It's about time.

Thanks, Mike.

Dude, ER ripped Mike off! (ER spoilers ahead)

About 8 years ago, Mike directed Six Degrees of Separation at Georgetown. In that play, the character of Rick kills himself by jumping off a building. So in an earlier scene where Rick is playing guitar and singing with some friends, Mike had them singing Tom Petty's "Free Fallin'".

Last night on ER, a helicopter taking off from the roof of the hospital runs into trouble, ultimately crashing on top of Rocket Romano. Well, when Romano is riding the elevator up to the roof just before the accident, there's a muzak version of "Free Fallin'" playing!

Anyway, Romano will be missed. What made him great was that he was 99% asshole, 1% human. He wasn't a total caricature. I didn't love the way he actually bought it. Maybe as written it was OK, but as directed it was kinda Looney Tunes. Might as well have been a safe or an anvil falling on his head.

I saw Mystic River (a couple of weeks ago, actually), and was relatively underwhelmed, in part given the expectations based on the high praise it's gotten.

Part of the problem was that it didn't feel new to me, and that's because of Sleepers. I saw it when it came out, and I remember it definitely having an impact on me, just kind of staying with me for some time after I left the theater.

Both movies start with a group of boys enjoying a carefree afternoon in the neighborhood, until something happens that changes everything. The movies then show us what the boys' different personalities and circumstances lead them to as adults. Innocence lost, quite simply.

I'm not saying Mystic River ripped off Sleepers. I understand the movies are both based on books. And the stories are different (different location, different number of friends, different trauma, different choices in adulthood). But the themes at their heart (and that's where these movies live) are the same. I guess what I'm saying is that if I was a producer and someone had brought this to me, I would have told them to watch Sleepers and come back when they had something different.

Now, if someone saw Sleepers after seeing Mystic River, I wonder if the impact of Sleepers would be lost because they'd seen it already in Mystic River...

Today is a bittersweet day. Joss Whedon's Firefly was released on DVD, and it's great to have it, but at the same time sad to be reminded that it was cancelled.

The proof is in the pudding, so rather than raving all about the show, I recommend buying or renting the set (4 discs, 14 episodes, including 3 that never aired).

Here's hoping Joss gets his movie made.

I was flipping channels recently and came across some sports show on MTV2. I did a double take, but sure enough the MTV spinoff doesn't show just music anymore.

Now, I never had a problem with MTV not showing videos in the first place. I'd rather watch a mix of entertainment programming than 24 hours of videos, so I was happy with it. So when MTV2 was created to go back to the original concept, I didn't think it was necessary, and never watched much of it.

But come on, if you're gonna create a whole channel for that reason, at least stick to it. Just a few months ago, MTV2 was promoting itself as "where the music's at" in the awesome Talking Baby ads. It's still probably 95% music programming, but you can bet that number's gonna keep going down.

It seems that when I have something interesting (that rare occasion), I don't think to post it here, and when I think to post here (cause I haven't in a long time), I have nothing interesting. The latter situation faces me now.

So it's cute baby post time. I expect it won't be the last time I go to this particular well. My nephew Johnny will be 1 year old next week. Here are a couple of pictures taken at 10 and 11 months, respectively.


He got a haircut in between, leading to what I describe as his 70s Beatle and 60s Beatle hairstyles (specifically, I think it's George's hair).

My friend Ted calls is the "Bush vs Satan" question, but I like to think of it a little more realistically, and pose it as Bush vs Sharpton.

I came to the conclusion recently that I would vote for Al Sharpton for President before I voted to re-elect Bush. That may sound like I'm exaggerating to make a point, but I'm not. I literally would. From what I know of Sharpton, he doesn't have much experience in government and has supported questionable causes, but he is intelligent, well-spoken, and shares many of my values (he's said he's "anti-war, anti-death penalty, anti-tax cut across the board").

The aforementioned Ted recently told me about selectsmart.com, where you can take a survey that scores your values against the various presidential candidates. I don't remember my scores exactly but it was something like:
Kucinich 80%
Dean 63%
Sharpton 62%
Kerry 60%
(others lower than 50%)
Bush 30%

Now, I disregard Kucinich, cause... c'mon. Then I view Dean, Sharpton, and Kerry as statistically tied. Now, I don't know who I'm gonna vote for in the primary, and I certainly wouldn't let selectsmart.com decide that for me. I guess I just felt justified that I wasn't nuts to express some support for the Reverend Al Sharpton. If I can't decide between Kerry and Dean by the primary, who knows...

Angel's been cancelled. The shame of it is the show is kicking ass right now. I've always been a believer in going out on top, and so I've been willing to let go of some of my favorite shows (Sports Night, Buffy) when there were signs that their best episodes were behind them.

Right now, Angel is as creative as ever. With both Buffy and Firefly going off the air last year, Joss has assembled a virtual dream team of writers on Angel. This week's episode with the Angel puppet, written by Ben Edlund, looks hilarious!

So what I'm saying is, this one's worth saving. If you agree, take 30 seconds to sign the online petition.

Remember the words of the poet: "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the road less traveled by and they CANCELLED MY FRIKKIN' SHOW. I totally shoulda took the road that had all those people on it. Damn."
- Joss Whedon

UPDATE - There is another petition to save the show. In fact, the two Angel petitions are the most active ones at www.petitiononline.com.

I love IMDb. I don't love (ok, I hate) the current setup of IMDb's search boxes. They have a "Search the Web" box directly below their "Search the IMDb", and more often than not, I mistakenly type my IMDb-intended search into the "Web" (powered by Google) box, which has a blue outline that makes it stand out more.

This didn't use to happen. I think it's been like this for a few months. I submitted some feedback, but I'm not holding my breath.

Just found out Geffen is putting out a Guns N' Roses Greatest Hits CD, despite Axl, Slash, and Duff's attempts to block it. So I'm torn about whether to buy it. I'm a huge fan, and a completist when it comes to these things.

But there's nothing new on this CD (aside from the remastering), and I don't like "Greatest Hits" collections as much as "Best Of" ones. Greatest Hits to me means it reflects the record company's choices rather than the artist's. In this case, the tracks are pretty much the singles. That means that "Yesterdays" is on there, while I can't imagine it would be on a "Best Of" ahead of Appetite songs like "Mr. Brownstone", "It's So Easy", or "Rocket Queen".

I could go on... and I will. "Ain't It Fun" is on there, having been the first single from The Spaghetti Incident. But time showed "Hair of the Dog" to be a much better track. As far as the Use Your Illusion tracks, "Civil War" is a wonderful song, but not as good as, say, "Estranged".

Oh boy. In researching this, I just realized that Geffen put out a one-disc compilation of Use Your Illusion I/II back in 1998. The tough task of squeezing the best of the two onto one CD has been an idea of mine for a long time, and sure enough, Geffen's selections don't look much like mine. I'll leave that analysis for another day.

Anyway, I think I've talked myself into not getting the new "Greatest Hits". I guess I'd feel differently if it had the band's support. What I'm really looking forward to is Velvet Revolver's album.

Let's take a break from the entertainment triumvirate (TV, movies, music) and talk some Formula One.

I watched some F1 when I was a kid, but it wasn't until 1997 that I started watching regularly. I became a fan of Michael Schumacher, who had won the title with Benetton in '94 and '95, and was now bringing Ferrari back to prominence. The next few years were epic, as he battled McLaren's Mika Hakkinen, finally beating him in 2000, ending Ferrari's 21 year championship drought.

The mark of a great driver is how he competes in an inferior car. Both at Benetton and in his early years at Ferrari, Schumacher was contending against cars that had a clear advantage over his. Some might say that's a matter of opinion, but consider that from 1992 to 2003, while his teammates scored an average of 44 points per season, Schumacher scored an average of 86 points. Clearly he was making the car better.

Let me get to my point: Fernando Alonso will be World Champion one day, and he may well be the one to dethrone Schumacher. Alonso is driving for Renault, which used to be Benetton, and what he is doing there reminds of what Schumacher did early in his career.

In Hungary last year, Alonso became the youngest Grand Prix winner ever, and did so in dominating fashion. The fact that he lapped Schumacher is astounding, but perhaps more significant is that he lapped his teammate (who didn't have a mechanical problem or a spin). As with Schumacher over his career, the comparison with his teammate indicates that Alonso was making the car better, by a lot.

In the next couple of years, I expect Schumacher will pass the torch to Alonso. This is the torch Schumacher received from Senna ten years ago. It's not the World Championship torch. Hill, Villeneuve, Hakkinen... They've won championships since, but they never held this torch. It belongs only to the Mozarts of the sport, the ones who are in a class by themselves.

My father is not into sports. He tunes in to parts of the Olympics (the old school sports), and that's about it. Yesterday, out of curiosity, I asked him if he'd ever been to a baseball game. He said my brother-in-law invited him and my mom to a Phillies game a couple of years ago, and also he went to a Yankee game the first time he ever came to the US.

I didn't think much about it (I was busy navigating a Turnpike-averse route through NJ), until later when I wondered just when that Yankee game was, and where it might have fallen in the storied Yankee history (even though I have never been a Yankee fan). This morning I asked him what year it was. He thought about it, said '63. Wait, no, '61.

I felt like Danny in the episode of Sports Night where he finds out that Isaac was at the Bobby Thomson "The Giants win the pennant!!!" game. However, knowing that not only would he not remember the salient points of the game, but he may not even have comprehended them at the time, I explained to him that that was the year Roger Maris hit 61 homers, a record that stood until Mark McGwire broke it not long ago. (He asked me what year McGwire did it, I told him I thought it was maybe '98, and he said then it didn't count cause he probably didn't hit 98 homeruns.)

Like I said, I wasn't gonna get a colorful retelling of the game from my father. But just the knowledge that he saw Roger Maris (and Mickey Mantle) in '61 painted a whole picture. I've never had a very creative imagination, but the questions made themselves obvious. Did Maris homer? What about Mantle? Who was ahead in the race (my dad thinks it was August)? Who were they playing, and who won? What was the weather like, was the wind blowing out? Were there even night games at Yankee Stadium in '61? The lack of answers from my father actually let me answer all the questions in my mind, let me tell the story for myself. In my mind, I think maybe Maris and Mantle both homered. Back to back.

Last night, I saw a program about supervolcanoes on the Discovery Channel (found out there was a similar BBC program a few years ago). Here are the bullet points:

- There exist several "supervolcanoes" on Earth. They are very large pools of magma under the earth's crust that sometimes burst through in massive eruptions (as in thousands of times more powerful than, say, Mount St. Helens).
- One of these supervolcanoes lies under Yellowstone National Park.
- The Yellowstone supervolcano is known to have erupted 3 times, at intervals of about 600,000 years. The last eruption was... about 600,000 years ago.

Also:

- The most recent eruption of a supervolcano was 75,000 years ago at Lake Toba.
- DNA experts have evidence that the human population was reduced to just a few thousand people... about 70-80 thousand years ago.

It's not hard to connect the dots from there. They're pretty sure the Toba eruption caused the near-extinction of humanity, sending gases and ash into the atmosphere that directly killed many and led to a global drop in temperature, causing famine. They also believe the Yellowstone supervolcano is "due", in that it could blow anytime in the next several thousand years (granted that may still be many generations away), again with catastrophic global effects.

The infinitessimal chance of an asteroid hitting us doesn't scare me anymore.

Somehow, I never figured that this was a real station.

You gotta let him go.

I've taken down the Save Angel petition banner. Reports indicate that there is no real chance of saving the show. Kudos to those (and those, and those) who went far beyond putting a banner on their website: organizing food drives, blood drives, and much more.

There may never have been much of a chance to bring the show back for another season. But Angel fans made themselves heard and showed their support for Joss Whedon and quality television. We can only hope the honchos at the WB and other networks took notice, and will realize the audience is there in the future.

With five episodes left to air, I'd rather not sweat a lost cause. I'm just gonna kick back and enjoy what Joss dreams up for the grand finale.

Ted pointed out that I may not have been clear about Bush, Sharpton, and Satan. Ted wasn't calling Sharpton "Satan", we just both realized we had similarly considered how an otherwise unattractive choice (for me Sharpton, for him Satan) is still preferable to Bush.

So I've been thinking about getting an MP3 setup in my car. I pretty quickly came to the conclusion that my best option would be to get a portable player that I could play through my car stereo. Then I could take it with me anywhere I go, and even play it in other people's cars.

The player decision wasn't real tough either. I'd like something big enough to store my whole CD collection (not sure, maybe 400+ CDs). So we're talking at least 20GB, maybe 40GB for future expansion. It seems to me there are 2 choices that combine quality and convenient size: Apple's iPod and iRiver's iHP-120 (or iHP-140). The iRiver players sound very, very nice, and may have better sound quality than the iPod, but they don't support AAC files. I've gotten into buying songs at Apple's Music Store, and I would certainly want to be able to get them on my player. iPod it is then.

This is where the can of worms gets opened. Here are the options that I've researched for connecting to a car stereo, roughly in order of decreasing quality:
- direct amplifier connection
- AUX line input on CD player
- cassette adapter (like this)
- FM modulator (like these)
- wireless transmitter (like this)

The basic problem comes down to this: I could get a setup that works great in my car (e.g. use a Belkin Auto Charger and run the line out from there to my amp... voila) but it wouldn't translate over to other cars. On the other end of the spectrum, a wireless transmitter is pretty much universally compatible (just need a radio in the car), but it's supposed to have very spotty quality (depends on placement in the car, interference from other devices, availability of frequencies in your area, etc.).

I guess what I'm realizing is that the car stereo world hasn't quite caught up to the portable MP3 world. Ideally, everyone's car CD players would have a line input and you could just plug in. Maybe in a few years. In the meantime, I may have to go with a 3-tiered system. 1) Use a line in when I can, 2) else use a cassette adapter, 3) else use a wireless transmitter.

I just happened to be working on a new look for the page when Pax posted a comment about its lack of originality. Well, the changes are purely cosmetic, but here they are.

I watched Miss Universe tonight (from Quito, Ecuador!). My early favorite was Miss Norway. She made the first cut, but not the second. Need a new favorite. I had noticed Miss USA from the start, and I started to take notice of Miss Australia too. I was glad to see them make the next couple of cuts, and answer their final question pretty well (no one answers them very well). I was not surprised to see them end up as the top 2. (btw, not apologizing for my blonde bias...)

I was rooting for Miss Australia, because she looked different than all the other contestants. Her hair was dirty blonde, wavy, and not that long. Her frame was a little thicker than the cookie cutter Misses. She looked, quite simply, real. So they announced Miss USA as the runner-up, making Miss Australia the winner, and I rejoiced. For a second.

As soon as Miss USA stepped aside I realized she fit the bill better. This wasn't the Miss Real competition, or Miss Girl Next Door (I'd like to see that on NBC, btw). This was Miss Universe, and Miss USA had that kind of out-of-this-world beauty. She's the one you can only admire from afar, imagining that somewhere you've never been, there is a woman that beautiful. It's like if you tried to model all beautiful women from now on after her, you would just have to come close to get a woman beautiful in her own right (does that make sense?).

So I'm sorry, Miss USA. I let you down. I threw my good luck vibes at a beautiful but less deserving woman. Miss Australia gets my congratulations for breaking the pageant mold, but Miss USA gets my admiration, and isn't that what these contests are all about.

If you don't know, Velvet Revolver brings together Slash, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum from Guns N' Roses, and Scott Weiland from Stone Temple Pilots (Dave Kushner rounds out the group on guitar). I've been looking forward to this for a long time, and now it's here, at #1, no less.

I went to see them at the Electric Factory in Philly a few weeks ago. The ex-Gunners looked and sounded great, their chemistry is undeniable. The live show just confirmed my expectation that Scott Weiland is the right guy for this band. It ain't easy to step in with some guys who used to play with one of the most dynamic frontmen of the last 20 years, but Scott makes you forget all that (although it seems every show has some people chanting some variant of "Axl sucks" until Slash tells them to drop it). He makes the music and the stage his own.

Anyway, I really liked the show, and now the album, but they don't bowl me over. It's like the evaluation from Beautiful Girls: "Good solid... 7.5" Sure I like it, I'd be happy to listen to it anytime, but do I love it? The guys insist this is a band, not a project. They intend to be making music for years, and that's a good thing. I feel like the potential's there for something awesome, but this is just the beginnings of that.

At the end of April, I took a two week trip down to Florida with my parents. I figured I wouldn't worry about posting to the blog for the duration of the trip. I then worked on the page's new look, and that gave me further license to be lazy about posting. So in almost 2 months, I just had the one post with actual content.

So I have a small backlog of posts, and I'll try to space them out a little. So watch this space...

(Word of warning: this post came out much more stream-of-consciousness and less point-y than I intended...)

If you know me at all, you know I'm a fan of Natalie Portman. A couple of weeks ago, I went to see her in Garden State at Rockefeller Center. Of course, if you know NY, you're saying "There's no movie theater in Rockefeller Center." Well for three days, there was. They set up a huge screen against 30 Rock, with seats all along the Channel Gardens. Add some big-time speakers and voila, drive-in theater in the middle of midtown.

Garden State was written and directed by Zach Braff, who also stars in it. It's been making the rounds at film festivals, and opens later this summer, so it was cool to get a chance to see it early (btw, check out this cool trailer). I don't wanna do a full review, but basically I give it a B. It had its moments. Special mention goes to the use of music. Braff hardly let 5 minutes go by without a song coming in. I thought it worked. As far as Natalie's performance, I didn't get a real full sense of her character, but that's probably more the script's fault. But like the movie, she shone brightest in moments (she is spectacular in the goodbye at the end).

But what really stood out to me that night was the experience. I expected it not to work. I thought the city would be too loud, too bright, and otherwise distracting. Instead the sounds of the city formed a kind of soft white noise that didn't clash with the movie at all. Once in a while, I would take my attention away from the movie to take it all in. There was just something really cool about sitting in the open air, under the stars and between the skyscrapers, watching a movie. It's kind of pointless to describe it, because the whole point is how it felt to be there.

The movie part of the experience definitely made it special, it almost seemed like the screen, the speakers and the audience had been beamed out of a theater into that innocuous location. But maybe what I felt when I tuned the movie out is always there. That epicenter of Rockefeller Center (I was in the front row of seats, right near the steps that go down to the ice skating rink) kind of has the unique property of being surrounded by busy streets without being suffocated by them. Of course, in the middle of the day, foot traffic through there is really heavy, but this night the whole plaza was cleared for the movie, and I suspect on any night, it quiets down big time in the late hours. What I'm saying is, I'll have to go back and check it out sometime, and maybe you should try it too. If you're in that area around say 10pm, talk a walk through the plaza, take a break somewhere in the center of it, and listen to what the city sounds like. It's kinda like the way you need to go up the Empire State to be in Manhattan and see what it looks like at the same time. When you're on the street, in the thick of it, you don't get a good sense of what the city sounds like. You need to take a few steps away from it to really make it out.

"Maverick, you just did an incredibly brave thing. WHAT YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE WAS LAND THAT PLANE!"

If you've come within a mile of New York or ESPN in the last 24 hours, you've heard about Derek Jeter's amazing play in the final game of the Yankees' "Big Series" with the Red Sox (if you haven't seen the play, make sure you watch the video at that link). I've never been a Yankees fan, but I've often been impressed by Jeter, and I was amazed at this play along with the rest of the sports world.

But for all the bravado about taking one for the team, where do you draw the line? Now, I can't watch the play without being impressed, even inspired (and I'm not a Yankees fan!). Jeter is an incredible athlete, body and soul. But there's something irrational about the sports culture that puts this reckless abandon forward as virtuous.

Listen to what Joe Torre said: "In making that play, he didn't concern himself with his physical well-being. How many guys have we seen when they get close to a wall, slow down or reach while they run? He never slowed down a step, basically had no regard for his own welfare." No concern or regard for his physical well-being or welfare. There are laws against that kind of behavior, because in the real world, it's morally reprehensible (whether it's against someone else, or your own person). But the sports world has made it "part of the game", the same way it supsends the moral code in hockey.

I can imagine someone reading this thinking "this guy doesn't understand what it is to play on a team". That may be, as the peak of my organized sports life was 8th grade soccer. Thing is, as a concept, I understand and laud making sacrifices for the team, giving of yourself for the greater good, but having no regard for your own welfare is irresponsible. It's not a calculated risk, or an extra effort, like playing hurt can be (sometimes that can be recklessly irresponsible too...). I mean, you could hear in Jeter's teammates' reactions that they were genuinely scared for a moment. They knew that it was possible Jeter wouldn't walk out of those stands, but be taken off on a back-board and in an ambulance.

If that had been the outcome, the cliches would have instead been of the "the game doesn't matter right now" variety. So it would seem luck is the main thing tilting the scales between "the game matters more than one player's welfare" and "one player's welfare matter more than the game".

Again, as a sports play, it's spectacular, even great, and I love to watch it (knowing that Jeter escaped without serious injury). What I would have preferred to hear Joe Torre say is "It was a great play, and I told Derek never to do it again."

Love this picture.

Congratulations to Kerri Walsh for winning gold in beach volleyball in Athens!



I used to go see Kerri Walsh play at Stanford (the indoor 6 player variety) and have been a fan ever since (somewhere I have an autographed poster). After a dreaded 4th place in Sydney with the indoor team (she didn't get enough playing time!!!), I was happy to see her move to the beach and team up with Misty May. Now they're the best in the world.

Congrats and continued success.

I decided kind of at the last minute to go to the US Open yesterday. The grounds admission (access everywhere except the big Arthur Ashe Stadium) was $46, and it was worth it for how much tennis I enjoyed.

For the most part, I camped out at Louie Armstrong Stadium. In succession, I saw the end of the upset of Gaudio, the entire huge upset of Myskina, and most of the upset of Fish. Next was the player everyone wanted to see, Maria Sharapova. She dropped a set, but when she was cruising in the final set, I (and hundreds more) hurried over to Court 7 where Martina Navratilova's mixed doubles match had just gotten moved to. It was a Martina lovefest the whole match, though I was really there to see Daniela Hantuchova (heck, she's largely why I went to Flushing in the first place). What I hadn't realized is that Daniela plays mixed doubles with Dan Paxton. Go figure...

Martina won, Daniela (and "Dan") lost, and 99% of the crowd was thrilled. Well, the important match for Daniela is today, in the 3rd round of women's singles. Good luck!

One year ago, I sent a long group email (i.e. spam) that made Mike remark how badly I needed a blog, resulting in the page you're reading now. Here's that email:

Coming up to today, I was thinking about going to the World Trade Center site, and I wanted to do it by walking from Grand Central. I would then take the Staten Island Ferry for the views of Lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. Well that all happened, it's just that other things happened on the way too.

The walk was nice, and not as strenuous as I expected. Taking my time and stopping at a couple of bookstores, it took just over 3 hours. I arrived at the WTC on the North side (Vesey Street), and made my way around the East side (Church Street). That's where most of the people and memorials were, along the wire fence that allows you to see the site. There are signs detailing the past, present, and future of the area, as well as signs with the names of all the victims. Then there were the homemade memorials: flowers, candles, signs, pictures. As I moved along, I noticed a couple of larger wreaths (6 feet tall, with the stands) colored amarillo, azul, y rojo (yellow, blue, and red). They were Colombian, and I thought about how nice it was for people in the Colombian community to have done that.

As I slowly made my way, a group of motorcycles pulled up, with people carrying small Ecuadorian and American flags together. I hung around for a while to see what they were up to. When I noticed them again, the group (presumably having come in cars as well as the motorcycles) was lined up on the sidewalk with Ecuadorian wreaths (as big as the Colombian ones), and flags of the same size. I read the notes on the wreath, which said they were from the Ecuadorian consulate. It was a group of about 20 people, women and men, including a priest. I continued to hang around, a little shy to introduce myself, but eventually approached the priest. His name was Roberto Abril (if memory serves), from Cuenca, and he was in New York visiting a family member. As we spoke, he pointed out the Consul, so I later went and introduced myself to him. In the process, I was introduced to several people, including the Consul's son, other consulate workers, and a lady who said she worked for EcuaTimes. She in turn introduced me to a lady from Ecuavisa so she could interview me on camera. I'll be curious to find out if they air any of it, and if anyone back in Ecuador sees it.

After conversing some more, I said my goodbyes and moved on, around to the South side of the site (Liberty Street). Eventually, I saw the Ecuadorian delegation go by, accompanied by a firefighter in dress uniform. He led them through a guarded gate, so I quickly tagged along with the group, saying something in Spanish to a guard who wasn't sure if I was with them (I think it was simply "Tambien soy Ecuatoriano."). The gate led to an area on the South side which I believe is the viewing area reserved for families of the victims (and VIPs, of course). With no fence in the way, it offers the best views of the site (from ground level). We spent quite a while there, and Padre Abril led us in a prayer. Eventually, I said goodbye and moved on again.

I walked along the water to the ferry terminal. By this time it was 7:30, the sun had set, and I was waiting for the "Tribute in Light" to be lit (I didn't have a chance to see it last year). I was able to see it from close and far on the way out on the ferry. On the return ferry, I moved to the front of the boat to get an even better view (I sat on the side on the way out). A few minutes into the trip, I heard some people behind me saying "blah blah Mayor blah" and "murmur murmur Mayor murmur" (those weren't their exact words). I turned to see Mayor Bloomberg approaching, with a small and impressively inconspicuous entourage. He approached an older lady a few feet away, greeting her and saying "Look, I named the boat after you!" (the boat being named John F. Kennedy). A younger man (40ish) with the lady introduced himself to the Mayor as a Kennedy, but I didn't catch the first name (it had an L in it, and sounded like one syllable, almost sounding like the word "blue" or something).

During the rest of the trip, the Mayor spoke to some people and posed for a few pictures. He then spent a few minutes just looking at the skyline, while the several photographers following him continued to snap away. I hadn't wanted to bother him earlier, but once he'd had those few minutes to himself, I went ahead and introduced myself. I told him about my visit to the WTC site, my encounter with the Ecuadorean delegation, and how happy I was to see the support for NY from Ecuador and the rest of the world. We talked a little more, touching on the fact that the attack two years ago was one of the reasons I came back to NY, before he was asked to pose for some more pictures. Soon after, his group headed off to another exit before the boat docked.

Back in Manhattan, I headed straight for the subway (no more walking!) and home...

Bush won. Why won't the news networks call it?

They have different states called (Fox and NBC have Ohio. CNN, CBS, and ABC have Nevada.). If they just put 2 and 2 together, they'd have the electoral votes to declare Bush the winner. Everyone's looking at Ohio, but while a mathematician would tell you Kerry could still win it, a statistician would tell you he won't.

Really, the networks know Bush won Ohio and therefore the election, but they don't want to say it (and those that said it don't want to say anything else). In the past, it was a race to be the first to declare a winner, now nobody, not even Fox, wants to be the first. They're waiting now for the candidates (in particular the loser) to take the burden off them.

Look, I don't know anything about running a news network, but it seems like a lost opportunity to me. Call it, be the first, and be proven right later, no matter how much the challenger hems and haws.

If they won't do it, I will:
Bush 286
Kerry 252

That, as they say, is that.

I thought I'd clarify that my last post wasn't eager for a Bush victory, just eager for the obvious to be stated. I have been clear in the past about who I support.

Now, for anyone else feeling the pain, if you think laughter may be the medicine you need, try this.

This post has been idling in draft mode for months...

Last October, I went to Italy for 10 days with the whole family. We started in Rome and drove down to Naples (Pompei, etc.) and the Amalfi coast (Sorrento, Capri, etc.). It was fun, but in that exhausting way that leaves you kind of relieved when it's over. Here's a few pictures:

The whole family on our first day together in Rome We actually arrived in 3 separate groups, on different days.

Johnny at the Trevi fountain He wouldn't let go of the coin we were trying to get him to throw in (he's no dummy).

A restaurant in Sorrento The owner urged me over and over to mention her on my website, so here it is. The food was not great, but I liked the location (at the Marina Grande).

Positano Best looking picture of the trip. That means, of course, that it was taken by my brother.

Johnny at the wheel We rented a 9 passenger van to haul us all around. When Johnny wasn't driving, Juan was.

How odd that I'm having a great Netflix experience just as Mike's is deteriorating. Gang conservation of Netflix energy?

I had not gotten a movie from Netflix for nearly a year. Literally, I was still paying them every month, but had the same 4 movies on my shelf since I think May of last year. So last week I said enough is enough and sent all 4 in. The year-old envelopes were addressed to Stanford, CT, but the new ones I got are addressed to White Plains, NY, a good bit closer. I got 2-day round-trip on 3/4, while the 4th took 3 days. When I sent those 4 back, I got 2-day round-trip on all 4 (2-day round-trip meaning, for example, sent out on Monday, received new ones on Wednesday, 48 hours later).

I don't know what accounts for the difference between what Mike and I are seeing, particularly since Mike used to see that same kind of turnaround. Maybe his distribution center was scaled down, I dunno. I hope you hang in there, Mike. While I hear good things about Blockbuster's service, I'm loyal to Netflix as long as they provide competitive service and prices.

Today, Joss Whedon was officially announced as writer and director of a Wonder Woman movie.

My feelings are very mixed. I was hoping he would write and/or direct X-Men 3, a rumor that had been kicking around for nearly a year. I really like his current work on Astonishing X-Men, and those who actually know from comic books seem to think it's good stuff, and one of the best X-Men books in recent years. But the script has gone elsewhere, and it now appears that a director has been chosen too.

So I find it hard to get excited about a Wonder Woman movie in the shadow of an X-Men movie (they might both come out in the summer of 2006). The good news is that it's still a move in the right direction for Joss. The first movie he's directed, Serenity, is due in theaters in September, and now he's got a higher profile project in the pipeline. Joss has been valued in the TV world for years, and it looks like the movie world is paying attention now too.

The bottom line is that I trust Joss. He wouldn't take this job just for money or recognition. If he's signing on, it's because he believes he can do something interesting with it, so expect something quite different from the TV show. BTW, the next interesting question is casting. Nothing's been announced, but the rumor is that Joss wants Kim Basinger (51!), and producer Joel Silver wants Jessica Biel (23).

Serenity is coming to theaters on September 30.

What is Serenity, you ask? It's what Joss Whedon said he didn't want to call "Firefly: The Movie... of the TV show... that you didn't watch". Firefly was the shortest-lived of Joss's shows, and probably the best. It was cancelled because not enough people watched it, and I hope the same doesn't happen to Serenity.

So, until September 30, I'll be doing my part to spread the word. For starters, I'm going to a sneak preview of the movie on May 26th (woohoo!), and I invited Pax and Mike, hoping that they'll go again in September/October and bring their wives and many many more people. =)

Now, you say, "OK, you've got my attention. But shouldn't I watch the show before I see the movie?" Yeah! Joss has repeatedly said he's made the movie so it works for novices (the only way it can really succeed), but you'll certainly get more out of it if you know the characters and their backstories coming in. The entire series is on DVD (including 3 episodes that never aired) for you to buy, rent or borrow. By all means, watch all 14 episodes, but if you want to save time and be more selective, here are some pointers:

If you're up for about half of the episodes, I suggest:
Serenity (Parts 1 & 2) - the original pilot, a very good episode and a great introduction
Our Mrs. Reynolds - hands-down the funniest episode
Out of Gas - my favorite episode, next best thing to Serenity as an introduction
Ariel - lots of good action and character development
The Message - best of the unaired episodes
War Stories - torture, death, lesbians.
Objects in Space - A lot of fans love this episode, which makes sense, as it's written/directed by Joss, but I've never really gotten into it. Joss's DVD commentary is interesting, explaining how he was trying to do something different with this episode, and honestly, I think it just goes over my head. Let's call it a "challenging" episode.

If you wanna cut that in half, try:
Serenity (Parts 1 & 2)
Our Mrs. Reynolds
Out of Gas

And if you work three jobs and don't even have time for that, watch Serenity (1 & 2) and that should interest you enough to at least watch Out of Gas too.

After watching these again, I like War Stories better than The Message, so I'm substituting it in the "6-pack".

The boot for the shifter in my car has been pretty worn out since I bought the car, and that was 8 years ago. I've finally gotten around to replacing it, and I'm very happy with it (before and after). Props to the good folks at Lightning Auto Customs, who sent me not only what I ordered, but also a nice little package with a t-shirt, decals, and a pen.

So I was in Bed, Bath & Beyond with Pax and Andre this past weekend and saw some items with chinese characters on them, with translations like "Tranquility". Sure enough, one of them had "Serenity" on it, so I bought it.

The chinese strokes are similar but different (see logo on the left), but most striking is that the english font is the same. Maybe it's some kind of standard chinese translation font, I dunno. Anyway, it'll be a nice addition to my Joss Whedon shrine (no, not an actual shrine), along with my new t-shirt (ordered today).

The usual suspects (Mike, Kathy, Pax, Andre) and I went to the Live 8 show in Philly on Saturday. I had a good time, thank goodness we brought folding chairs and lots and lots of drinks.

As far as the concert itself , I think there was some consensus that Bon Jovi's Livin' on a Prayer was a top moment, and Linkin Park and Jay-Z gave the best all-around performance. So some nice stuff, but for me the show ranks 3rd out of the 3 shows I've seen in the past couple of weeks (Wilco and Oasis top it). It is pretty sad how inferior the lineup was to London's.

I TiVo'd the 8 hours of coverage on MTV, and boy, it was hooooooorible! They cut in and out of songs. There was a moment of sanity when Pink Floyd came onstage and they showed the first three songs uninterrupted, but halfway through Comfortably Numb, they cut out!!! MTV? More like ADDTV.

Well, the title pretty much says it.

The international trailer for Serenity is now online (the Quicktime is best quality, if not great), and I like it a lot better than the US one. I guess that's partly because it just has some different stuff in it, and having seen the movie (good lord, I haven't even blogged that!), it's really nice to recall some of those great moments. I guess that also means it contains (minor) spoilers for anyone who hasn't seen it...

The other cool thing happening this week is SciFi channel will start showing Firefly (Their episode and character guides are full of spoilers, beware! The gallery is safe.). They're showing one episode a week, Fridays at 7pm.

Gotta echo Mike's props to Wikipedia. Google is good for "where is...?" questions, while Wikipedia is the place for "what/who is...?". For example, 3 entries I found useful in recent weeks:

supergroup
geek
Coca-Cola Zero

A wise man once said "Fernando Alonso will be World Champion one day, and he may well be the one to dethrone Schumacher."

Congratulations, Fernando Alonso.

As long as Serenity is in a theater near you, my site will show my homemade ad at the top. I think everyone who checks this page regularly has seen the movie, but if I can get just one person who happens upon here (let's see, some good search keywords might be Paris Hilton, hurricane, iPod...) to go see the movie, it'll be worth it. (Incidentally, Serenity itself is a popular search term right now.)

One last message for anyone who's seen neither Serenity nor Firefly: you don't need to have seen Firefly to enjoy the movie. The movie is self-contained and succeeds on its own. Go and enjoy it, you can rent the Firefly DVDs later. ;-)

The Giants owner passed away today. I'm saddened by the news, but this part made me happy (in reference to the game-winning touchdown Manning threw on Sunday):
"Manning later said he had been told by one of Mara's grandsons that the owner awakened in time to see the winning play, then smiled and went back to sleep."

The costume designer for Firefly is auctioning off THE original Browncoat (different one was made for Serenity, btw) and many of us fans feel not only should it stay in the Firefly family, but there's only one logical person to have it: our captain, Nathan Fillion.

So we've created Operation: Browncoat to try to win the auction ourselves. If we don't get there, all the money goes to charity. Pitch in if you're inspired and check in a couple of weeks to see if we've done the impossible.

Well, Operation: Browncoat made a damn fine showing. We raised over $8,000 but the coat went for over $12,000. Following plan B, we asked Nathan to designate a charity for the funds and he picked Equality Now. This is Joss Whedon's favorite charity and so has some history with Browncoats as well as Buffy/Angel fans, as evidenced by this postcard a fan made, showing some of Joss' strong female characters:



p.s. Thanks to the Gang for indulging (even supporting) me with this over the weekend. =)

OK, I'm giving up any pretense (was there any left?) of not being a total Joss Whedon fanboy...

Gotta say I'm kind of tickled he responded to some of my comments in a Whedonesque thread about "How I Met Your Mother" and its catchphrases (and Pax gets an assist as "a friend of mine"). Here's the excerpts if you don't feel like clicking over:


(BTW, Joss' opening here pokes fun at the fact that he's posted 3 times in the last 2 days, at no one's behest.)

Love the reference to the [rave review -> guest spot] causality he established with Veronica Mars. ;-)

What the heck, while I'm at it I'll excerpt his post from the browncoats site about the DVD release yesterday:

OK, I'm off now to see if I have a life of my own to lead...

Seems like every time I see Aliens on TV, I feel compelled to write about it. Here's what I wrote in an e-mail a couple of years ago:

- What other movie could Paul Reiser actually be good in?
- Even the slow parts are good (Ripley and Hicks "Doesn't mean we're engaged or anything", followed by a great Ripley and Newt scene).
- 2 words: Space Marines.
- Bishop getting ripped in half.
- Of course: "Game over, man! Game over!"
- and much, much more.

Aaron Sorkin's new show is taking shape, now with some casting news. I don't much care for Matthew Perry, but I guess I didn't much care for Rob Lowe before The West Wing and he was great as Sam. And I never liked Matthew Perry's humorless character on TWW. If anything the guy has better comedic than dramatic chops (duh), this show should suit him better.

Some silly person in the talkback started a Sorkin vs Whedon debate. I mean, come on. They're both geniuses, they can both do drama and comedy, but they have completely different sensibilities. This will now be my metaphor for trying to compare two disparate things each perfect in their own way: "comparing Whedons and Sorkins".

Hey, when did they change the name on me? Well, more casting news. I don't much care for Amanda Peet, then again I don't think I've ever seen one of her movies. I'm just gonna trust that Sorkin and Schlamme know their stuff and that this cast is the right one for the show...

I can't pass up another chance to mention Sorkin and Whedon in the same breath. Carlos Jacott has also been cast and he has the distinction of scoring the first ever "Whedon hat-trick", appearing on Buffy, Angel and Firefly (Jonathan M. Woodward would be another notable Whedon hat-trick).

And Nate Corrdry? That's awesome! I'll miss him on The Daily Show but he should be great on Studio 60 (they haven't changed the number again yet, have they?).

So I'm flipping channels and this movie is on, then I read the description from the DirecTV guide:

"An ex-boxer turned talent agent hunts a sick martial artist out to rid Manhattan of strippers."

I still can't wrap my brain around that...

Ah, finally "Studio 60" casting news that I'm 100% happy about. Bradley Whitford. Timothy Busfield. Brilliant! Now, when will Josh Malina join the cast?

Oh, and the other addition is Sarah Paulson, who was in a little movie called Serenity, so she joins Carlos Jacott in the Whedon/Sorkin club.

No, it's not a frame from V for Vendetta. It's an actual picture of protests in Paris, currently on CNN's front page. The composition, the depth of field, the potential energy... amazing. I hope it wins the photographer some award.

Now that is casting.

This from the latest CNN.com story on Paris protests. It's from a different day, so it's (likely) not the same guy. But let's say it is, cause it's funnier that way...

"You wanted to see me?"

(Kevin Spacey rocks!)

OK, how cool was it to see Brandon Routh present Christian Bale with MTV's Best Hero award? And how cool would it be to see them team up in a movie someday?

Speaking of which, Superman/Batman #26 came out last week. It has 26 comic talents coming together to finish the story started by young Sam Loeb before he died of cancer. His father and his friends (including this guy) can explain it better than I can. Anyway, check it out if you get the chance.

ˇSi se puede!!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe I should have played...

Since Mike loves the Trogdor references, here's one (DivX encoded). It's from the final episode of Buffy, as the various members of the gang prepare on the eve of the big battle.

It's an excellent film, and among the movies I've seen, I think it beats out Superman Returns for the best this year. No in-jokes, cameos, references, etc., it's just a straight-up hard Michael Mann film. Time will tell, but it's right up there in the same class as Heat (in some ways, it's almost Heat 2, which is a great compliment). Anyway, if you want to sample for yourself, check out the clips over here, they give a pretty good feel for the tone of the film.

My take on some other movies this year:
Lady in the Water: big disappointment, felt entirely inconsequential to me.
Pirates of the Carribean: Large Rolling Objects: just retarded.
Talladega Nights: a riot.
Superman Returns: great (that and Miami Vice I've seen multiple times).
X-Men: The Last Stand: flawed, and not as good as the first two, but all in all a pleasant surprise.
Clerks II: kinda like X3... flawed in places, but a lot of fun overall (and the dance sequence was great!).
The Break-Up: so-so. There is one Vaughn-Favreau scene that is priceless!
An Inconvenient Truth: definitely worth seeing (bring your hankie for the depressing scenes that look back on the 2000 election).
United 93: very, very good, very powerful (maybe better than Miami Vice, but it's kind of in a different category).
M:i:III: unlike Pirates 2, shows a movie can be a thrilling ride without being stupid. Well done, J.J.
V for Vendetta: hmm, didn't quite live up to the hype... I might like it better on a 2nd viewing.

I think that's about all the movies I've seen this year. I'm hearing great things about Half Nelson. I don't usually see the indies, but I might have to go out of my way for this one.

Let's go, Mets!

This is a late entry, obviously, I just wanted to note that I did take my annual walk down to the World Trade Center. It was more crowded than past years, being that it was the fifth anniversary. I continued my walk down to the Staten Island Ferry and took the 7:20 boat out. Then while waiting in the terminal for the 8:00 return ferry, Mayor Bloomberg arrived with a whole delegation and photographers in tow, so we once again seem to have the same preference of venue for viewing the Tribute in Lights. (Too bad I forgot to bring a real camera and had to settle for my phone's camera.)

*sigh*

Idiot. If anything, Jeff Tweedy showed great restraint in not going Keith Richards on the guy (one of the coolest things I've ever seen, btw).

*sniff*

=(

Awesome! I haven't tried it yet, but I already know it's the best ice cream ever.

Drive premieres tonight on Fox. It reunites executive producer Tim Minear and actor Nathan Fillion, who last worked together on Firefly. In fact, Tim Minear wrote my favorite Firefly episode (one of my favorite hours of TV ever), "Out of Gas".

I haven't seen more of the show than promos on Fox, but I'm sure Minear's inventive storytelling and Fillion's easy charisma will add up to a great show. Check it out.

That was quick.

Costas: He [Bonds] would have been a first-ballot Hall of Famer even before he started juicing. And I'm not in the category of those who say suspected juicer, I live on this planet, I've seen what I've seen, I know what I know.

Bonds: Is that the story Bob Costas talked about? A little midget man, who doesn't know jack about baseball, who never played the game before? You can tell Bob Costas what I called him.

Costas: As anyone can plainly see, I'm 5-foot-6 1/2 and a strapping 150, and unlike some people, I came by all of it naturally.

OK, this was pretty incredible.



The obvious comparison is being made to the Cal-Stanford play, but my math says:

5 laterals + 1 band on the field > 15 laterals



Add to that that one is Cal-Stanford, a game referred to as The Big Game before it's even played, while the other is two Division III teams no one's ever heard of. It's fun to watch, don't get me wrong, but until someone else has a game-ender with THE BAND ON THE FIELD and flute players getting run over in the endzone, Cal-Stanford is still #1.

BTW, considering how bad college sportscasters can be, the Trinity guy did a heck of a job calling the play.

As Craig Ferguson would say, it's a great day for America.

American Gladiators is back.

And behold... HELLGA!

Have you seen the new PBS series Carrier? It started Sunday night and ends Thursday. (If you've missed it, look for repeats or watch the full episodes online.)

The series is really cool, giving a great look at the operations and people on the U.S.S. Nimitz, but what really caught my attention was the opening. I don't mean the theme with the credits over it (I actually don't care for that music), I mean the opening scene following the ship's departure, set to the The Killers' "All These Things That I've Done". It's kinda this series' "Danger Zone" and I like the way it's cut and the use of the music is great. (To see it, go here, click on "Episode 1: All Hands", click on "Chapter 1: Haze Gray and Underway", then it's after the preview, the ad and the credits. Oh, and if you get a chance to see it in HD, that's where it really shines. =)

Fans have a chance to vote David Wright into the All-Star game. 70 RBI, 17 HR, .512 SLG. He deserves it. If you agree, get clicking!



UPDATE: We indirectly did it! Wright finished a close second in the Final Vote, but he has been named to the team by manager Clint Hurdle, to fill the spot of the injured Alfonso Soriano. What a roundabout way to get there, but it doesn't matter. Wright belongs on the team and now he is.

New Whedon-y goodness starts tomorrow at drhorrible.com! Take a look at the trailer. (Wanna know more about it? Joss expounds here.)

Also, shout out to Felicia Day. The one-time Potential Slayer on Buffy and now-time Penny in Dr. Horrible writes and produces her own web series, The Guild, which was part of the inspiration for Joss to make Dr. Horrible in the first place.

UPDATE: In mere hours, Dr. Horrible is a hit! So much so that the site is currently down... In the meantime, you can go to iTunes (where it's already moving up the top 10 TV list) and get it (all 3 acts) for the best $3.99 you'll ever spend.