I was hasty before, but I don't think I am being premature to say, after today's debacle - blown save by Papelbon, and the almost inevitable walk-off surrendered by Julian Tavarez (why can't he break his hand punching a wall again so we can put him out of our misery for the year...)
Worst of all, the Twins may never lose again (and are now tied for the Wild Card with the Sawx...if it keeps up this way, I will never, ever, ever here the end of it from these guys.)
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Friday, August 04, 2006
My Musical Shame
I'm embarassed to admit it, but I agree with Lauren, the Nelly Furtado/Timbaland song is...COMPLETELY STUCK IN MY HEAD. And has been for about two weeks. Though I think the fact that one or another of the ESPN radio nightime shows uses the bassline as it's bumper music (where they had previously used the bass tracks from "Hate It Or Love It" and "Wait (the Whisper Song)")
"Salt" - Bookblogging #15
Before petroleum was the strategic resource, there was Salt. Or so is a thesis of "Salt: A World History" by Mark Kurlansky. And it's hard to argue with the case laid out. Between the salt administration in China (alternatively causing insurrections and financing the armies to put them down), the 'Gabelle' in France (a main cause of Le Revolution) and Gandhi's Salt March, the governance of salt has played a large roll in many of history's pivotal events.
Of course it's also food, which makes "Salt" a bit of a mix between the historical and the gastronomical. I'm not much of an epicurian myself, so I wasn't able to decipher many of the provided recipies (other than to say that many of the older dishes sound just awful, but I suppose that the pre-refrigeration palate differs rather greatly from our own.)
Also of interest are the linguistic aspects of salt. Many modern idioms from "worth his weight" to "red herring" as well as the description of certain nomadic tribes as "Celts" (almost literally "Salt People") come from the exploration, mining and trading of salt. Technology was also driven by salt exploration - in particular the Chinese method of percussion mining (according to the book, the Chinese were literally thousands of years ahead of the West on this front.)
And to bring it full circle, we learn that the best places to find oil? Underneath subterreanean salt-domes.
Pooh's View: Enlightening, entertaining read - if I was more into cooking I would have liked it that much more. Bonus points for discussing, at length, the origins of Tabasco Sauce.
Update: Bookblogging #16, "Baseball Between the Numbers" is up at Tuesdays With Torii.
Of course it's also food, which makes "Salt" a bit of a mix between the historical and the gastronomical. I'm not much of an epicurian myself, so I wasn't able to decipher many of the provided recipies (other than to say that many of the older dishes sound just awful, but I suppose that the pre-refrigeration palate differs rather greatly from our own.)
Also of interest are the linguistic aspects of salt. Many modern idioms from "worth his weight" to "red herring" as well as the description of certain nomadic tribes as "Celts" (almost literally "Salt People") come from the exploration, mining and trading of salt. Technology was also driven by salt exploration - in particular the Chinese method of percussion mining (according to the book, the Chinese were literally thousands of years ahead of the West on this front.)
And to bring it full circle, we learn that the best places to find oil? Underneath subterreanean salt-domes.
Pooh's View: Enlightening, entertaining read - if I was more into cooking I would have liked it that much more. Bonus points for discussing, at length, the origins of Tabasco Sauce.
Update: Bookblogging #16, "Baseball Between the Numbers" is up at Tuesdays With Torii.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Stick a For in Th....GET BACK LORETTA!
Still reeling from The Heist*, as well as Chien-Ming Wang throwing the wickedest googlies since this guy and 'Tek going under the knife thislong after the trade deadline, I was fully prepared to give up on the Sawx for the year. I was even composing the 'stick a fork in them' post in my head. Down 5-4 in the 8th after Timlin gives up a two-run bomb? D-O-N-E, done, not even Papi can will this team to victory day after day. But then...Mark Loretta...Supahstar!
As one M. Corleone was once quoted as saying, "everytime I think I'm out, they pull me back in."
*see also Jayson Stark today:
As one M. Corleone was once quoted as saying, "everytime I think I'm out, they pull me back in."
*see also Jayson Stark today:
Over and over in the last few days, people from all walks of baseball have been asking: That's all the Phillies got for Bobby Abreu? And the answer is: You've got it.GAH!
"I keep asking myself, 'Is there something I don't know about Bobby Abreu that they know?' " said a high-ranking official of a team that would have loved to add Abreu in a less complicated, dollar-signed world. "I'm just baffled that they could not get anything back for a guy this good. And they paid him $1.5 million to waive his no-trade clause. And they just tossed in Cory Lidle -- tossed him in. I know for a fact there were teams that offered better prospects for Lidle alone. I don't get it."
Wha?
Trundling along, doing my business, when I was, as the Britons say, gobsmacked by this one - Rummy:
More to come, I'm sure, here.
I have never painted a rosy picture. I have been very measured in my words, and you’d have a dickens of a time trying to find instances where I have been excessively optimistic.First of all, who says "dickens of a time?" What a rapscallion that Donald is. Secondly...Oh, really?
Feb. 7, 2003: “It is unknowable how long that conflict [the war in Iraq] will last. It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.”Well, he said flowers (and candy) not roses. I guess it depends on what the meaning of "is" is, right Mr. Secretary?
Feb. 20 2003: “‘Do you expect the invasion, if it comes, to be welcomed by the majority of the civilian population of Iraq?’ Jim Lehrer asked the defense secretary on PBS’ The News Hour. ‘There is no question but that they would be welcomed,’ Rumsfeld replied, referring to American forces.”
More to come, I'm sure, here.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
"MIami Vice" - Less than the Sum of Its Parts
Because I'm a FanBoiiiiii I went to see "Vice" on opening night, but before I get to the movie, a few things first. If you have a choice, do not see movies at Regal Cinemas - there must have been 20 minutes of commericals before the previews. (6 previews = good. However only two of the films looked definitely interesting. Two were of the resurgent "everything is crap and is getting worse" genre. I liked this one better when it was called Remember the Hoosier Wildcats when Coach Carter sent them down Glory Road so they can be Breaking Away. At least, I think that was the title. I can't even remember the sixth film, so clearly the trailer worked...) (Update: GAH! The 6th Sensepreview? I see dead people (with snake bites in their necks. On a M**********n' Plane!)
Anyway, as for the film, there was much to like. Michael Mann obviously fell in love with shooting digitally for "Collateral" and the same style works well here. So much of the film is at night, or shot in degrees of darkness, that the depth in detail supplied by digital filming is absolutely vital. The film looks fantastic. And Mann has always been great about shooting large, sprawling set-pieces, from the finale of "Last of the Mohicans" to the bank heist in "Heat." Again, no exceptions here. Similarly, the score is big and sweeping, more good stuff.
Going along with the look, the tone of the movie is almost mordantly dark. In retrospect, this isn't surprising, as behind the pastels and eye-candy, the TV show was most noted for being 'grittier' than what came before it. With "NYPD Blue" and "The Shield", that bar has been raised so that the original show is almost "Powderpuff Girls" by comparison.
The usual Achilles heel of any sort of cop movie, substandard baddies, isn't the problem either. They are menancing, mysterious, ruthless and plentiful enough for the final shootout (oops...SPOILER!. Like you didn't know there was a shootout...) to last a while.
So why, then, does the movie not totally work? Well for one, pacing. It's not too slow, it's just a little off. For once, Mann's work in the editing room doesn't seem to have equaled that produced on the set - the love scenes are nice, but they seem either extraneous or simply too long and still - in a different genre of movie they'd work fine, but here they impede rather than advance the story.
But the biggest reason is the casting of Gong Li as the pivotal female character. First, the screen chemistry between her and Colin Farrel is largely non-existant. Second, it's more than slightly confusing for this character to be Chinese-Cuban-Columbian (or whatever), accent issues aside. (And the accent issue is huge - it's hard to suspend disbelief about a relationship when you can't understand what one party is saying.) These combine to make this whole plot point labored, and ultimately unbelievable. Which wouldn't normally matter in a procedural, but Mann spends so much time on it that it is unavoidable.
All that said, this is still a quality film, just not up there with Mann's best. Penalty points for Jamie Foxx being made almost superflous to Collin Farrell's indescribably fantastic hair.
Pooh's View: B-
Anyway, as for the film, there was much to like. Michael Mann obviously fell in love with shooting digitally for "Collateral" and the same style works well here. So much of the film is at night, or shot in degrees of darkness, that the depth in detail supplied by digital filming is absolutely vital. The film looks fantastic. And Mann has always been great about shooting large, sprawling set-pieces, from the finale of "Last of the Mohicans" to the bank heist in "Heat." Again, no exceptions here. Similarly, the score is big and sweeping, more good stuff.
Going along with the look, the tone of the movie is almost mordantly dark. In retrospect, this isn't surprising, as behind the pastels and eye-candy, the TV show was most noted for being 'grittier' than what came before it. With "NYPD Blue" and "The Shield", that bar has been raised so that the original show is almost "Powderpuff Girls" by comparison.
The usual Achilles heel of any sort of cop movie, substandard baddies, isn't the problem either. They are menancing, mysterious, ruthless and plentiful enough for the final shootout (oops...SPOILER!. Like you didn't know there was a shootout...) to last a while.
So why, then, does the movie not totally work? Well for one, pacing. It's not too slow, it's just a little off. For once, Mann's work in the editing room doesn't seem to have equaled that produced on the set - the love scenes are nice, but they seem either extraneous or simply too long and still - in a different genre of movie they'd work fine, but here they impede rather than advance the story.
But the biggest reason is the casting of Gong Li as the pivotal female character. First, the screen chemistry between her and Colin Farrel is largely non-existant. Second, it's more than slightly confusing for this character to be Chinese-Cuban-Columbian (or whatever), accent issues aside. (And the accent issue is huge - it's hard to suspend disbelief about a relationship when you can't understand what one party is saying.) These combine to make this whole plot point labored, and ultimately unbelievable. Which wouldn't normally matter in a procedural, but Mann spends so much time on it that it is unavoidable.
All that said, this is still a quality film, just not up there with Mann's best. Penalty points for Jamie Foxx being made almost superflous to Collin Farrell's indescribably fantastic hair.
Pooh's View: B-
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Light Posting Ahead
I'm in the dreaded Dark Period between when cable/internet/etc. is removed from one abode, but before it is installed in another, thus access is limited to wo...er, coffee shops. Sporadic posting may ensue...
Monday, July 31, 2006
I Want Pat Gillick in My Fantasy League
Anger...RISING!
You ever play in a fantasy sports "keeper" league where certain owners always seem to be 'building for the future,' 'stockpiling' ''prospects'' for the 'future?' (Which leads to such things as trading, oh, say, Albert Pujols for David Wright and Scott Kazmir...actually, that trade would be Gillick's best day...) Well luckily for the duct-taped together Yankees, so do they...Seriously, the best you could get for a borderline All-Star (well, not this year, but still) and a decent starters were a few minor-leaguers (not really even prospects, just some random minor leaguers, it seems.) Did Cashman have to throw in a few cases of beer, a few jock-straps and a bucket of BP fungoes to make the numbers work?
What it comes down to, of course, is money. Because the Yanks can eat the remaining two-years and gazillion dollars on Abreu's contract...GAH! I can't go on...
(But there is good news. After Kris Benson was traded by the Mets, Abreu fills a certain void recently lacking in tabloid-saturated NYC...)
((And the worst part of it is, if the Sawx had taken care of business and been 7-10 games up like they should have been, considering the Yankees injuries, it probably wouldn't have mattered...PigF****r.))
You ever play in a fantasy sports "keeper" league where certain owners always seem to be 'building for the future,' 'stockpiling' ''prospects'' for the 'future?' (Which leads to such things as trading, oh, say, Albert Pujols for David Wright and Scott Kazmir...actually, that trade would be Gillick's best day...) Well luckily for the duct-taped together Yankees, so do they...Seriously, the best you could get for a borderline All-Star (well, not this year, but still) and a decent starters were a few minor-leaguers (not really even prospects, just some random minor leaguers, it seems.) Did Cashman have to throw in a few cases of beer, a few jock-straps and a bucket of BP fungoes to make the numbers work?
What it comes down to, of course, is money. Because the Yanks can eat the remaining two-years and gazillion dollars on Abreu's contract...GAH! I can't go on...
(But there is good news. After Kris Benson was traded by the Mets, Abreu fills a certain void recently lacking in tabloid-saturated NYC...)
((And the worst part of it is, if the Sawx had taken care of business and been 7-10 games up like they should have been, considering the Yankees injuries, it probably wouldn't have mattered...PigF****r.))
Friday, July 28, 2006
Your Floyd Landis Update
Via Deadspin, it would appear that Landis' "positive" test means rather less than the sensationalists would have you believe:
His ratio of testosterone/epitestosterone was high; they test for this because if you are testosterone doping (i.e., through patches etc.) it will mess up your ratio, which for most folks is normally around 1:1 but can be higher for endurance athletes. This year the UCI has changed the trigger ratio from 6:1 to 4:1.So, my next question is WTF is up with Phonak throwing him under the tour bus? Anyway, read the whole thing.
Problem is, it's a ratio (and you economists out there know the problem of drawing inferences about X and Y separately by looking at the ratio X/Y). According to the reports I've read this afternoon, Landis' ratio was high not because of high testosterone; his testosterone was at normal levels, but his epitestosterone levels were extremely low. Epitestosterone cannot be turned into testosterone in the body. So it's possible that the result is from too low a Y and not a too high X.
How can this be? Two of the things that can affect epitestosterone are alcohol and cortisone. We know that Landis had a beer the night before the stage because he was so upset at his bonking on that stage. We also know that Landis is legally taking cortisone shots for his half-dead hip.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
I Wish
I could say that this came as a complete shock
Of course, I'm on record as not really caring about 'doping,' but I'm just about the only one.
As a side note, one of the myriad books I have open, Baseball Between the Numbers posits that there is a benefit to be gained from steroid use, but based on before/after splits of players caught juicing, the effect is an improvement of 1-2% for hitters, while much less (and statistically insignificant) for pitchers. Too early to tell, really, but it confirms what I've suspected - roids inhibit almost as many players as they help. Don't believe all the hype.
Tour de France champion Floyd Landis tested positive for high levels of testosterone during the race, his Phonak team said Thursday on its Web site, raising questions about his victory. . . The Swiss-based Phonak team said it was notified by the UCI on Wednesday that Landis' sample showed "an unusual level of testosterone/epitestosterone" when he was tested after stage 17 of the race last Thursday.I'm not sure there's anyone with even a passing knowledge of cycling that didn't at least entertain the possibility that Floyd 'loaded up' before Stage 17. I'm not saying he did it (yes he has a lot of Testosterone, anyone who completes the TDF needing hip replacement is All Man. Obviously), but is anyone really surprised?
Of course, I'm on record as not really caring about 'doping,' but I'm just about the only one.
As a side note, one of the myriad books I have open, Baseball Between the Numbers posits that there is a benefit to be gained from steroid use, but based on before/after splits of players caught juicing, the effect is an improvement of 1-2% for hitters, while much less (and statistically insignificant) for pitchers. Too early to tell, really, but it confirms what I've suspected - roids inhibit almost as many players as they help. Don't believe all the hype.
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Just Call Me...
Monday, July 24, 2006
Sawx Weekend Pilgrimage: 1-2. Worse, No Papelbon
A few more or less random observations from the Seattle-BoSox weekend.
1. Ichiro is absolutely unique as a baseball player. I'm not sure the sheer oddness of his hitting style comes through on TV, but it is unquestionably effective. It seems like he went about 17 for 13 over the weekend. I know that's not possible, but like Chuck Norris or Jack Bauer he bends reality to his whims.
2. Speaking of the Norris/Bauer debate, the new Roadhouse DVD is worth renting just for the Kevin Smith/Scott Mosier commentary track, where they gleefully praise the awfulness of the film, mixing in similar observations: "Dalton doesn't go hunting because 'hunting' implies the possibility of failure. Dalton goes killing." This is a trend I heartily support - commentary tracks devoted to carving the movie to pieces, almost MST3K style.
3. Downtown Seattle has a distinct urine smell when the temperature rises abouve 90. Yech. There are also a lot of hills. It's not fun to walk up hills in 95+ degree heat after drinking beers at an Englishman's pace for the entirety of a ball game. (During the second game, I was seated next to a Briton, wearing a canary yellow Arsenal jersey no less and we chatted about sports, European and American for the whole game while buying each other massively overpriced MGD's. Good times. Except...)
4. Julian Tavarez and Rudy Seanez are awful. Tavarez came in and immediately a pretty decent debut outing from Young Kason Gabbard on Saturday.
5. I may have found the coolest store ever, near Safeco field: Ebbets Field Flannels, authentic throwbacks to all kinds of long forgotten teams - the '65 Alakska Goldpanners, the 1892 Lebanon Pretzel Eaters(!) and, the truly awsome 1939 New York Knights, check the right sleeve...
Some pretty sweet stuff, I must say. (Minnesotans, perhaps the Minneapolis Millers might catch your fancy.)
6. Varitek's homerun of J.J. Putz with 2 out in the 9th might be the farthest I've ever seen a ball hit in person. They said 398, but hogwash, it hit the facing above the cafe in right field, having just stopped rising.
7. Getting beat by the awful Adrian Beltre and Richie Sexson sucks - I've never seen a walkoff homerun in person, and it's not a lot of fun as an opposing fan. (Speaking of, I'd wager that the support was 60-40 or 65-35 in favor of the Mariners all three games. Red Sox Nation was in force)
8. Worst part about the middle relief sucking in every game was no Papelbon. I even got asked by confused Mariner fans "who the hell is Papelbon" as I trudged out of Safeco with #58 on my back.
1. Ichiro is absolutely unique as a baseball player. I'm not sure the sheer oddness of his hitting style comes through on TV, but it is unquestionably effective. It seems like he went about 17 for 13 over the weekend. I know that's not possible, but like Chuck Norris or Jack Bauer he bends reality to his whims.
2. Speaking of the Norris/Bauer debate, the new Roadhouse DVD is worth renting just for the Kevin Smith/Scott Mosier commentary track, where they gleefully praise the awfulness of the film, mixing in similar observations: "Dalton doesn't go hunting because 'hunting' implies the possibility of failure. Dalton goes killing." This is a trend I heartily support - commentary tracks devoted to carving the movie to pieces, almost MST3K style.
3. Downtown Seattle has a distinct urine smell when the temperature rises abouve 90. Yech. There are also a lot of hills. It's not fun to walk up hills in 95+ degree heat after drinking beers at an Englishman's pace for the entirety of a ball game. (During the second game, I was seated next to a Briton, wearing a canary yellow Arsenal jersey no less and we chatted about sports, European and American for the whole game while buying each other massively overpriced MGD's. Good times. Except...)
4. Julian Tavarez and Rudy Seanez are awful. Tavarez came in and immediately a pretty decent debut outing from Young Kason Gabbard on Saturday.
5. I may have found the coolest store ever, near Safeco field: Ebbets Field Flannels, authentic throwbacks to all kinds of long forgotten teams - the '65 Alakska Goldpanners, the 1892 Lebanon Pretzel Eaters(!) and, the truly awsome 1939 New York Knights, check the right sleeve...
Some pretty sweet stuff, I must say. (Minnesotans, perhaps the Minneapolis Millers might catch your fancy.)
6. Varitek's homerun of J.J. Putz with 2 out in the 9th might be the farthest I've ever seen a ball hit in person. They said 398, but hogwash, it hit the facing above the cafe in right field, having just stopped rising.
7. Getting beat by the awful Adrian Beltre and Richie Sexson sucks - I've never seen a walkoff homerun in person, and it's not a lot of fun as an opposing fan. (Speaking of, I'd wager that the support was 60-40 or 65-35 in favor of the Mariners all three games. Red Sox Nation was in force)
8. Worst part about the middle relief sucking in every game was no Papelbon. I even got asked by confused Mariner fans "who the hell is Papelbon" as I trudged out of Safeco with #58 on my back.
Friday, July 21, 2006
I Speel Goot
So dashing off a post on the way to the airport leads to funny things. Like inventing words. Pilgrimamge? WTF? It also leads to the dreaded Bad Travel Karma. The shortest route from Anchorage to Seattle is, at least according to Alaska Airlines, via Fairbanks.
If that doesn't seem like it makes that much sense, let me tell you
But that only works if you sit in the wonderful Fairbanks 'International' (too where, exactly?) Airport, which was built in approximate 1895, and hasn't changed any of the air filters since that time, as my sinuses can attest.
At that point, you may witness what I like to call The Dumbest Thing ever - while waiting on the jetway just outside the plane, (since the gate agent wants us to get on the plane and out of her hair as much as we do, she's not bothering with that boarding by rows thing. If you need extra time or are travelling with small children, tough shit) a guy starts cutting in line. On the jetway. Repeatedly. (Later, I realise this same...gentleman...is sitting directly behind me when I am startled to discover his face leaning over my shoulder to watch my DVD player along with me.)
TDE is then nearly repeated when another, not obviously related (though possibly equally drunk) gentlemen attemps to jump the strangely mamoth cab queue in Seattle. After strangling him with my headphones*, throwing the body in the trunk and telling the cabbie "Downtown, and step on it!" I just miss my anticipated 5:30 arrival time by checking in at 11:30.
Thankfully, my good mood was restored as they replayed Slappy von Chokenstein airmailing a throw home approximately 15 and 20 times on the late Sportscenter. It's Zen-like, the ability of comical Yankees plays to calm me.
So, off to Safeco. Ridiculous the amount of Sawx gear in downtown Seattle today. The Nation, on the march. As my only pregame comment, I note that it's a bad sign when your starting pitcher is wearing a Royals cap in the media shot.
* This may or may not have actually occurred. As anyone who has travelled with a head cold will tell you, reality was a bit more of a fluid concept than usual.
If that doesn't seem like it makes that much sense, let me tell you
But that only works if you sit in the wonderful Fairbanks 'International' (too where, exactly?) Airport, which was built in approximate 1895, and hasn't changed any of the air filters since that time, as my sinuses can attest.
At that point, you may witness what I like to call The Dumbest Thing ever - while waiting on the jetway just outside the plane, (since the gate agent wants us to get on the plane and out of her hair as much as we do, she's not bothering with that boarding by rows thing. If you need extra time or are travelling with small children, tough shit) a guy starts cutting in line. On the jetway. Repeatedly. (Later, I realise this same...gentleman...is sitting directly behind me when I am startled to discover his face leaning over my shoulder to watch my DVD player along with me.)
TDE is then nearly repeated when another, not obviously related (though possibly equally drunk) gentlemen attemps to jump the strangely mamoth cab queue in Seattle. After strangling him with my headphones*, throwing the body in the trunk and telling the cabbie "Downtown, and step on it!" I just miss my anticipated 5:30 arrival time by checking in at 11:30.
Thankfully, my good mood was restored as they replayed Slappy von Chokenstein airmailing a throw home approximately 15 and 20 times on the late Sportscenter. It's Zen-like, the ability of comical Yankees plays to calm me.
So, off to Safeco. Ridiculous the amount of Sawx gear in downtown Seattle today. The Nation, on the march. As my only pregame comment, I note that it's a bad sign when your starting pitcher is wearing a Royals cap in the media shot.
* This may or may not have actually occurred. As anyone who has travelled with a head cold will tell you, reality was a bit more of a fluid concept than usual.
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Pilgrimamge, Part One
Off to Seattle to see the Sawx play three, posting may be light. If it helps you get through the day, pretend I said witty things and laugh appropriately.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Life Goal Achieved
Like about 4,000 others, I responded to Bill Simmons's request for help in picking an English soccer team to support. Well, he's made his choice (h/t anon (sign your comments, please kids...)), and it's Spurs, as I advised. Not only that, but he quotes me:
1. TOTTENHAM HOTSPURTwice!
American Comparison: As one reader explains, "If the Dodgers had stayed in Brooklyn, they'd be the Spurs."
[Blah blah blah. Read all of what I said here]I think it's a mark of a weakness in my character that I'm this excited about being Sports Guy approved. I'm such a tool.
--Seth, Anchorage, Alaska
Second Opinions
Ok, I liked Pirates of the Caribean II. But in the interests of balanced coverage (via the Monkey of the Fu that Kungs), here's someone who didn't much care for it:
Hey, he's a ninja, who am I to argue?
Hey, he's a ninja, who am I to argue?
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Fiasco In the Making? (Bookblogging #14 - 'Fiasco')
One of the previews before Pirates II (ARRRR!) was for the latest Kevin Costner bombflick, 'The Guardian.' I say "bomb" because it has several characteristics of the films described in "Fiasco: A History of Hollywood's Iconic Flops:"
- A series of production delays - part of the filming was to be done in New Orleans, then moved to Shreveport for obvious reasons. Location shooting was also planned for Kodiak, Alaska, but apparently locating Costner's massive forehead (and even more massive ego) this far north for a month or more at a time would cause the Earth's rotation to become unbalanced, forcing a game of interstellar marbles. And nobody wants that, right?
- Filming on water. One might think that people would learn that filming on open water is hard. It's probably no accident that more than 20% of the films discussed in "Fiasco" went massively over budget, in part due to watery sets. (Even successful aquatic films have this problem) Of coure, it would be hard to have a movie about the Coast Guard without using water - I might suggest that's a reason not to make a Coast Guard 'blockbuster'.
- Kevin Costner - the overriding commanality in movie disasters is ego/hubris either at the studio, directorial or most commonly star level. Costner is absolutely notorious in this regard. Who else would try to followup "Waterworld" with the freaking Postman? Perhaps the theory was that if you kept remaking The Road Warrior, you'd eventually get it right...
Of course I could be wrong and this one could blow up (destroying my HSX portfolio in the process...bastards...)
You may have noticed that I'm well into this post without really discussing James Robert Parrish's book itself. There's a reason for that - the less said about the book, the better. There is a certain irony in a book catalogging the sins of various studio disasters, top of nearly every list being some iteration of "it's not there on the page," wherein the writing of the work is alternatively leaden, overwrought or dry. How can you spend 20 pages discussing Showgirls and get nary a laugh?
Or perhaps I'm just so used to blog-quality snark that Parrish can't keep up. But it really is inexcusable to tackle such a schadenfreude-rich topic so joylessly.
Pooh's View: Skip it. If it wasn't for the 50 in 50, I wouldn't have finished it myself.
Worries - A Wedding Bleg
No, not mine, simmer down out there...
As I may have alluded to previously, Papa Pooh is getting hitched in a few weeks. Having, per usual, procrastinated, I need to come up with some kind of toast. I'm afraid I'm going to brick, and choose the wrong joke for this particular audience - though given this crowd, that one could go either way...
So, any one out there with experience at this sort of thing, tips on how to make it short, sweet and with just the right amount of "awwwwww." Hook a Pooh up, yo...
As I may have alluded to previously, Papa Pooh is getting hitched in a few weeks. Having, per usual, procrastinated, I need to come up with some kind of toast. I'm afraid I'm going to brick, and choose the wrong joke for this particular audience - though given this crowd, that one could go either way...
So, any one out there with experience at this sort of thing, tips on how to make it short, sweet and with just the right amount of "awwwwww." Hook a Pooh up, yo...
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