Thursday, May 22, 2008

Random Thoughts from American Idol:

Pacey Says:

Random Thoughts from American Idol:

-Overall, this season showed out of touch AI producers are out of touch with contestants, where the majority of contestants were born in the late-80s / early 90s. Theme nights included 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, (not 1990s or 2000s), two Beatles weeks, Dolly Parton, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Neil Diamond. If you were born in, say, 1990, and your parents were born in 1970, only your great grandparents would have even been alive when the Beatles wrote Sgt. Pepper. Only two weeks were explicitly contemporary (Songs from birth year and …. Mariah Carey), and the kids’ song choices routinely bewildered the judges.


-I believe this season was Simon Cowell’s first exposure to a Mormon. When David A. picked a seemingly obscure song (“You’re The Voice”), he seemed to accuse David of having been coached to pick such an odd song. That song is actually used prominently in Mormon dances, and I’m certain David A. knows all the words by heart.

-Mormons again learned another hard lesson in the finale: prayer doesn’t work.

-David C. thinks he has the best taste in music that the show has ever seen, and you know he believes it when you see the smug smirk he puts on when he unveils a Whitesnake cover song or a song by Switchfoot. The veil that covers his insufferable snobbishness is a thin one.

-People seem pleased that Cook won as a sign that American Idol can approach ‘artistic integrity’. I’m not going to lie to you: I listen to a lot of modern music. That said, I have found the genre Post-Grunge to be the one with the least redeeming qualities. If someone thinks artistic integrity is found in someone who sings Collective Soul and Switchfoot (who?) songs competitively and sincerely thinks Our Lady Peace is their favourite band of all time, they need to give their head a shake.

-The addition of Andrew Lloyd Webber this season was fantastic.

-There was definitely something wrong this season when Jason’s phoned-in performances saw him outlasting Carly or Michael Johns.

-Amanda wants to get as far away from Idol as possible, and her performance last night proved that she didn’t want to be there.

-Maybe I’m being too hard on the winner, but I can’t get past the irksome smugness, the post-grunge (awful music), and the fact that he was the inferior singer of the final two.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Deep Thoughts

Pacey and Penny list our favourite Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy:

Consider the daffodil. And while you're doing that, I'll be over here, looking through your stuff.

If you ever drop your keys in a river of molten lava, let them go because man they're gone.

If you ever fall off the Sears Tower, just go real limp, because maybe you'll look like a dummy and people will try to catch you because, hey, free dummy.

If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.

I wish a robot would get elected president. That way, when he came to town, we could all take a shot at him and not feel too bad.

When I was a kid my favorite relative was Uncle Caveman. After school we'd all go play in his cave, and every once in a while he would eat one of us. It wasn't until later that I found out that Uncle Caveman was a bear.

If a kid asks where rain comes from, I think a cute thing to tell him is, "God is crying." And if he asks why God is crying, another cute thing to tell him is, "Probably because of something you did."

Sometimes when I feel like killing someone, I do a little trick to calm myself down. I'll go over to the persons house and ring the doorbell. When the person comes to the door, I'm gone, but you know what I've left on the porch? A jack-o-lantern with a knife stuck in the side of it's head with a note that says "You." After that I usually feel a lot better, and no harm done.

It takes a big man to cry, but it takes an even bigger man to laugh at that man.

Children need encouragement. If a kid gets an answer right, tell him it was a lucky guess. That way he develops a good, lucky feeling.

If you're in the war, instead of throwing a hand grenade at some guys, throw one of those little baby-type pumpkins. Maybe it'll make everyone think of how crazy war is, and while they're thinking, you can throw a real grenade.

When you go in for a job interview, I think a good thing to ask is if they ever press charges.

If God dwells inside us, like some people say, I sure hope he likes enchiladas, because that's what he's getting.

I remember as a boy watching my grandfather get up early every Saturday morning, put on his fishing gear and go down to the river to fish. He'd come home in the afternoon and we'd all laugh at him. However we weren't laughing when he came back one day with a hooker he picked up in town.

I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it.

One good thing about hell, at least, is that you can probably pee wherever you want to.

As the light changed from red to green to yellow and back to red again, I sat there thinking about life. Was it nothing more than a bunch of honking and yelling? Sometimes it seemed that way.

If I ever get real rich, I hope I'm not real mean to poor people, like I am now.

The memories of my family outings are still a source of strength to me. I remember we'd all pile into the car - I forget what kind it was - and drive and drive. I'm not sure where we'd go, but I think there were some trees there. The smell of something was strong in the air as we played whatever sport we played. I remember a bigger, older guy we called "Dad." We'd eat some stuff, or not, and then I think we went home. I guess some things never leave you.

Friday, April 4, 2008

Fantasy Sports

Pacey Says:

Managing a Fantasy Sports team is a great time-killer. It just so happens that I am actually quite good at these things, particularly hockey and baseball. Currently, my hockey team is in the Championship Bracket of a league of 14 teams. With two days to go, I am leading my opponent 6 categories to 5, and looking for my 4th championship in 6 seasons. While my opponent has completely structured his team around waiver acquisitions, my team largely resembles the team I drafted in September.

I have a knack for drafting well. I know that scoring would be at a premium and that regular (not necessarily spectacular) goaltending would keep me near the top of the league. I also know that guys like Modano would be outscored by guys like Ribeiro, and that Prospal would play most of the season between two scoring champions in Tampa Bay. While an outstanding season by Ovechkin has no doubt made my team a consistent threat to win, I think late round selections like Ribeiro and Prospal (both nearly a-point-a-game players) have actually put me over the top with scoring depth. Also, the consistent starts by goalies on mediocre teams (Khabibulin and Ward) proved to have better fantasy value than good goalies on good teams (like Gerber/Emery). With these players, and others, I maintained 1st place every single week of the season and now find myself with a chance to take the Championship.

I also draft well in baseball, but this season was weird for me because I didn't play last year, so I didn't have a particularly good feel about who to draft and what positions would be crucial. I took an hour (that's all I need) before the draft to essentially figure out what happened in baseball last season. My first pick was a player I'd never heard of before draft day (Hanley Ramirez) because he was the consensus 'best player' after A-Rod. One thing I made clear was that drafting the only good catcher in baseball was going to be key. So, after the first two rounds, where I would simply draft the best player available, I reached for Victor Martinez with my third pick (27th overall). I appears that 30th was the average draft position for V-Mart, so it was reassuring that I didn't reach too far to land the only impact player at the shallowest position in the game, catcher. In previous leagues, I've always put a priority on catcher because I hated seeing that position waste away in my fantasy lineup, and now that I have the guy I want it affords me a tremendous advantage over other fantasy teams.

It's still early in baseball, and my team isn't off to the greatest start (and V-Mart got a minor injury keeping him out of my lineup for a few days), but I think I will win my first head-to-head matchup. I'm confident I drafted well enough to be competitive this year, and I'm sure I'll have a ton of fun playing fantasy baseball all summer.

Oh hey, the Canucks are going to have a new logo! Check it out, I think it suits them:

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Equinox

Penny Says: YIPPEE SPRING IS HERE !!!!

No time to blog must go out and smell the flowers!!

I just wanted to congratulate all of you brave folks on surviving another Canadian winter!

Now get outside and soak up some vitamin D! Oh and enjoy some Easter Candy -

I think the purple peeps are umm loaded in anti-oxidants - they must be good for you they are purple - what purple food is not good for you!


Sunday, March 16, 2008

Documentary Obsessions

Pacey says:

It doesn't take much energy to find some of the most acclaimed documentaries in the history of film by simply Googling. Between Google and the library, I am able to track down nearly everything my curiosity craves. Over the past number of weeks I have watched a number of these great films. Below is a sample of what is out there:

Grizzly Man - A young man thinks he can live with and 'protect' grizzly bears in the wild, until things turn tragic. Using his own camera, the man films some of the most surreal (non-CGI) of a man interacting with bears ever captured, as he offers his insights and philosophies. A movie worthy of Herzog.

Little Deiter Needs to Fly* - Another harrowing Herzog doc about a POW who escapes and lives in the jungles of SE Asia until his rescue.

Fog Of War - Perhaps the best documentary I've ever seen. A movie about a former US Secretary of Defense may not sound fascinating, but Robert McNamara insights are completely compelling as he outlines his 11 lessons of war. Issues covering WWII, Cuban Missile Crisis, and Vietnam are covered extensively. Skillfully directed by Errol Morris.

Burden of Dreams * - BoD documents the making of Herzog's Fitzcarraldo, revealing the hardships of a near-Herculean effort to pull a steamship over a mountain on location in the Amazon and film it. Herzog's monologue about the obscenity of the jungle is captivating stuff.

Jesus Camp - An unflinching view if indoctrination of children to be soldiers for The Great Ceiling Cat Baby Jesus in Colorado. This one could also be classified as a horror movie, as the events shown could possibly be categorized as child abuse.

Crumb - Robert Crumb is a counterculture cartoonist that rose to near-prominence in 60's San Fransisco. The documentary unveils Crumb's somewhat disturbing psychology and the psychology of his comparatively more disturbed family. Crumb is a true talent and a compelling figure.

Dark Days - Underground film making in it's most literal sense, Dark Days documents the lives and philosophies of people who live in the subway tunnels of New York. They're not homeless in the traditional sense because they've developed an actual community with electricity, water, and infrastructure, but this is truly a bizarre way of life among the rats.

Atomic Cafe - A great non-narrated compilation of propaganda produced and distributed in the USA during the Cold War 50's. Head scratching at times, but more often than not this movie is hilarious. "Dad Knows Best", "bomb them before they bomb us" rhetoric, and Duck and Cover scenes can induce belly-laughs, but can be shocking if you imagine yourself a 50's Russian watching this and thinking that their enemy is obviously crazy.

Baadassss!* - Great flick about the making of what is arguably the first blaxploitation movie Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song in a cultural and business climate that resists images of black power. Insightful and funny dramatizations of the events surrounding the events are portrayed by the original film's director's son.

Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. - This is not a movie about Holocaust denial as much as it is to the examination of the psyche of outsider, and general weirdo, Fred A. Leuchter Jr, a self-made execution expert. The protagonist misinterprets the results of a study and finds himself an extremely polarizing figure.

Sicko - Like him or not, Michael Moore seems incapable of making a picture that isn't interesting to watch all the way through. In this movie, though his cherry-picking and stunting tactics are in full-effect, I must admit he won me over to a large degree in making his case for universal health care. Moore's visual style are always great to watch, as well as highly influential if one compares his documentaries to those of previous decades.




* - library only.
All of these movies are available online except for those marked by a '*'.