Olympic observations

First of all, the American snowboarding chick is a dumbass. As if we aren't seen as showboating, arrogant assholes by the rest of the world already. Nice job....JACKASS!!

Second. I'm watching the men's speed skating (not the short track with the cheating Koreans, just the normal, Dan Jansen stuff). Did anyone else notice that it looked like a bunch of those guys had camel toe? What is up with that?
Also, the black dude who won the 1000M (Shani Davis) was a total dick in the interview on NBC after he won. There are all kinds of accusations about how he is not a team player, hates the other guys, dropped out of the team event to pursue his individual events, etc., and then he goes and grunts his way through the interview right after he won the gold medal, ignoring the poor woman who was trying to get more than one word answers out of him. Nice way to improve your PR. Jackass.
They did a human interest story on him before the event saying how he grew up in the rough, gang-infested streets of Chicago and how his life has been so hard and so on. This sob story goes on for another few minutes, then they say that he lives and trains in...Evanston. Now, I think Evanston is a hellhole and should be burned to the ground for many reasons. But rough and gang-fested it is not. Not by a long shot.
To the credit of NBC and to keep me from being blasted by comments correcting me, I do realize that later in the story, NBC said how he had moved to Evanston from the south side of Chicago. But that was tacked on much later in the story, after I spent 5 minutes in the living room laughing about Evanston's gang problems and its rough and tumble streets.
"Yeah, last time I was in Evanston I was eating lunch at this nice little corner café when some private college bastards flashing purple gang colors came up and cut me, then took off in their daddy's Jag and did a drive-by at the 3 story mansion down the street."

Last one--Ice Dancing. It's like someone looked at the sport of figure skating and decided that it wasn't gay enough, so they came up with this crap.

Wow--cynical comments for the Olympics on a Monday morning. Maybe I need some coffee--or a four-day weekend. Stupid public school that has classes on a federal holiday. But all kidding aside, I am watching a ton of Olympics and enjoying most of it. Hockey is getting interesting, the Michelle Kwan saga will rear its ugly head again this week, bobsled is getting started and speed skating is always fun to watch.
And if all that fails--there's always curling, right?

Two weeks to go...

And I have seen all the Best Picture nominees! I rounded out the group by seeing Capote on Friday night. I enjoyed the movie, although I thought the narrative didn't have much of an arc to it. It seemed to sit in the same place for awhile. Philipp Seymour Hoffman was outstanding as expected. His characterization of the author was excellent, but I just thought that, like the story, once he had established that great character he didn't change it. I didn't see much range within the character and he didn't seem to evolve or change through the course of the film.
My full Oscar picks will be fodder for a later post as the big night gets closer, but for now, if I had a vote for Best Picture, I would rank them like this:

5: Capote

4: Munich

3: Good Night and Good Luck

2: Crash

Winner: Brokeback Mountain


It is really close for me between the top two, I love Crash, but also think it gets a little obvious and preachy (same racist cop who humiliates upper-class black woman is the one who pulls her from burning car? please). I love the message, but just feel it needs to leave a little more for us to think about, instead of beating us over the head with it. Brokeback Mountain has those moments where you just don't know what exactly happened to Jack, or why the characters do what they do. Those moments that make the audience think and wonder and discuss--that's great filmmaking. (It's also why the Spanish movie Abre los ojos is a million times better than the Cameron Crowe English re-make Vanilla Sky) But I disgress.
I also want to put a big shout out to Good Night and Good Luck. No movie has more relevance to today's society than this one set in the 1950's. The words of Edward R. Murrow from the opening and closing scenes are downright haunting. They could easily be spoken by anyone today. The prevalence of the media and their role in culture and politics is frightening. The ease with which politicians can manipulate the public through the media was foreseen by broadcasting legend Murrow and the film shows his beliefs and how he fought against those politicians and that trend in our culture. Too bad we don't have any Edward R. Murrow's today. The power of television has been usurped and programming has been transformed into a voyeuristic, narcissistic wasteland instead of the great tool with the power to inform, educate and strengthen a democracy--as Murrow saw it. Anyway, the film lacks the scope, cinematography, supporting cast and emotional pull to bring home the statue for Best Picture, but if it doesn't win a screenplay award it would be a major injustice.

Happy Oscar Season!

The day after my birthday

Also known as Valentine's Day. First off, Happy Anniversary to my parents, who today celebrate 30 years of being married. I was glad to find out at their 25th that they did not get married because it was Valentine's Day. They actually wanted to get married on February 11th, which was my grandparents' anniversary, but since the closest Saturday happened to be the 14th, it just worked out that way. Then on the day before their 2nd anniversary, I came along.

I am taking my girlfriend out to dinner tonight, but rest assured that I have no intentions of buying any chocolates or flowers until after the price-gouging extravaganza that this holiday was meant to create has ended. This way the holiday is not ignored (keeping her happy), but yet is not the shallow, consumerist oriented crap that everyone sees it as. She does agree with me in that Valentine's Day is a load of commercialist crap, but I was also warned to not overlook it completely :)

Finally, tonight I enjoy the last of my birthday presents. My g/f bought us tickets to the Iowa basketball game tonight and after dinner, we'll head off to Carver to see what happens against the Spartans. GO HAWKS!!

¡Feliz cumpleaños a mí!

Hey hey hey...it's my birthday!! I'm off to Atlas for dinner.

Got to talk on Messenger today with my buddy Sergio in Madrid. Today is his birthday too. ¡Feliz cumpleaños, chaval!

Doogiepalooza 2006

Holy crap! Two days in a row with new posts!!

This weekend marks the kick-off to Doogiepalooza (or what I like to call Doogie Gras) 2006, otherwise known as my birthday celebrations. Things roll out tomorrow night with pizza at Pagliai's and then a trek through the finer drinking establishments of downtown Iowa City. Mickey's, Dublin, pretty much the same itinerary as beer band without the free drinks and the obnoxious jackasses yelling at you to play them a song.

My actual birthday is Monday the 13th, which includes a dinner with friends at Atlas in Iowa City.

The festivities come to a close on Tuesday night after Valentine's Day dinner with my girlfriend at Iowa River Power Co. as we enjoy her birthday present to me, tickets to the Iowa vs. Michigan State basketball game at CHA. Go Hawks! (or at least don't get blowout at home)

If you were left off the guest list (inadvertantly, i assure you), shoot me an email and I'll fill you in on details.

Along with the excitement of turning 28 (yippee), the Winter Olympics start tonight. So my life will be officially sucked away by the television coverage of the games.

What was that sound?

I think it was the other shoe dropping.
I was resisting writing anything about the Iowa men's basketball team because I didn't want to jump the gun or jinx them, since this is the first time since 1982 that they are in first place in the Big Ten in February. And then what happens? Of course, we go to Northwestern.
I HATE EVANSTON!! Nothing good ever comes from Hawkeye trips to that shithole. And now, as if the football team's collapse there in November wasn't enough, the basketball team has lost there for 3 consecutive times and, I think, 4 of the last 5 (or is it 5 of the last 6?--it doesn't matter, it's Northwestern and that's too many losses).
So now we no longer are in sole possession of first place in the Big Ten. The good news is that we are still in a tie for first. The bad news is we go to Assembly Hall in Bloomington on Saturday. If they can't handle the crappy high school gym that is Welsh-Ryan Arena, how the hell do they expect to compete in Assembly Hall? And it only gets worse from there, with the Spartans coming to Carver on Valentine's Day. I am going to that game (as a birthday present from my girlfriend!) and I hope it isn't a 30 point blowout like the debacle in the Breslin Center. We'll be lucky to still have a shot at first place when next weekend rolls around.

On a side note, I am planning on updating this on a much more regular basis. I noticed that it's been awhile since I've written anything. I'll increase the blog fiber intake, maybe give it some bran or something, to make things more regular.