting for:

Titanic 2

(Thanks BMR for tweeting it.)

Project Runway Season 8

2010-07-28T12:00:00.000-07:00

Project Runway Season 8 premiers Thursday night. I haven't written too much about it yet as I find myself largely unenthusiastic about the show these days. Honestly, I was more excited to watch this week's Project Runway inspired episode of Warehouse 13 than I am about the impending premier.

I haven't decided yet if I'm going to blog every episode or leave that responsibility up to my sister (check out her season 8 preview post). Or maybe I'll come up with a new way to blog about it to keep myself interested, because who am I kidding? I'm still going to watch every episode. I may as well write something about them.

The format change from 60 to 90 minutes has me mildly intrigued, but it also forces me to choose between Project Runway and new Futurama episodes. Curse you Heidi Klum! Although, I imagine producers weren't too worried about alienating the Futurama/Project Runway crossover fans when they made their programing decisions. I'm sure the 5 of us will find a way to cope. I'll just be a week behind on my Futuramas I guess, although the folks at Planet Express will provide a convenient escape option if PR is particularly yawn-inducing.

Of course, I'll miss a few weeks due to my nuptials and subsequent honeymoon. Well, I'll probably watch the episodes, but don't expect a timely blog about them.

Comedian

2010-07-23T07:00:00.000-07:00

I'm not generally a big fan of Jerry Seinfeld. I never particularly liked the show. But I found this trailer for his upcoming movie funny:

G'Bye Lou, Hello ?

2010-07-22T07:00:00.000-07:00

Cubs manager Lou Piniella announced he's retiring after this season. That's really no surprise. Everyone assumed he would.

I also just assume that current Cubs Tripple-A affiliate manager Ryne Sandberg will get the job, but I forget that people actually want to manage the Cubs these days. Why? Because they're decidedly on the economic "have" side of the "have and have not" spectrum.

Sandberg's biggest competition could come from former team-mate and current Yankees skipper Joe Girardi. The Cubs were his first choice 4 years ago. After Lou beat him out for the job he "settled" for the Yankees. Sure, he won a World Series last year, but he's never been as popular as Joe Torre. He's also in the last year of his contract and might be eager to leave the Bronx Zoo for a shot at bringing the Cubs their first championship since the Teddy Roosevelt administration.

Another intriguing possibility is current Cubs color commentator Bob Brenly. He's done the commentator-to-manager jump successfully before in Arizona, leading the Diamondbacks to the title in 2001.

The Cubs even currently have two former managers on staff, in bench coach Alan Trammell and pitching coach Larry Rothschild.

My sister's dream is of course to hire Girardi as the manager and bring Sandberg in as a coach. While I'm certainly not opposed to that, I don't think Sandberg has been putting in all this time as a minor league manager just to end up a bench coach. He clearly wants to manage. Odds are there will be other big league openings next season.

Four years ago, I wanted Lou Piniella. No offense to Girardi, but I think Lou was the right person at the right time. The Cubs needed a firebrand after the easy-going Dusty Baker, and he paid off with two consecutive play-off appearances. Sure he mismanaged pitchers, but Joe's been accused of that too. I don't think there's a manager out there today who can manage a pitching staff. (Pitch counts are the devil.)

Today, I'm not sure who I'm rooting for. I guess, a winner.

Here's Lou's tirade from June of '07 that started the Cubs on a two year winning streak:

Talkin' Softball, Ozzie and the Straw

2010-07-21T07:00:00.000-07:00

When Ken Griffey, Jr retired earlier this year it marked the end of an era. Yes, true, he played for over 20 years, but that's not the era of which I speak. You see, Griffey was the last player featured in the Simpsons episode Homer at the Bat to retire.

The episode first aired February 20, 1992 and featured guest appearances by 9 Major League players: Roger Clemens, Wade Boggs, Ken Griffey, Jr., Steve Sax, Ozzie Smith, José Canseco, Don Mattingly, Darryl Strawberry and Mike Scioscia.

There's lots of interesting tidbits about the episode on its Wikipedia page. Such as:
* The players recorded their parts over 6 months whenever their teams were in L.A. playing the Dodgers or the Angels
* Jose Canseco made them rewrite his part to look as heroic as possible.
* Ryne Sandberg and Carlton Fisk both turned down the chance to be in the episode.

Now they're all gone and retired. I wonder who Mr. Burns would hire these days to be his ringers?

It's one of the best episodes of the Simpsons all around, but the best part was the song at the end. Terry Cashman rewrote his song Talkin' Baseball for the closing credits. Enjoy!

I Write Like UPDATE

2010-07-20T09:00:00.000-07:00

I Write Like is all over the blogosphere and the interwebs. According to this article in SFGate, it's almost entirely keyword based, and it was written by a Russian who speaks English as a second language.

It's easy to find a laugh. Obama's Oval Office speech in June? David Foster Wallace. Lady Gaga's lyrics to "Alejandro"? William Shakespeare.

What I find amusing is that the guy who created it lists Agatha Christie as one of his favorite authors, but when I plugged her into the site, she came back as H.G. Wells.

I Write Like

2010-07-19T17:00:00.000-07:00

There's a website that will supposedly analyze a piece of text you've written and tell you whom you write like.

This blog post apparently reads like Stephen King.

Whereas this one reads like Kurt Vonnegut.

One section of my novel came back as Vladimir Nabokov and another as Arthur C. Clark, either of whose company I'd be honored to share.

I decided to test the system and put in excerpts from Stephen King, Kurt Vonnegut, Vladimir Nabokov, and Arthur C. Clarke and see what it came back with. It actually matched them all up correctly, except for Arthur C. Clarke, who it said wrote like Dan Brown.

Neil Gaiman came back as Neil Gaiman.
Amy Tan came back as Dan Brown.

J.R.R. Tolkien came back as J.R.R. Tolkien.
Naomi Novik came back as H.P. Lovecraft.
H.P. Lovecraft came back as Dan Brown.

Stephenie Meyer came back as Stephenie Meyer.
Chuck Palahniuk came back as Chuck Palahniuk.
Barack Obama came back as Dan Brown.

If you're keeping score, and follow the transitive property, Amy Tan and Barack Obama both write like H.P. Lovecraft, and Dan Brown is incredibly versatile.

I write like
Stephen King

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I write like
Kurt Vonnegut

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I write like
Vladimir Nabokov

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I write like
Arthur C. Clarke

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

(Thanks to Tim at Direct Address.)

Spark of Life

2010-07-18T07:00:00.000-07:00

I stumbled across NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day on Friday, and the first thing that came to mind when I saw it was Michaelangelo's Creation of Adam on the Sistine Chapel. The tendrils of gas seem to match the fingers of God and Adam in the fresco.

It just makes me wonder if Michaelangelo would have had access to a telescope strong enough to have seen it. I mean, some people already claim he painted God as a giant brain, so why not some astronomical inspiration as well?

History of the Universe

2010-07-17T07:00:00.000-07:00

BIG BANG BIG BOOM - the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Small World

2010-07-16T07:00:00.002-07:00

Avid readers may remember my review last year of Impact Theatre's production of Stephen Yockey's play Large Animal Games. (Coincidently, that post is one of my blog's most viewed. I think because the post's title "Large Animal Names" leads people to believe it is actually a list of names of large animals. Maybe I should change the title to "Guy with the Loud Pencil".) I knew a lot of people in the show. Diana stage managed it, and I sat next to Stephen Yockey at a different play once. So we've laughed together at least.

In any case, the Impact production of Large Animal Games was a co-world premier with Dad's Garage in Atlanta.

I just found out yesterday that one of my best friends from college directed the Dad's Garage production. Crazy. Small world.

I don't know why I find this so fascinating.

Worth Mentioning

2010-07-15T17:00:00.000-07:00

It is perhaps worth mentioning that I am in the middle of another round of much needed re-writes and edits on the novel. I don't know how many people ever go there or attempt to read it, but you might hold out a little until I get the new version up there.

I can't believe four years ago right now I was finishing up the first draft while sitting on a small patch of grass in Woodstock, New York. Until I dove back in last month, I hadn't touched it in over a year. It's amazing what a little distance and reading Stephen King's On Writing, Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird, and Ariel Gore's How to Become a Famous Author Before You're Dead can do to your perspective.

The Baseball Shuffle

2010-07-15T07:00:00.000-07:00

Don't get me wrong, Baseball is doing all right these days, but it certainly has some issues. Now I'm not going to address instant replay here, or game pacing, or any of those types of things. I am going to address a handful of issues that could be solved by shuffling up the board a little.

Problems:
Yankee Domination: Now baseball seems to have decided that this not a problem and is in fact good for the sport. I would disagree and maybe someday I'll write a post about the pros and mostly cons of "Dynasties". In the meantime, the domination of the AL East by the Yankees and Red Sox is an issue, and even MLB will acknowledge that. Unfortunately all of their supposed solutions merely treat the symptoms not the disease.

The "Texas Problem": The Texas Rangers call the Central Time Zone home. Yet, because they play in the AL West, an inordinate number of their road games start at an incredibly inconvenient time for local TV viewers.

The A's and the Rays: They both need new stadiums. Bud Selig has said contraction is off the table.

How would I fix these problems? Roll up your sleeves and enjoy the ride:

1. Move the Dodgers from LA back to Brooklyn. Stop laughing and let's examine how much mind-boggling sense this makes. First off, it would be the most well-received team relocation in the history of professional sports. Eskimos in Borneo feel bad that the Dodgers left Brooklyn. The only people who wouldn't cheer this move would be LA fans and Yankee fans, and even they would get over it. You'd immediately have a huge fan base and TV audience. You'd make a lot of money, and correspondingly lighten the Yankees coffers, bringing them back down to Earth.

Now I don't know anything about the geographic or economic realities of trying to put a stadium in Brooklyn. Again, I just believe if you could do it, you'd make a mint. You might even be able to get away with just moving them to Citi Field. Sure it'd be Queens, but you could still call them the "Brooklny Dodgers" and sell a lot of tickets.

A decade or so ago this idea would have been absurd, but with the O'Malley's gone and the McCourt's locked in a bitter divorce, the Dodgers are ripe for the plucking.

2. Move the Rays to LA. Drop them right into Dodger Stadium. They're not the "Devil Rays" anymore after all. They're the "Rays" like the sun. That still works in LA. Of course for this to work, you'd have to pop them out of the AL East and into the NL West. You don't want two AL teams in LA because then half of your teams never go to LA in a given season. That doesn't work.

3. If you're keeping count, we now have 17 teams in the NL and 13 in the AL. That doesn't work either. An NL team has to move into the AL to balance this out. If you really want to go crazy, pop the Phillies or the Braves into the AL East. They've become the Yankees of the NL. Put them in the same division as the Yankees and the Red Sox and let them beat each other bloody. But that doesn't solve the Texas Problem. To solve the Texas Problem, you pop the Arizona Diamondbacks out of the NL West into the AL West. Then you pop Texas into the AL Central where they belong.

Here's what you end up with:

Sure, you could move the Indians into the AL East, but why? This way only the Jays and the O's are stuck battling the Yankees and Red Sox. Or you could do away with divisions entirely. Play a balanced schedule and just take the top 4 teams into the playoffs. You could do that today and solve the Texas Problem. That might even address the symptoms of the Yankee Problem (i.e. that the Rays/Jays/O's have to be extra-special good to make the playoffs any given year).

You could also simply move the Rays to New York, but that's not as sexy as moving the Dodgers.

Of course, none of this gets the A's a new stadium, but if you let a third team into New York, it'll be far easier to solve the territory issues keeping the A's out of San Jose. The Giants also lose their Dodger/LA rivalry and have to build a new one with the Rays. That's a problem, but... maybe someday you could move the Dodgers back to LA to fix it...

Slow Day

2010-07-14T07:00:00.000-07:00

Today, the day after the All-Star Game, is traditionally the slowest day in North American sports. There are no major events today. No baseball games. No football, hockey, or basketball. Not even golf. If you're really desperate, and the World Cup didn't satisfy your soccer jones, the Kansas City Wizards play the Columbus Crew in MLS action today. I expect to see a lot of highlights from the game tonight on Sportscenter.

If I were the MLS, I would schedule a marquee match-up for this day every year and try to get a national TV deal.

Sports Shorts

2010-07-13T07:00:00.000-07:00

I've been saying for years that the way to solve the "problem" of the Yankees domination is to move a third team to the New York area. Now it seems preventing that from happening is mucking up the Giants/A's territory dispute over San Jose. From the article: "As much as fans of most teams hate it, MLB seems to have concluded that Yankee domination is good for revenues"

Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. But in an interview with the LA Times, Selig even admits he grew up a Yankees fan. No bias there.

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Oh right, Spain won the World Cup, in one of the most boring soccer games ever. If your world championship game can be that big of a snooze-fest, no wonder your sport can't catch on in this country. (Oh, and I ended up rooting for Spain because the whole Dutch "foul the crap out of them and hope we get lucky" game plan was a turn-off.)

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Bo Jackson threw out the first pitch at the Home Run Derby last night. Don't ask me why the Home Run Derby needs a ceremonial first pitch, but anyway... I tried to find a video clip of the home run he hit in 1989 All-Star Game (also in Anaheim), but all I could find was this compilation of highlights both baseball and football. I don't know about this guy's claim that he was a hall-of-famer, but it's some amazing watching. Certainly had he focused on just one sport he would have been a hall-of-famer in it. Instead he blew out his hip in a playoff game for the Raiders and never recovered.

Predators

2010-07-12T17:00:00.000-07:00

I saw Predators over the weekend. It was ok. I enjoyed it. I might buy it on DVD.

It could have been a lot better though. Here’s how:

1. The movie’s too short at just 107 minutes. It could have really used another 20-30 minutes of character development, for both the humans and the predators. This is an ironic flaw considering the movie is based on a script Robert Rodriguez wrote 15 years ago that never got made because it was too long and expensive. What we see is just a portion of the original story arc. The upside is that there's plenty of material for sequels.

Every problem that follows could have been solved in that extra time.

2. Give us more predators! The movie is called "Predators" after all. We want to follow their story too. The AVP movies did perhaps too good of a job making the predators a sympathetic race. They're ruthless killers, but they're also honorable and play by a set of rules. This is the biggest flaw in the ending too. Once the predators are beaten, they're generally better losers.

3. I didn't know Topher Grace was in the movie, and for the most of the movie I didn't know why his character was there either. Neither did the other characters. The fact that he doesn't fit in is acknowledged, but no attempt is made to explain his presence, until it becomes painfully obvious why he's there. No attempt at misdirection is made. Whereas, all he had to do was save someone's life early on in the film (his character was a doctor after all) and it would have looked like he was there to be their medic. Instead, the attempt at "twist" is seen coming a mile away.

4. I'm not sure what the whole "big predator" vs "little predator" thing really added to the movie except needless confusion and an excuse for the producers to redesign the predator a little. Every director who's ever made an Alien film has tweaked the creatures' appearance. There's no reason you couldn't just do that. Are predators really that homogeneous a species that they all look alike? And if you're going to introduce some sort of predator blood feud, explain WTF is going on! I understand the humans in the film wouldn't have known what was happening, but that's no reason to keep us in the dark.

5. If you're a breed of predator in an age-old blood feud with another breed of predator, does it really make sense that you can fly your ship from your arm-band computer and your enemy predator can also control the ship from his? Wouldn't you change the frequency or the password or something? Seems pretty poor planning for a species that's supposed to be so smart.

6. Lawrence Fishburne's character... hmm... where to begin. A: He looks awfully well fed for someone who's been surviving on scavenging for "10 seasons". B: He has a predator helmet and suit that makes him invisible, and he only uses it once and no one else ever uses it either. I would have perhaps grabbed that when loading up on weapons and ammunition before fleeing the hideout. C: if that character existed to somehow explain the predator blood feud, he did a piss-poor job of it. D: If there are "seasons" and the predators go away and come back better equipped every time, then how exactly are "they always out there"? "Going away" implies a period of time when they are not there.

7. Adrian Brody's character makes some pretty big leaps in his conclusions about why they're there, and we're just supposed to buy it. Wouldn't it have made more sense for Isabelle, who had some pre-existing knowledge of the predators, to have reached those conclusions herself? Oh right, she only summarizes the first movie so that Adrian Brody will know later on to coat himself in mud to hide from the predators. There couldn't have been any other reason for her to know about them.

8. Is it asking too much to have just one sympathetic character to root for? I guess so. And they all had names? I had no idea. And Isabelle was in the Israeli Defense Force? Didn't realize they had so many Spaniards on the payroll with detailed knowledge of 20 year-old U.S. Special Forces missions.

So: the basic concept is a good one and the action sequences are good. The movie oversimplifies its plot for some reason to keep it short which ironically left it overcomplicated, muddled, and not as satisfying as it could have been.

(Many of these issues were first raised by Diana, but I agree with them.)

Spain vs. the Netherlands

2010-07-11T11:00:00.000-07:00

In a few short hours, my dream will become a reality: An 8th nation will join the ranks of World Cup Champions. Of course, it's still a European nation, so it's not my wildest dream come true, but it's something.

Will it be the Netherlands? Will it be Spain?

David Beckham and Paul the Octopus are both picking Spain. Maybe being the underdog will play to the Netherlands advantage. Or maybe Spain, one of the favorites from the beginning of the tournament, will take it all.

Who am I rooting for? I'm not sure. I'll probably find out while I'm watching. Either way my dream comes true.

Baseball's Sad Lexicon Centennial

2010-07-10T07:10:00.000-07:00

On this day 100 years ago Franklin Pierce Adams' poem Baseball's Sad Lexicon was first published in the New York Evening Mail. It's better known as "Tinker to Evers to Chance":

These are the saddest of possible words:
"Tinker to Evers to Chance."
Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds,
Tinker and Evers and Chance.
Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble,
Making a Giant hit into a double –
Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble:
"Tinker to Evers to Chance."

Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, and Frank Chance were the shortstop, second baseman, and first baseman/manager respectively of the Cubs back in their "glory days" of the early 20th Century when they dominated the league, won 4 pennants in 5 years and 2 consecutive World Series.

Statistically speaking, they didn't turn an extraordinary amount of double-plays, and none of them had Hall of Fame numbers. Frank Chance as a manager might have. Nonetheless, they were certainly famous, and the Hall of Fame inducted all three of them 1946.

Why write a poem about them? Adams was a columnist and sports writer for the Giants who had spent 5 years falling just short of the Cubs in the standings (most famously in 1908). They were their nemesis, if you will. Maybe the poem brought some luck, as the Giants would win 3 consecutive pennants from 1911-1913.

Jaws

2010-07-09T14:00:00.000-07:00

A couple of years ago Diana and I went to see Aliens at the Castro. As part of that they showed a preview for Jaws, which they were going to be showing later that summer. Alas, I was out of town when they showed it, so no Jaws on the big screen for me... until last night!

They showed it at the Cerrito as part of their Classics series. I'd never seen it on the big screen. Diana had never seen it at all. Man it was good. It's a long movie, in the same way that the Dark Knight was long. It's grueling. You definitely go on a journey.

Sure some of it is cliched and outdated (smoking in a hospital, anyone?). The audience laughed at more than a few things that were not intended to be funny, but they also jumped and screamed at just the right times too.

Here's Robert Shaw's famous monologue about the USS Indianapolis:

"Anyway... We delivered the bomb."

It is as if God created the Devil, and gave him... Jaws

2010-07-07T17:00:00.000-07:00

Now Playing

Shorts

2010-07-06T17:00:00.000-07:00

Some friends of mine and I were wondering where fireworks are legal and where they're not. This handy graphic shows you. From Buzzfeed. As a new dog-owner, I suddenly have a renewed dislike for retail fireworks.

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Oops. Perhaps I made an insensitive comment on my sister's blog. The problem with living several thousand miles away is you lose perspective on people's sense of humor about aging. In my defense though, we were all thinking it. I just said it. Sorry Kath.

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The Dutch beat Uruguay today. That means Europe is guaranteed to win its first cup held outside the continent. If Spain manages to beat Germany, the winner will be a nation that's never won before. Fingers crossed!

World Cup Yawn

2010-07-03T09:48:00.000-07:00

With Ghana out (and I'm sorry, but if you use your hands to block such an obvious goal, shouldn't it just be a goal? UPDATE: FIFA is considering banning the offending player from the final should Uruguay reach it.) South America and Europe are guaranteed to maintain their strangle-hold on the cup.

It didn't matter if Germany or Argentina won, we knew there would be 2 previous winners in the semis and 2 new nations. Whats more, with Germany advancing, there's still a good chance the Brazil/Italy/Germany triumvirate will win yet again. In the last 30 years the only nations other than those three to win a Cup were France in 1998 and Argentina in 1986.

If Spain manages to beat Paraguay in a few short hours as every expects them to, 3 of the 4 semifinal teams will be European. Not bad for a continent that's never won a World Cup held outside of Europe. For that streak to continue, one of the blank-aguay's will have to emerge victorious.

I guess if Paraguay wins today, I root for them, if only because they've never reached a final. The Dutch have lost two finals in their day, which both helps them and hurts them in terms of wining my support.

"World" Cup

2010-07-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

I think one of the biggest reasons I'll never be all that into the World Cup is wrapped up in the very title of the event itself. So many people have tried to convert me to World Cup fandom by touting the sports international appeal. It's the "world's game".

Ok, maybe. I mean, it's gaining popularity in the US, but it's been gaining popularity for decades now. It's hard to go anywhere but up from rock bottom. Does Canada even field a team? (They do, but they've only made one World Cup appearance, World Cup Mexico in 1986.) People certainly play it all over the world, whether or not it's popular all over the world is debatable. I think people in this country only embrace the World Cup as an excuse to get drunk at odd hours of the day.

Sure, it's a "World" Cup for the same reason the World Series is the "World" Series: the organizers call it that and the rest of us buy it. The World Series might only feature teams from North America, but there's little doubt the winner is the best baseball team in the world at that moment. As for the World Cup Champions, I don't know enough about soccer to know how they would be expected to fare in a match against one the best club teams.

True, it does decide what nation can field the best team. In that sense it is a "World" Cup. And yet... since 1851 the whole world has been invited to compete for the Royal Yacht Squadron Cup, but it's still called the America's Cup because in 160 years we've only lost it 5 times. (Yes I know it's really called America's Cup because the first yacht to win it was named America, but you don't think that name would have stuck without us winning it every year do you?)

No team outside of Europe or South America has ever even played in a World Cup final. So really it's Europe & South America's Cup and the rest of the world just tags along and parties. In my opinion, if it were really a "World" Cup, other nations would have a chance. As it is, Ghana's the only remaining hope for a new continent to break through this year.

What's more, only 7 nations have ever won it. Of the 8 teams remaining, 4 are previous winners. So the odds of another repeat winner are still pretty good. It's not really Europe & South America's Cup, it's Brazil, Italy, Germany and a few other random countries' Cup. To be exact.

And that's where I lose interest. It's just boring if only a handful of countries have any real hope of winning.

"21 Reasons" by Prince Gomolvilas

2010-06-30T07:00:00.000-07:00

A couple years ago, in the early days of this blog, I wrote a post about the movie 21 in which I referenced Prince Gomolvilas's monologue "21 Reasons the Movie 21 Already Sucks"

Well, in honor of M. Knight Shyamalan's film The Last Airbender, Prince has reworked the monologue and recently performed it at an event at USC. Fortunately it was video taped for your viewing pleasure:

More D Shorts

2010-06-29T17:00:00.001-07:00

Again, Diana sent me all of these. I'm just too busy these days to do much surfing.

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I can't believe it's finally the last film... um... er... films! I can't believe the last book came out three years ago.

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The next season of Project Runway will start an hour earlier, but feature 90 minute episodes! It premiers July 29th. (SFGate article.)

I'm not sure how I feel about that. It'll be great for the earlier episodes as we'll get to see more of the designers, but they already had to stretch to fill 60 minutes when they were down to the final few. Are they just merging Models of the Runway into the show? It's unclear. Apparently we will see more runway footage and more workroom footage. (EW article.) And Entertainment Weekly assumes that half hour after PR will get filled by Austin Scarlett and Santino Rice's new makeover show. What?!?! (Diana didn't send me that last bit. I found that one myself.)

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An interesting article about football head injuries.

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"And I know I'm in the minority here, but I kind of wish Jacob would put on a shirt."