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7/29/08

How sweet it is

The O's broke their Sunday losing streak with a tidy win over the Angels, avoiding a sweep in the process. Dave Trembley was so giddy, he puffed on an unlit cigar and blew imaginary smoke into the post-game microphone, explaining later on ESPN, "It was the first cigar I ever had."

Then they went into yankee stadium last night and pounded the snot out of Mussina for the second time this season. Adam Jones, who's starting to get noticed, hit his first career grand slam. Will it be the last GS in 'old yankee stadium?' Perhaps....but not the last for AJ I have a feeling.

7/27/08

Vague, empty feeling

The blogosphere took a big hit when Steve decided to go on summer hiatus. Support groups are forming nationwide.

There's no way I can pick up the slack but at least I can pass on, courtesy of Felix, that there's a wrestler at UNC named Long Wang. Other bloggers have suggested this is the best sports name since Mike Hunt. For my money, though, we have to go back to Pete LaCock. I'm surprised to see that LaCock's middle name is 'Pierre', meaning we could've had the all-time best 'Lucky' Pierre LaCock.

I saw The Dark Knight..... Sheesh, I hate to spoil the party but watching an actor who clearly had serious mental illness play a homicidal clown while the audience titters over his tardive dyskinesia was about all I could take. And, wow, if you thought the 'random-chance-is-the-only-morality' theme was a little clumsy and trite in 'No Country', the Dark Knight makes that look like a revelation. Anybody see Step Brothers? I think I need a little lighter summer fare.

7/23/08

Go West Young Man

When things start getting dull in Philly to the point where you resort to re-enacting scenes from WALL-E using a laundry bag and a cat,




....it's time to head to Omaha where there's Wii, endless pool excitement and fun cousins







7/21/08

Sunday WOe's

It's now 15 straight Sunday losses for the Birds; yesterday's, though, not totally demoralizing as it was at the hands of the AL's best pitcher over the last two months.

Still, we now have to start thinking about curse-breaking antics. Maybe we can start by acknowledging that manager Dave Trembley
looks a lot like William Shatner.

I don't know where this gets us exactly - a Sunday Star Trek promotion? a pre-game lounge number from Dave? - but something needs to happen.

And while I'm on the look-a-like topic....without introducing any kind of bias, who does this pic of un-make-upped, un-buff Ed Norton remind you of?

7/16/08

Mid-summer Classic

The MLB All-Star game finished in dramatic fashion less than 24 hrs ago with the AL pulling out the win in the 15th inning. George Sherrill, the lone Oriole, pitched a tough scoreless 2 and a third innings to admirably represent the Orange and Black.

On another note, you can learn a lot about who you're supposed to be by taking in the ads targeted at you during your can't miss TV experiences. For example, if you watch the MLB All-Star game, your prostate is enlarged, you have erectile dysfunction, you drive American cars and you drink American beer. The male prostato-genital ad budget has got to be bigger than most countries' GNP. If you get up at night to pee, you HAVE to start taking pills, no matter how dizzy it makes you or how many deformed babies are born from women handling said pills. And, apparently, the time you'll be most grateful to have taken your flomax is when you're out on a boat with your buddies fishing. Newsflash marketers: there's nothing more American or manly than whipping it out on boat and pissing over the side 10-12 times per excursion; I'd target road trips instead if I were you. Kudos to Fox for not starting the viagra ads til after 11. There's nothing more embarassing and awkward than having to explain to your children why ten male musicians in a recording studio suddenly bust out in a countrified Elvis parody where the chorus is Viva Viagra! They tell us in the ad that this happened at 1 am which makes perfect sense: at that hour, the macho facade you have w/ your fellow musicians about your penis still working melts away and you all spontaneously break into musical catharsis singing the praises of viagra.

7/15/08

do you have an opponent that needs vanquishing?

Owen said they've been using this one at camp (to the tune of We Will Rock You):

"We will, we will, you know what
Kick your butt
All the way to Pizza Hut
When you're there
Comb your hair
Dont forget your underwear"

Whatever you do, DO NOT ask the singer "does that mean comb your underwear?"because this will only lead to more taunting and vanquishing.

7/9/08

Duct tape and bailin' twine starting to loosen...

The O's took another tough loss tonight. As of late, there's been no reliable starter, the middle relief has suffered some injuries and the closer has blown a couple (but still managed the lone Orioles all-star nod). The offense has actually been half decent but not enough to make up ground. Let's hope we can somehow stay at/near .500 to help our chances of luring, say, Mark Teixeira in the off-season. On the bright side, Adam Jones continues to get better and Nick Markakis is really good. They're 22 and 24 respectively.

7/8/08

WALL*E

Did you see it? I guess I was expecting typical Pixar cutesy zaniness and ended up w/ apocalypse cutesified. I don't want to overanalyze so I guess I'll go with the bottom line: I wasn't amused, moved, informed or compelled but was close to 3 out of those four. And (all together now) the animation is super cool. 2 and 1/2 stars (out of 4).

7/7/08

The Fourth

I should've posted this clip last week but still a classic. You'll never go to a convenience store again without wanting to request Homer's shopping list.

Julie got us hooked up with a rocket launch led by Capt Brian Biggs, which was a nice variation on the fireworks theme. O was more into the sparklers:...but I got into the rockets. This one I settled under and caught on the fly before it hit the ground in an effort to impress the kids. Mission not accomplished. (don't know why this is underlined but I can't fix it)