Money, Money, Money.......Money

It of course is that time of year again where everyone wants to complain about the College Football Championship system. should LSU be in the Championship game? Is THE Ohio State University really worthy after playing such a creampuff schedule? Wouldn't either USC or Oklahoma kick both teams collective asses with their starting Quarterbacks healthy? These are all valid questions. But the question everyone seems to ask and no one seems to answer honestly is; why can't we settle this with a tournament? You'll the ADs and Head Coaches give the same horse shit answers, they'll claim that the season would be too long and that we're dealing with student athletes who actually need to go to class. Well let's be honest, they don't really NEED to go to class, in fact I doubt very highly that more than 5% of the "student-athletes" make it to all their spring classes when the season is over. If a tournament can't happen, then how do Division I-AA, Division II, and Division III all figure out how to make it work? The reason that the bowl system is still in tact and that we can't figure out who the real national champion is every year is the same reason that the United States is so reliant on oil. Money! More specifically it's because the people in power don't want to redistribute the wealth. It's not that there wouldn't be more money involved with a tournament which determined the national title. The television revenue would be through the roof, they could have a huge bidding war with multi-billion dollar contracts. The problem is that the money would have to be given to the schools in the MAC and the WAC, not just the six power conferences. Sure, Boise St. and Hawaii have gotten their hands on a small share of the big prize in the last couple years, but that is still a rarity. The truth is that if the eliminated the traditional bowl system, even the teams in power would probably make more money with a tournament, they could figure out ways to include the bowls by letting them host certain tournament games. Of course the people from the Big Ten or The Pac Ten would never vote against their old cronies at the Rose Bowl. So what's best for the game, and what's best for the NCAA as a whole has to take a back seat to what's best for the people who already have the money and the power. Maybe that's why College Football is the most popular game in the red states.

Okay, enough for my heavy handed diatribe. It was heart-breaking for me to see Boston College lose in the ACC Championship against Virginia Tech. Boston College outplayed VaTech in the the first half, but somehow managed to go into half-time tied at 16. This was a very bad sign and the bad vibes came to fruition when Virginia Tech scored two late touchdowns to run away with it in the end. Maybe it was just good kharma for VT who suffered that tragedy last April, or maybe it was bad kharma for Boston College who for all intents and purposes chased away a succesful coach who ran far and away the most academically sound program in the country. Who knows what forces made things go the way they did, but it was a crushing defeat for any BC fan because the Eagles probably won't be getting back there anytime soon. They have only one more game in the Matt Ryan era, who in terms of college performance is probably the second best player to call Chestnut Hill home. It's not very often that the Eagles have the best anything in college football, let alone the best Quarterback. I've enjoyed the way BC played this year, and Jeff Jagodzinski seems like a good guy, more suited for the college game than the pros, but the jury is still out on how well Coach Jags will do at building a program by recruiting top talents and coaching them up. He had a great year with Tom O'Brien's old troops, I just hope he can keep it going and build on this year's success.

One other thing in the news, Johan. I have to admit that trading for Santana is the smart move. I'd rather not trade Ellsbury, Lester, and Buchholz, but even if it took all three to make the deal, it would probably be the right move. Deep down I'm hoping for one of two scenarios. First scenario involves santana being traded to some team that the sox barely ever play, i.e. Los Angeles or Seattle. The Dodgers would be my first choice, that way the only time Santana could hurt the sox would be the very unlikely world series showdown. Supposedly both of these teams are in the hunt, and even if Seattle got him, I don't think they'd have enough to be a force in the AL. The next acceptable scenario would involve the Yankees having to give up all of their young players for Santana. If they had to give up Hughes, Chamberlain, Kennedy and Melky, I'd have faith in the Sox to be able to beat them in the playoffs even if not in the regular season. (Maybe throw in Cano as well.) Granted this would give the Yanks the ace they've lacked for years and it becomes scarier with today's news that andy Pettite will be back; but the Sox could still beat them. A-Rod is still the guy who chokes every year, Jeter is still the most overrated "star" in baseball and it's not like Sanatana was unhittable last year. The most fun part of this scenario would be watching the Yankees deplete their farm system all over again and keep grabbing up all the veterans with high price tags whose careers are headed for a nosedive soon. I enjoy watching the Yankees with the four highest paid players in baseball come up short, so next year could be fun if they trade for Johan, maybe just for my kicks he could blow out his arm or something. I guess my greater point is that I'll enjoy the Red Sox more next season if they're being helped by a bunch of younger homegrown talent than if they bring in the latest great mercenary.

That's all I've got for today other than to say that no matter what anybody says, Jennifer Love Hewitt is fine as hell. I also wanted to throw out the link to Funny or die. It's a constant source of enjoyment fo me. Also, for anyone who is really bored out there yuo can play these great games, Raft wars, or Age of War. They are both a phenomenal waste of time.

Til next time...

-Bender Out

I know it's early, but...

So I finally made the leap this year and bought the NBA Season Pass. I've wanted to buy it for a few years now but always backed off because I wasn't sure that I'd really actually watch the games. Anyway, given the way The Celtics are playing early, I feel like I'm going to have the most exciting NBA season in years. So here's my early opinions on the season.

The new look Celtics are way better than I had imagined they'd be. You'd be hard pressed to find any Celtic fan who will admit to being against trading for KG, although a poll last summer was about 50/50. A few years back I heard Charles Barkley doing an interview on the radio and the interviewer asked Sir Charles who the most underrated players were in the NBA. I think the interviewer wanted Charles to name some Celtics players but Charles said the most underrated players in the NBA are the very best players. Most fans don't understand the difference between the very elite and some guy who just puts up good numbers. Well Charles was absolutely right, I had no idea how good KG was. I thought he'd be a great inside presence, he'd get his 20 and 10, but I had no idea how dominant he could be as a defender and rebounder; he brings his teammates to a whole other level. Garnett is a great passer, the best on this year's Celtics, and on defense he's a game changer. Having a player on Garnett's level has made Paul Pierce better; you throw in a marksman like Ray Allen who is now seeing more open shots than he's seen in the last five years combined, and you have the look of a title contender. Granted, this team hasn't faced any adversity, and things could totally change, but I do think it's time for a nickname for the new three. The PGA tour is kinda clever but not quite catchy enough and most people would be thinking of the real PGA Tour when it gets mentioned. Other early suggestion have been The GAP, The GAP band, W-KRP in Boston, so I think it's important that our greatest minds come up with a real nickname for them going forward.

One last Celtics note before I give my early impressions on the young NBA season. This week there was a serious war of words between Cedric Maxwell and Larry Bird. Max is the radio announcer for the C's and Larry Bird, for those of you who don't know, is the greatest player to ever lace up a pair of Converse. Well Max went on the radio last week and declared KG to be the second best Celtic of all-time, behind Bill Russell. This is just the latest salty remark by Max who is still upset over the way he left Boston in 1985. Red Auerback and Larry Bird always thought Max quit during the 84-85 season, then Red traded Max for Bill Walton who had one last great season in him. Well Max has been hurting ever since, He likes to come on the radio in Boston and declare that Hakeem Olajuwon was the best player he ever played with, he also said that Dirk Nowitzki is better than Bird ever was. Well Larry isn't gonna take crap from anyone; during the Celtics-Pacers game Tuesday night the sideline reporter asked Larry's thoughts on Max's latest shot and Bird wasn't taking the high road, he just said "Well Max quit on us and he'll probably quit on them too." Classic Bird! Someone should get a hold of Max's PR rep and tell him to put a lid on it before the whole city turns against him; people in boston like Max, but they love Larry.

Ok, so onto my quick thoughts for the NBA that I can only have because of the Season Pass.

-Jared Dudley and Sean Williams started out the season riding the pine but quickly their coaches smartened up and have been increasing their minutes. Williams especially has proven that he belongs in the NBA. Watching last night's Celtics-Nets game, it was obvious that Williams should be getting the bulk of the minutes for the Nets at the five spot.

-My favorite team to watch is the Memphis Grizzlies. Rudy Gay is really emerging as an All-Star caliber player and has finally begun to assert himself. It's highly doubtful that they'll come close to the playoffs, but they're fun to watch nonetheless. I really enjoy watching Mike Miller play, he's an unapologetic gunner, he's a really good shooter and for some reason he's decided that he wants to grow his hair out and be confused for a WNBA player instead of going with his old trailer park look.

-If I ever feel a sentimental longing for the sad old pathetic Celtics of the last couple years, I can just turn on a T-Wolves game. They have many of the same players the Celtics used to have, including an old and out of shape Antoine Walker, and they're coming up with the same results. Watching Al Jefferson from an unbiased point of view is interesting as well, I can't believe how lost he seems on defense sometimes. He still has great touch and nice moves inside, but he's a long way from being a difference maker in the league.

-I've been able to catch a couple Blazers games thus far, and I'm thinking they'll surprise a bunch of teams this year. Similar to many young teams, they're a lot better at home than they are on the road, but they have such a great young nucleus right now. LaMarcus Alldredge is already better than I ever envisioned him being. He's more athletic than I realized and has seemingly bought into the idea of strength and conditioning, he looks to be a bit leaner; also he has developed great touch on his midrange jumper, a key for any succesful NBA power forward. The comparisons to Rasheed still seem a bit premature, but I'm starting to see all the potential everyone else saw three years ago at Texas.

- As for the rookies around the league, I was a big supporter of Yi coming in. I have no complaints with the way things worked out for the Celtics, but if they had kept the 5th pick, I wanted them to take Yi and he seems to be the most pleasant surprise as far as early returns go. Jeff Green has been pretty good so far for the Sonics, but I think his polished game is being wasted in the mess that is Seattle this year. At some point Green will be a contributor for a good team in the NBA, but I doubt he'll ever be an All-Star. It's just a shame that Greem isn't playing for a playoff caliber team right now, because he's definitely ready to play in meaningful games. His teammate Kevin Durant has put up big numbers but looks very selfish and one dimensional. It remains to be seen if his huge self-confidence will develop into that of an assertive superstar or if it will lead him to be an over confident locker room cancer. Durant does show some great offensive moves and other flashes at times, but he just isn't ready to be a star in the NBA, and it seems like expectations were way too high.

That's all I've got for now, just remember that the Celtics, Red Sox and Patriots are undefeated since October 16th.

-Bender Out

You're an Asterisk!

Well, my fan has been bothering me, wondering what happened to the mighty Bender, so after much trepidation I have come back to make the blogging world right again. In my absence Boston has become the sports capital of the world. The Red Sox won their second title in four years. The Patriots juggernaut rolls along destroying everything in its path. The Celtics have opened up the season 2-0 behing the strength of the Triumverate. BC football was undefeated and featuring a Heisman candidate, but as of last saturday that pretty much came to an end. Also, let us not overlook that the mighty BU Terriers have been picked to win the America East Conference and could get the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. And now, at the behest of my one fan, finally The Bender has come back to the blogosphere!

It hasn't all been rosy on the Boston sports scene. I wasn't around to defend The Pats during the down times back in September when the sports world turned on them out of jealousy and ignorance. I refer of course to spy-gate or camera-gate or whatever we've decided should be the name for this scandalous event. My only real defense of the Patriots for this one is that a) Having tapes of the other teams defensive signals doesn't allow you to know the play call before the play happens, and b) this was a far more common practice than anyone realizes, teams still make these tapes, they just have to make them from the press box as opposed to from the sidelines. So now Don Shula has taken a break from his nutri-system campaign to weigh in on the possibility of a 19-0 run by the Patriots. Coach Shula thinks that if the Patriots do have a perfect season there should be an asterisk next to their record. To me it just sounds like Donny boy needs his depends diaper changed. I think he's a little cranky and the perfect season is his last grip at relevance. Maybe there should an asterisk next to the Dolphins perfect season because Mercury Morris was so heavily medicated during those games. I don't really care what Shula thinks about the Patriots legacy. I know that this is really just a desperate attempt for Old Don to keep his own legacy great, the truth is that comments like this one by Shula will just make it more likely that the Pats will reach their 19-0 destiny. It's them against the world, and The Patriots wouldn;t have it any other way.

The other controversy surrounding The Pats has been the opinion of many observers that The Pats like to run up the score. Gregg Easterbrook from ESPN.com has been especially critical, (on a side note I believe he's going to appear on Oprah any day now.) Easterbrook has come and basicaly called The Pats the axis of evil, he stopped just short of comparing Belichick to Joseph Stalin. Anyway, all these critics should remember, this isn;t Pop Warner. These are professional athletes, it isn;t Bill Belichicks job to stop the Pats offense, it's the job of the millionaires who line up against them. I'm sorry that The Cowboys couldn't stop the great Kyle Eckel and that the Redskins couldn;t figure out how to stop Matt Cassel. It's neither here no there. It just fuels the fire inside the hearts of the greatest team ever assembled.

That's all I've really got to comment on, but I've decided to give a couple links to my favorite viral videos that I've seen lately. First we've got LArry King asking Jerry Seinfeld if NBC had cancelled his show. Jerry doesn;t exactly handle it gracefully, some may call it mean spirited, but I just call it funny as hell. You can see it here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZfUgVSfKdQ

Also we have my second favorite clip that I just discovered, although it may have been around forever. I give you the techno viking.

That's all for now.

-Bender Out

You Can't Handle The Truth

Finally The Bender has come back to the blogosphere!

I've missed a lot over the last month, and I'll take the time at some point to catch up on all of it, but right now I'm gonna focus on Major League Baseball and Barry Bonds.

I'm gonna come at this from all angles, first things first, how do I feel about Barry Bonds having the record? It really doesn't bother me. In some ways it just how ridiculous it is to compare different eras to one another. Baseball is the sport where the analysts have the audacity to pretend that nothing has changed. They still held tight to Babe Ruth's career marks and ignored the fact that African Americans weren't allowed to play in the major leagues before 1947. Maybe Josh Gibson is the real all-time home run king, but we'll never know. The point is that it's really just a number, Hank Aaron still had the same career he ever had. In some ways maybe we'll all benefit from this event because we won't have to hear about every record that ever existed and we don;t have to pretend that hitting a 310 foot homer off Cy Young was the same as hitting a 400 foot homer off of Casey Fossum. I hope Barry Bonds ends up with over 800 home runs and the Peter Gammons' of the world have to cry themselves to sleep every night knowing that the game of baseball if only for one moment was actually flawed.

The most disturbing part of Bonds' record run is the fact that it's quickly become one of the most racially divisive issues since the OJ trial. The truth is that I don't necessarily get it, to me it seems obvious that Bonds used steroids, and even if every other player of this era used steroids, that doesn;t change the fact that Bonds has admitted to using (if only by accident.) I was talking to an African American gentleman in a bar the night that Barry tied the all-time mark of 755, and while he did give some incites into succesful marriages, (apparently it involves whipped cream and strawberries.) We also had to engage in a very awkward conversation about how Barry was a victim, and you don;t see anyone going after Roger Clemens, and I nodded in agreement, not only on the issues of Barry being a victim and Roger Clemens not being under scrutiny, but also on the positive effects of whipped cream and strawberries on a marriage. I wasn;t going to get into a debate about Barry in a bar because for some reason it way too serious of an issue to this gentleman. I don;t understand the vitriol on either side, why would people get so worked up over Barry Bonds in any way. The truth I'll never understand this issue and I'm giving up on understanding it even quicker than I made the similar decision back in 1994 with Orenthal James.

The second most disturbing issue for me has been Bud Selig's "hard stance." A lot of people in the media have been applauding or supporting Bud's choice not attend all of Barry's games as he went for the record, after all he had made a "Herculean effort" to see it but attending more than five games was way out of the question. Selig's stance here has been ridiculously hypocritical. It's not quite up there with the closeted homosexual preachers who condemn homosexuality, but it's right up there. (On a side note, 300 came out on DVD this week and it's definitely worth checking out.) Anyway, Selig sat by and watched as steroids took hold of his beloved game and now he refuses to reap what he sewed. You can't stand by and let steroids and homeruns hotshot your league back to popularity and then become indignant when ones of the many steroid users you helped promote takes over your record book. Guess what Bud, you have no right to take a stand now, this is the modern day Faust, bud made his deal with the devil but now he wants his soul back, it's too late.

This brings me to my theory as to why so many people hold such anger for Barry. He is the ultimate symbol of how Steroids took over Major League Baseball for over a ten year period, and maybe even longer than we ever imagined. Jose Canseco won the MVP in 1988 because of steroids, Ken Caminiti won his steroid fueled MVP in 1996. These are just the players who have admitted it. And the baseball lovers are scrambling to cut this epidemic off at the pass so they can claim it was an anomoly. Peter Gammons has been the worst offender. I've heard him on the radio chastising a fan who had the gaul to claim that Jason Giambi was using steroids again during his resurgence last season. Well, Peter, I know that Giambi's character is beyond reproach, but maybe just maybe he was cheating again. And these same defenders all applauded Rafael Palmeiro for proving he wasn;t on steroids by taking the offensive in front of congress, but then Palmeiro got caught a few months later. Of course Palmeiro was just another anomoly. In fact I'm sure Peter Gammons is still convinced that only the players who've been caught by the new steroid testing are the players who used during their careers. They ignore the fact that Barry Bonds was never caught.

Like I said before, I don't care if Bonds used steroids, but cut the crap, I'd say that more than half of the league used steroids at one point. So don't tell me that the problem has been solved, and don't pretend that it wasn't an epidemic. Steroids still rule baseball, and if we can accept that we can sit back and enjoy the games, we can each pretend that our favorite team is the only one without cheaters. But if we're going to accuse Bonds we just have be prepared to accept it when we hear the whole truth about what has gone on for the last 20 years.

Vacation, All I Ever Wanted

So I figured that I would post on a few quick things today before I fully commence with my vacation week. I'm doing my best not to waste my time playing video games, but today the fight against this horrible addiction got a little harder, at right is a screen shot from GTA4. And soon I'll have to break down and buy either and X-Box 360 or PS4 because I have to play this game, apparently the game revolves around a Russian gangster named Niko and it's set in a fake version of NYC. So three months from now when I disappear, you all will know where. The screen shot doesn't really capture everything. Here's a link to the trailer. So that's looking pretty bad-ass.

I wanted to follow-up on my review last week of On The Lot, I forgot to mention my favorite guilty pleasure on the show, and that's the casting of their short films. The actors, who I'd like re-named the "On The Lot Players," have lots of familiar faces. So far I've recognized Lin Shaye best known for her roles in Farrelly Brothers movies. Also former sitcom staples, Reginald VelJohnson, Tatyana Ali, and my favorite, the kid who played Chip on Kate and Allie, (I'm not sure if he has a name, but he will always be Chip to me.) The other fun oart about watching this show is seeing the smug "artistic geniuses" get ripped by the judges. Not all of the contestants qualify as people you want to see get ripped, but it's very satisfying when one of the jerks gets ripped.

In other big TV news, the return of USA's two comedic mystery shows, Monk and Psych. I love both of these shows. I've had trouble getting into most of the cable original series other than the ones on the premiun stations. I've tried and failed to get into shows like The shield, Nip/Tuck and The Closer, but Psych and Monk are just my speed. I love the casts and the blend of comedy and mystery which are both among my favorite genres. So I'm pumped for those two shows, they're both on Friday, and my DVR is set to record them.

On Tuesday, the Smashing Pumpkins new album came out, their first in a while, so I decided to check it out. The music is actually pretty good, but my problem comes from the fact that only Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlain are back, but James Iha is gone as is D'arcy, so I'm wondering what really makes this any more The Smashing Pumpkins than Zwan was or even Billy Corgan's solo album was. I'm not really complaining, it's pretty rare tht I actually enjoy new music these days, so I'm more than willing to welcome bak one of the old stand-bys.

I wanted to touch on a couple sports stories. First, leave it to that huge egomaniac Tony LaRussa to do actual damage to his own team during the All-Star Game. He pissed off Albert Pujols by not playing him in this year's exhibition. I can't imagine what was going through his head when he made his own star die the pine without even telling him. This could be the most important event at an All-Star game since Pete Rose ruined Ray Fosse's career by running him over and breaking jaw, Fosse was never the same. Anyway, if Pujols sulks this could be the mean that one of them will be on their way out of St' Louis and maybe LaRussa will be headed toward an earlier retirement than he had planned.

The other sports story I've been following is in the NBA. The Summer league has started and essentially the Seattle Supersonics have the future of their franchise on display. Kevin Durant and Jeff Green haven't exactly set the world on fire in the summer league, although that's not a huge deal because most rookies struggle during summer league against any NBA veterans. But the biggest news since the draft has been the departure of Rashard Lewis, which means that the Sonics are starting from scratch. This may not be the worst move for a team who thinks they're getting a real superstar in Durant and maybe a future all-star in Green but I view the dismantling of a team like this as fools gold for GMs. The T-wolves are very close to making a similar move if they trade Kevin Garnett. It's very tempting to make a move to go back to the bottom so they can rebuild, but these teams forget how rare it is to get an all-star let alone franchise player, and before you know it you could be desperate to get back to mediocrity a la Danny Ainge and the Ray Allen trade.

That's all I've got for today, I'll be back.

-Bender Out

Mission Accomplished, again!

Yesterday was a great day to be an American. Joey Chestnut finally vanquished that foreign aggressor Takeru Kobayashi. For years Kobayashi was laughing at America, eating all our American "Hot....Dogs." But one man stepped up, and said "enough is enough is enough, this is the US of A and across this line you do not..." By the way dude, the picture on the right is of Chestnut, but not from yesterday, I chose this one because he was surrounded by a couple ladies. Anyway, no longer wil Takeru Kobayashi shame us on our proudest of days, Joey Chestnut put an end to this reign of terror, and it just makes me a little more prouder to be an American.

Just after Joey proved that no one eats better than Americans, I was off to the movie theater to see Sicko. For those of you who haven't heard, this is Michael Moore's new film and instead of going after George Bush this time, he's going after the health care system. Sure George Bush is a small target in this one, along with Richard Nixon, but so is Hillary Clinton. Why Hillary you ask? Well in the years after her proposal for universal healthcare was shot down by the Republicans in congress, Hill has sold out her ideas and now receives millions from the health care industry in campaign contributions. But I digress, the real key to this movie is showing the succesful universal healthcare systems in many other countries, and while the United States is at the forefront of many things, in health care we rank 36th. Mostly because we're more than happy to leave the poor and needy off to the side while the rich are blessed with great help through more expensive policies paid by their employers. This is really the American way. Anyway, this is obviously a piece of propaganda and not a true documentary, but it has me convinced more than ever before that we need to change the system. I always enjoy Moore's films, and I realize that you have to take them with a grain of salt, but I think that deep down he always has a good argument to make and he's very passionate about driving for change which is refreshing. One idea that he pushes in the movie that I can't quite agree with is that eh attacks the pharmaceutical companies as well. Unlike healthcare, the US pharmaceutical companies are at the forefront in terms of developing new drugs worldwide, so we can't just tell the companies to stop charging a lot for these drugs because they're spending fortunes on developing the new drugs and advancing medicine. So that's my small rebuttal. I'd be happy to start a dialogue with Mr. Moore if he's reading.

While I'm on the subject of films, I wanted to give a short review of the new reality show, On The Lot. I had high hopes for this show where amateur filmmakers compete for a million dollar development deal from Dreamworks. It was created by Steven Spielberg and Mark Burnett, so basically one of the all-time greatest filmmakers teamed up with the ruler of reality TV (not to damn him with faint praise.) And they even brought in Garry Marshall and Carrie Fischer to be part of the show, both of whom I enjoy, but the show just isn;t doing it for me. Maybe I just don't enjoy short films enough, but to me the shorts have been mediocre, none of these people has really been able to shine with their three minute films, maybe they're too rushed to get their creative juices flowing, I don;t know. I'm not gonna stop watching it, but that's mostly because with the type of crap that is shown during the summer there's plenty of room on my DVR. If only they could recreate the magic of past summer TV shows, like Me and Mrs. C.

The only other shows I've been watching this summer have been Etourage, The Loop and Man Vs. Wild. Entourage has been getting beat up a little by some critics, but I think it's as fun as ever. Ari is great and so is Johnny Drama and I always get a kick out of the inner workings of Vince's career and the celebrity lifestyle. I don't know how realistic this show is, and it's more than likely that I'll never know, but if all movies are made the way Medellin is, I can see why a lot of crap makes it to theaters. As for The Loop, I don't know why I watch this show other than the fact that I'm a huge Eric Christian Olsen fan. I also like the main character played by Bret Harrison, he was on the short lived Grounded For Life an under appreciated comedy a few years back. The Loop usually makes me laugh a couple times per episode and I feel like I might as well watch it now because it won;t be around for too long. As for Man vs. Wild, this show is just great, they drop a survival experted named Bear into the middle of the wilderness and he tries to survive and get back to civilization. I haven't seen too many episodes but I love it, nothing beats when Bear has to buil;d himself a fire and shelter out in the middle of the wild. I think everyone should check this out, it's on discovery channel fridays at nine, so set your DVRs.

That's all I've got for this special holiday edition of The Bender, I'll try to post again soon about all the goings on in the NBA and how great the Red Sox season is going, but I make no promises.

-Bender Out

It's Getting Drafty

Time for my latest explanation as to why I've taken such a long time between posts, and this one is elaborate. After hearing that the NHL finals set a record for lowest ratings ever in prime-time for NBC. I thought back to all the awful things that were ever on in prime time for NBC and it hit me. Me and Mrs C! A young Black Female moves in with an old white woman, the black girl has a checkered past but wants to straighten out her life by living with this old white women who has taken her in as a boarder. It must have been pitched as the Golden Girls meets Diff'rent Strokes. The pilot featured this odd couple bonding over the song Just a Gigolo which was both a classic, and a new hit by David Lee Roth. Anyway, the show was total crap, but I fell into a deep depression when I realized that a million times as many people wanted to watch that crap compared to the number of people who wanted read my blog. The only thing that pulled me out of my depression was this NBA draft.

For a long time The NBA draft has been my favorite sporting event, aside from the Super Bowl. In High School I used to write up my little mock drafts, trying to come up with ways that the Celtics could get the great Terry Dehere out of Seton Hall and then in subsequent years I predicted many scenarios to help out my beloved Celtics. One year I doctored my mock draft to get Ray Allen with the sixth pick overall, and now ten short years later after Ray Ray is all washed up, the Celts have gone out and acquired Ray Allen. This to me is the straw that broke the Camel's back. Danny Ainge has got to go. Ray just doesn;t quite fit with the Celtics, they needed defensive help, and he doesn;t play defense. But the biggest problem with this deal is the Celtics are giving up their future just so they can make it to the second round of the playoffs next Spring. This is the type of deal that has kept the Celtics from competing for a title for at least the last seventeen years. I can see their future clearly, The Celtics will win a playoff series next spring and then take their second round opponent to the brink before bowing out, in the 2009 playoffs the Celtics will be narrowly beaten in the first round. After that season Allen will leave as a free Agent, the Celtics will miss the playoffs, they'll slink back into utter mediocrity. And then the organization will ask us to be patient while the prime of Al Jefferson's career slips away similar to the way that Paul Pierce's did before him. The Celtics have become the laughing stock of draft day for the second straight year.

The deal was extra painful because the C's had to give up Delonte West, the only player on their entire roster who has any heart. But enough with the negative, lets move onto the positive. The Celtics were able to draft Gabe Pruitt and Glen Davis early in the second round. Pruitt was being talked about as a mid-first round pick just a couple weeks ago so I have to feel good about them grabbing him at this point. As for Davis, I'd have much rather the Celtics selected Josh McRoberts, I've been very critical of Davis in the past, mostly because I understand fat people being one myself, and I have a hunch that Davis will never get his weight under control. But now that he's a Celtic I'm going to put a positive spin on this one, he has an amazing upside for a second round pick, plus Jay Bilas delivered the line of the night about Big Baby, comparing his weight loss ability to that of Oprah.

The next big positive of the draft for me was that both Boston College players were drafted in the first round. Sean Williams could be the biggest steal of this draft if everything works out, and he'll fit in very well with the Nets, he may even be a double digit scorer as long as Jason Kidd is there. As for Jared Dudley, I think he'll work out all right with the Bobcats, but I'm still not sure about the Bobcats plan of drafting the most polished products they can find with every pick. I think this method will lead to them battling for the eighth spot in the playoffs every year. This is the first time in NBA draft history that BC has had two players drafted in the first round. BC may not be a dynasty but they're a proud franchise, and this is a special moment for them.

As for the big winners around the league, first and foremost is the Portland Trailblazers. The Oden thing was obvious, but the trade of Zach Randolph to the Knicks is a great move as well. Randolph was a ticking time bomb, and you don;t want him so much as talking to Greg Oden. Also I liked their pick of Josh McRoberts in the second round. I think he could be a good back-up for them, which is more than you can expect with a second round pick. With Oden, Channing Frye, LaMarcus Aldridge and McRoberts they could have their front court rotation set for years. They just need to find a point guard and they'll be ready to compete for a title in 2010. They also just bought a pick from Phoenix, where they received Rudy Fernandez, not a bad thing when your owner just buys a pick from another team, kinda makes me wish the Celtics had bought the pick for Rajon Rondo last year.


The other big trade during the draft was Charlotte acquiring Jason Richardson in exchange for Brandan Wright. I really don;t like this trade for either team. The Bobcats are now counting on J-Rich to be their go to guy, but he's really not good enough to lead them anywhere, and now Golden State is counting on Stephen Jackson to be their two guard next year. Brandan Wright has a tremendous upside and he could be the top power forward to lead them into the future, but thats a couple years off and Baron Davis' career could be over by then. I just don;t think That Charlotte will ever get anywhere without taking some chances on guys like Brandan Wright. I was pleasantly surprised when they took him, even a little bit shocked, but it was too good to be true.

Another team who will end up disappointed is the Sonics. They made a nice move dealing Allen for the fifth pick even if they did have to take on Wally's contract, but then they drafted a guy who plays the same position as their future franchise player. I would've liked Jeff Green for a team picking around ten or twelve, but I don;t think he has the upside of a top five pick, especially not in this loaded draft. The other thing that will be disappointing for the Seattle fans is the over-hyping of Durant. He'll probably be an all-star a couple years from now, but never will he live up to the billing he's gotten coming into this draft.

The three top ten picks out of Florida will all be letdowns in the NBA. Horford will lack the athleticism to compete in the NBA, Brewer will be too inconsistent and Noah's lack of skills will catch up to him. The team was so much more talented than other college teams that their flaws could be covered by the teams dominance as a whole.

In a few years when analysts look back at this draft the strength will definitely be in the depth, but not in the stars it produces. Oden will become the superstar franchise center and Durant will be an all-star but none of the other high picks will pan out as superstars. With maybe the exceptions of Yi or Brandan Wright who could become anything from total busts all the way up perennial all-stars and maybe even MVP candidates.

Anyway, I've put out all my predictions and analysis so that I can be ridiculed for years to come. Until then...

-Bender Out

The Revolution Will Be Televised

Has the Lebron James era officially begun? For the last five years I've had an ongoing debate as to whether or not the hype has been too high for King James. I waffle back and forth because I'm a huge Lebron fan, but no one his age could possibly perform up to the incredible expectations and hype he's had since first gracing the cover of Sports Illustrated as a High School junior. But after his domination of the Pistons over the last two weeks I think Lebron is finally performing as the next true elite superstar of the NBA. Culminating with the incredible performance in Game Five, Lebron was completely dominant and electric, especially in the way he silenced every one of his critics who were trying to crucify him after his pass off in game one and his missed game winner while being mugged by Rip Hamilton in Game Two. The critics were as loud as they'd ever been and Lebron completely dominated Game Three which was only a prelude to his greatness in Game Five. His 29 out of Cleveland's last 30 points to end the game has to rank as one of the all-time greatest performances in NBA history. So finally he has delivered on all the promise that he showed on his way to the top. I don;t think he's quite ready to knock Tim Duncan off his throne and declare himself the best in the world, but it does just seem to be a matter of time until he takes his place where only Duncan, Shaq, Jordan, Hakeem, Magic and Larry have stood in the last 25 years, and no one else.

As far as the elimination of the Pistons goes, I'm always torn when it comes to them. I love the fact that they one a championship without one single elite superstar, and I love that they never had to win the lottery to get to the top, and they gradually built themselves up over the years without having to bottom out, but I hate them as a team. Aside from Antonio McDyess, I find them all to be more and more unlikeable every time I watch them. Rip Hamilton is a good player who thinks he is great, same goes for Chauncey Billups. Neither should really be a lock to be an all-star every season but because they're part of a really strong team they get greatly overrated. Rasheed Wallace had the skills to be a superstar but his head got in the way. In his opinion he's never actually committed a foul, and he's never missed a shot without being fouled. When 'Sheed was a freshman at UNC, coming in from Philly as the top High Schooler in the country, the sky was the limit, and there have been times when he's shown flashes of being a top ten NBA player, but he just never made it happen, mostly because he has the temprament of a petulant child. Tayshaun Prince is a very good role player, but for some reason he was being hyped as an all-star. All-Star? I don't think so. I heard Reggie Miller openly complain about Paul Pierce being named an all-star in '06 over Prince, the whole idea was ludicrous. If Prince were a Celtic there would never have been any tanking controversy this year. The Celtics could have finished in last without ever having to lose any game intentionally. You take all these overrated players and combine them with an annoying PA guy shouting "De-Troooit, Bas-Ket-Baaaaallllll" and you have a thouroughly unlikeable squad, and it also pissed me off that they got away with one of the worst draft day blunders in recent history, but the straw that broke the Camel's back for me was the night that one of they were helped out immensely by the Ron artest incident. Ben Wallace attacks Ron Artest to start the whole thing, then a drunken idiot throws a drink at Artest and the next thing ya know, The Pistons could punch their ticket to the Finals. As far as I'm concerned this group can't fall aprt fast enough, they more than have it coming.

In the rest of the sports spectrum I wanted to give a quick take on a couple of mini-controversies swirling these days. Gary Sheffield's reasoning for why there aren't more African-American players in Major League Baseball was ridiculous. To me the people who he was insulting most with his comments were African Americans. To say that they don;t make it to the majors because they can't be controlled the way latin ballplayers can strikes me as stupid. The sad truth is that in most other fields you're going to be controlled if you want to be succesful. We all have bosses to answer to on our way up to the top, and 99% have to fall in line, it's a sad truth of being an adult in this country. I can't just go around bad-mouthing my employer and doing whatever I want. If anything professional baseball players have a lot more leeway when it comes to being controlled and these comments by Sheffield are exhibit A. If he was a normal american and came out and said that his employers were members of a racist organization he'd probably be looking for a new job, but instead he's making about 15 mil this year. If I can make fifteen mil but it means I need to be controlled, just tell me where to sign up, I'm ready to take orders.

The second little controversy has mroe or less come and gone, but I wanted to comment about the aftermath of A-Rod and his stripper friend. He was wronged to be singled out, similar to the way that Barry bonds has been wronged by being singled out as the only juicer. Yes A-Rod ommitted the crime, but he's not the only one and it definitely shouldn;t be on the cover of any newspaper. I did enjoy the aftermath where we got a profile of his blonde stripper friend, she's apparently kinda jacked, leading one jealous stripper to claim that A-Rod likes the muscular shemale type (which has been blown out of proportion.) A lot of very phyically fit people go for the muscular type women, it doesn;t lend any creedance to the theories of him and Jeter although all us Boston fans would like think it does. Anyway, this whole thing does come down to jealousy. Jealousy that this guy does what he wants, jealousy that he can bang strippers, jealousy that this stripper is getting to play with Alex's money. The A-rod hating should stop, especially when a lot of the people are hating for the wrong reasons.

Just wanted to take a moment to remind everyone that the Red Sox are awesome. That's all I've got for now, Til next time...

-Bender Out

Dammit All

I can't believe it happened to us again! It's like ten years ago all over again. They trick us into sitting through an atrocious season with the promise of riches at the end of the rainbow, but in the end there is no pot of gold. All my dreams of Greg Oden gone in a flash. Well not really a flash, they managed to prolong my pain for a whole half hour, milking a quick two minutes of lottery results into an entire program which ended in pain. I've been pining for Oden for more than a year now, but in the last month had worked to the point where I was willing to settle for Kevin Durant. Now all we are getting is the scraps. Not only do we not get one of the big two but we don;t even get our first choice of the leftovers. I can't even really accept it yet, it's not quite the level of pain that I felt when the Pats lost to the Colts but I do have the same feeling that I can;t believe the dream is over. It seemed like our destiny, but in the end it was not to be. So what now?

I think you could make a strong case for the Celtics being the worst franchise in the NBA in the last fourteen years, (more specifically, the time since Reggie Lewis' death.) The fact that there is even such a thing a Celtics fan base is simply a testament to how great there were before the '90s. There have been four times where it was actually possible to be a Celtics fan after the Lewis tragedy. The best time being their run in 2003 when they made it to the Eastern conference finals and they were only minutes away from going up 3-1 over the Nets before the refs took over the game with some dubious offensive foul calls. The second best time for Celtics fans was Antoine Walker's brief comeback in 2005 when he helped Paul Peirce to the Atlantic division crown. Aside from those two "high points" the best times for Celtics fans have been the runs they made at the number one pick in '97 and now in '07. It's a sad state of affairs when the Duncan and Oden sweepstakes pass for two of the more exciting times in recent history. So as a loyal Celtics fan, I beg them, do it right this time. No more trading for veterans who can lead them to the upper end of mediocrity. Be patient with your young players, let them develop before you trade them for quarters on the dollar. Don;t trade this draft pick for a mid-level veteran, look at the big picture and make becoming a contender your actual goal. If there's anything worse than watching your team become a laughing stock, it's being a laughing stock when the league has players like Chauncey Billups, Joe Johnson and Brandon Roy who should be Celtics but the management lost in short-sighted deals.

After wiping away my many tears, I've decided that the Celtics need to to draft Yi Jianlian. I saw some video of him working out and he looks like a tremendously athletic 7-footer. When I was watching the video my exact thoughts were, "It's two bad we don;t have a second lottery pick this year so we could take Yi along with Oden." Well now he is my prime target. Of course, given the way things have gone the last few years, he'll be drafted in the third or fourth slots. I was also thinking how great it would be to have a pick in the twenties, they could take a flyer on my favorite project, Sean Williams, but sadly the Celtics traded their second pick in the disastrous draft night last June. Anyway, for now I'm gonna stand by my C's, but if they trade this pick for a crappy veteran, I'm really close to giving up on them as it is. The organization has been very shaky for a long time. I don;t trust Danny Ainge to do anything besides drafting. I don;t trust Doc Rivers to do anything aside from losing to get more ping pong balls, and I don;t trust the owners to understand anything about the game of basketball. One last thing I had to mention, everyone has been saying the Celtics tanked this year, and they tanked back in 97. No team tanked more obviously that year than the San Antonio Spurs. David Robinson sat out the last quarter of that season despite being healthy, yet somehow, no one ever calls them out, they tanked their way to a dynasty, but somehow the Celtics are the bad guys.

On the subject of Tim Duncan, is it possible that he is actually underrated? Very few people refer to him as the best player in the NBA. You hear a lot of Kobe or Dirk and you used to hear about KG, but Duncan is my choice, and I don;t even think it's that close. He carries his team to the upper echelon every year. In my mind Parker and Ginobili would just be average players on a different team, but because they play with Duncan and in that Spurs system, they're mistakenly thought of as all-stars. He just wills this Spurs team to greatness, and I can;t imagine them not winning the title this year.

One final sports note to cheer me up, and any other Boston fan. The Sox won tonight to go back up by 10.5 over the Yanks, which is of course very sweet, but the sweetest thing is tomorrow night Schilling will probably plunk the lip-gloss wearing A-Roid for his shoulder block into Dustin Pedroia tonight in the 8th inning. As if I needed any added reason to watch a Sox-Yanks game, tomorrows could be a little more fun than usual. Don;t forget to duck Alex.

That's all I've got for now, I'll be back soon with some entertainment thoughts, 'til then...

-Bender Out

Hell hath no fury...

Why hath the Idol voters done this to me? How can you eliminate themost talented singer in Idol history to keep Blake Lewis on the show? I actually kinda understand why she didn't win. she didn;t really have that factor that makes people vote for her in this competition. She doesn;t have that feel of an undiscovered talent. She's almost like a ringer who was already singing professionally but just needed this competition for the publicity. All that being said, she was miles ahead of the competition here. Maybe someday Jordin Sparks will be able to hold a candle to her and even evebntually surpass her talent-wise, but for right now Melinda was the obvious class of the competition. And I'll admit that it drove me a little crazy the way she seemed surprised everytime the judges complimented her. In the interest of full disclosure, about half way through the season I theorized that these reactions were indicitive of some sort of mental deficiency, but that turned out to be wrong, Paula is still the only mentally disabled person involved with the show. I know it's silly to get even the least bit upset over her getting the boot from the show, the losers on the show have gone on to at least equal the success of the winners, and finishing third will probably allow Melinda to have more control over the music she puts out and hopefully that will result in better music. As for the two remaining contestants, well somewhere Ruben and Justin and Fantasia are all a little happier today. Justin will no longer have to be thought of as the runaway worst finalist ever. Blake Lewis can join him in the heirarchy of awful finalists and Fntasia and Ruben will probably stop having to worry about being the worst contestants to ever win, especially if Blake somehow wins this whole thing. I'm just gonna root for Jordin and hope that her debut album sounds better than the crap by Katherine McPhee that is on the radio these days. If Blake wins, well then we'll probably have to hear lots of crappy music from him, it's really inevitable either way. He'll put out a generic album that is completely derivitive of JT, Maroon 5, and 311, plus he'll throw in a few raps/beatbox moments that only Aaron Carter will be able to appreciate. I'm still gonna watch the finale, maybe I'll DVR it if it's on at the same time as Lost. I just can't pass up the opportunity to watch Paula get that giddy smile while she claps like a seal and a little drool comes out of the side of her mouth, I just wish she was giddy over Melinda.

Some other entertainment news I picked up this week, NBC announced its fall schedule. The great news is that Friday Night Lights was renewed. Of all the dramas on TV, this is the best one that keeps itself in the realm of reality. That is to say it's my third favorite behind Lost and Heroes. I really appreciated the drama on this show, maybe some of the plots were too fantastic, that is to say there were too many things going on in one town or two many games that would qualify as the greatest high school football game ever played, but I was sucked in from the first episode, and I would have been a little sad if they didn;t give it a second season despite the fact that it didn't get great ratings. The other big news out of there was a mixed bag. Studio 60 on the sunset strip was cancelled. I was as excited as anyone when they first announced this show going on the air, it would show the inner workings of a Satruday Night Live type show. To me it sounded like a can't miss idea, but then when I started to watch the show I could feel that something wasn;t right. The things they were writing for the fictitious SNL type show just weren't funny. I understood why they had the central romance between Matthew Perry and that Blonde, every drama needs a central romance I guess, it didn't really interest me but I could live with it. I guess the other thing that put me off about the show was the way all of the characters seemed to take their craft so damn seriously. My worst nightmare is to think that somewhere Will Ferrell is thinking of himself as an artist and social commentator as opposed to just being a great comedian, and most of the characters on this show thought of themselves as the former. I could have done without the episode where Nathan Corddry's character tried to validate himself to his parents, and he ranted about how they did comedic sketches not "skits." There were some good episodes of course, the one where Mark McKinney came in and showed the two young writers how to write for the show was a personal favorite of mine, but in the end I'm just gonna remember this as a show that could've been great but instead missed the boat. I don;t blame NBC for cancelling it, my guess was that the show was very expensive to put on and unless you have a great show to build your network around you have to cancel it, you can;t just keep on "good" shows that lose you a lot of money.

On a final note, it seems that Jenna Fischer, Pam from The Office, gopt hurt pretty badly at a party celebrating their season finale. She had a little too much to drink and fell down some stairs fracturing her back in four places. It apparently sounds a lot worse than it is, when you hear someone fractuared their back you worry about them not being able to walk or things like that. She's gonna be fine to shoot the show next season which will apparently be an etended 30 episode run next year, so I just wanted to wish her a speedy recovery. It wouldn't be The Office without some nice roast Pam and a side of Pams.

Anyway, that's all for now.

-Bender Out

Getting Testy

The Spurs-Suns series has been extra heated even by playoff standards. It first escalated when Amare Stoudemire called out Bruce Bowen for being dirty, along with the rest of the team. He's far from the first to claim this about Bowen, but it takes balls to call out Bowen when Raja Bell is on your team. Raja is quite a chippy player himself and delivered that ridiculous clothesline to Kobe last year, (although some Police officers still think his greatest cheap shot came inside a Boston University dormitory.) The suns have also distinguished themselves by doing the unthinkable, they've been able to out-flop and out-whine the Spurs in the first four games, which takes some real doing. So with that as a backdrop, we get the infamous nut shot where Bowen supposedly kneed Steve Nash in the beans and somehow he was assessed a flagrant foul, (I'm still convinced that Nash flopped, either that or Bowen is the most skilled cheap shot artist ever.) If Nash doesn;t fall to the ground wailing, the refs wouldn't have called anything and you could even make the case that Nash was the culprit for rushing Bowen too aggressively. And now the latest chapter, Robert Horry, who at this point has confirmed his status as nut job and a bit of an A-hole to boot, delivers a ridiculous forearm shiver to Steve Nash sending little Steve crashing hard into the scorer's table. If there's any justice, Horry will be suspended for game five, unfortunately, unless the NBA completely ignores its own rules, Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw will be outside the arena that night as well. Both Stoudemire and Diaw ran onto the court, there is indisputable video evidence of this, and no matter what Stoudemire claims about running to check in, it's BS. The rules have been in place for some time, if you leave the bench in that situation you get suspended, and guys have been suspended despite showing greater restraint. So for all the momentum Phoenix just gained, they'll be very hard pressed to continue it next game when they lose two men as opposed to the Spurs one for this ugly incident started by that nut job Horry.

A few other sports notes, Most people are calling this Spurs-Suns series the real championship, but I wouldn;t be surprised if Detroit beat either of them in Finals. It would break my heart if the Pistons won, especially if they were playing the Spurs because they've had tremendous luck with their acquisitions. Danny Ainge handed them the title with that ridiculous trade that helped Detroit acquire Rasheed Wallace, and now they might win because Chris Webber dogged it so bad in Philly that the Sixers just bought out his contract and made him a free Agent so he could run home to Detroit. The horseshoe had been firmly up their petard for a few years, even blowing the number two pick in one of the best drafts ever could derail them. Twice they've signed hobbled veterans who now look healthier than they have in years, that being Webber and former all-star power forward Antonio McDyess. They were able to integrate one of the most notorious head cases in Rasheed Wallace who has somehow matured to the point where he barely gets mentioned as a potential problem. The one thing I have enjoyed from the Pistons is their domination of the Bulls. After the Bulls beat Miami 4-0 they quickly became one of the more overrated teams in recent history. The Heat were old and slow, and their one young gun, Dwyane Wade was not himself because of the shoulder separation he suffered a couple months back. They beat a team who was ripe for the picking and all of a sudden they were the second best team in the east. Well the baby Bulls have been exposed, maybe they'll be ready to compete in a few years, but my guess is they'll have a new coach and a new starting center by then. I also want to tip my hat to Golden State who will be bowing out very shortly, they did more than we could ask for by creating a very exciting first round upset. It's always great to see an eight beat a one, but to do it with total fast break basketball just makes it the most exciting upset in the history of the NBA.

Before I go, I just want to call out Brett Favre. He's whining that the Green Bay Packers didn't make enough effort to win a title with him now. Someone should tell Brett that the Packers would be a playoff team if they had a star quarterback. Not only has he ruined the last three years for the Packers by not understanding his current limitations, but now he wants to cripple their future. Brett has been holding Green Bay hostage for too long, it would serve him right if they traded him to any other NFL team where he could expose himself as the has been who everyone seems to know he is aside from himself. If the Pack could get a third round pick for him, they should do it in a heartbeat, unfortunately the fans of Green Bay seem as deluded as Brett when it comes to his current talent level.

Thats all I've got for now, hopefully I'll be back soon with more, I've got Idol this week along with all the season finales of a great television season. Until then...

-Bender Out

Catching up again

Had to catch up on my entertainment news this time around. There's a ton going on this time of year with all the season finales on TV, but the most newsworthy thing is this ridiculous Paris Hilton situation. Paris is going to jail for 45 days, and she's crying to everyone who'll listen. Apparently she thinks she's being made an example of, and if that's true, so be it. She's become famous for being a wild child, a rich spoiled brat, and even though I'd still love to party with her (like I did out in Vegas a few years back, inside joke.) I can't imagine a more suitable fate for her than to go to jail because she didn't realize the rules applied to her. The part where this becomes so comical is now she's try to get a pardon from the Governator. She and her "people" still don;t seem to understand, they still can't believe that the rules apply to them. Paris' mom was lucky to not be arrested after her behavior in the court room. I just can't relate to these people, which is what makes this whole scenario so fascinating.

Onto my favorite TV shows. We'll start with Idol. Ever since Sanjaya was voted off, the show has become boring and predictable. We all miss him, heck I miss him, I miss the way laughed, I miss his crazy hair-dos, I miss his smile, I miss his smell...Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, it was obvious that Chris and Phil would get voted off last week. Despite Chris' valiant effort to introduce the world to the nasally style of singing, he just wasn't that great, and when the numbers get thinned out the little teenage girl votes can only carry a guy so far. As for Phil, he just seemed like a good guy, I mean sure there were rumors of him cheating on his wife with the very hot, very sexual Haley Scarnato, but how can you blame the guy? You've seen his wife when she was cheering him on from the crowd, I mean how can a guy not cheat when his wife is showing the wear and tear of having popped out a couple babies?

Anyway, last night they sang Bee Gees tunes. The Bee Gees being one of the more underappreciated bands of all time, they endured being the but of everyones jokes throughout the 80s and now it's ok to admit that you enjoy their music, basically they're the predecessor to Journey in that regard. In another five years everyone will be listening to the backstreet boys again it's all a big cycle that pop bands have to go through. The biggest disappointment was that no one sang More Than a Woman, which is by far the best tune they have. And the thing that made me the most giddy? It was Randy finally calling out Blake for doing his beat-box crap during a perfectly good pop song. I don;t think it'll be enough to send his ass home, I think Lakisha is the obvious choice. There are three women who sing a similar style, they're all relying on talent to get them through, and one douche bag who thinks he's the next big thing, he's getting by one crappy beat-boxing and silly dance moves. Lakisha is way more talented than Blake, but she'll get voted off because she's the least talented of the three singers who are relying on talent. I can only hope that Blake will be voted off next week. One thing that has been on my mind, he's one of these little B-boys, shouldn't he be in better shape? I'm never one to throws stones about someone's conditioning, but he doesn't look like he could break dance at all, maybe they used to forcw to sit on the side and beat box for them, that's how he developed that skill. Anyway, I just don;t think I could bear it if he got to the finals.

Now ime to celebrate the two finest shows on television, Lost and Heroes. Some people had begun to criticize lost, saying that the show had lost its way or lost its meaning, so they made a commitment to wrap the show up after next season, so that basically means we have 28 hour-long episodes left and all the questions will be answered, and as a result there have been some crazy revelations. Not only did they give us the greatest crossover yet, Locke's father being the con-man who cause Sawyer's family to fall apart, but they also tell us that they found the wreckage from oceanic 815, and everyone on that flight died! This is crazy, I may not like the direction things are going in, but at least it has a definite direction. Tonight's episode should have even more answers, maybe they'll tell us how Ben got to the island, if not tonight, then soon.

As for Heroes, this show has just kicked ass from day 1. I'm biased, I was always a huge X-men fan, and a lot of the characters in this show are straight out of X-men with their powers. The episode last week, set five years in the future was the best one yet, Peter Petrelli was the biggest badass ever on television. I've always though it was a little unfair to give one superhero so many powers, thats why Superman doesn't translate well in modern times, but Batman is ageless. Anyway, the whole showdown between Peter Petrelli and Sylar was awesome and it bodes very well for the future of the show. Rumor has it that next season will be a split between two stories, one that takes place in the past featuring the Petrelli mother, Mr. Linderman and Soo Loo from Star Trek. The second will be a story set in the aftermath of Peter's explosion while they try to kill of Sylar. Either way I think Heroes has had the best first season of any TV show in the history of the world! I'm dying to see what goes down next monday and similar to Lost I'll pining for next season's premiere all summer. If NBC brings back The Black Donnelys and Friday Night Lights, next year could be another television season to look forward to.

Anyway, make sure to watch the season finales, unless you're too far behind, in that case shell out 30 bucks for the DVDs. Until next time...

Bender Out

Oops they did it again...

In celebration of Britney Spears

little comeback show last night, I just had to use her song title to describe the latest coup by the New England Patriots. It really has been the perfect off-season by the Pats, every time they make a move I get tingles because I really think they're making a run at the dolphins perfect season in '74. Before I talk about how great the Pats front office performed this weekend I just want to admit one thing, no matter how bad Britney's antics get, I'll always be waiting here to give her another chance. People say she's slutty or trashy, I say that sort of thing has never bothered me. Maybe if she could somehow manage to not mess her kids up too badly, I'll be waiting to receive comeback after comeback with open arms. Onto the borophyl.

How can anyone question the Patriots acquisitions this weekend. They took a shot at a couple "problem children" with tremendous talent. The Patriots are really the only team who cuold absorb these problems and turn them out toeing the line. Randy Moss was on track to become the second best receiver in the history of football before being traded to the Raiders. If he wants to reclaim his career there will be no better place than here in New England. He just needs to commit to winning and Let Brady and Belichick do their things while making a few great plays here or there to help them along the way. Moss has never been a team leader, and he needed to be in a situation where he would be in no way asked to lead, now all he needs to do is fall in line and tell Bob Kraft his ring size. As far as the drafting of Brandon Meriweather goes, this was a guy who had the talent to go about ten spots huigher but slid because of a couple unfortunate incidents while at The U. He had probably the most embaressing performance during that ugly brawl with Florida International last fall (no small feet because there was plenty of shame to go around.) But he manned up and admitted how wrong he was and apologized for his actions, under the tutelage of such veterans as Rodney Harrison and Tedy Bruschi he'll learn how to be a professional and could end up being an impact player in the mold of Ed Reed. As if these two acquisitions weren't enough the Patriots also made a great move for the future by acquiring the 49ers first round pick for next year. In exchange for the 28th pick in this year's draft, where they clearly didn't want anyone on the board, the patriots acquired a pick for next year that should be in the top 20 or so (maybe lower due to the dreadful level of competition in the NFC.) This whole off-season has been a dream come true and I can't wait for the season to start. Now if they could only sign Britney Spears as a cheerleader, maybe a stint with the "Patri-ettes"could turn her career around as well.

I've been avoiding commenting on the Red Sox hot start this year, mostly because everyone in boston is so over the top when they talk about every Sox game every day that I don;t want to add to it, it's as if they don;t realize there is a new game every day. All that said I wasnted to comment on a few things baseball related. First and foremost, Jon Papelbon, I realize he blew the save last night but that doesn;t change the fact that Paps is the best closer in baseball right now. It might be a waste of his talent to use him as a closer, and for him personally the sooner they convert him to a starter the better his career will be. I just don;t believe that a guy can last as a closer for a full career. The only people who should close are pitchers who have rubber arms and pitchers who only have one or two good pitches. So I'm ok with having him do it this season to help the Sox win another ring, but after that, no more, they owe him that much. The second best thing coming out of the 'pen this year has been Hideki Okajima. It was joked that Okajima-san was brought in simply to hang out with Daisuke, but he's been awesome out there. I love all his junk, I love the fact that he's looking at the ground when he lets go of the ball, I even love his stupid necklace that only surfers wear. Watching him come through in every clutch situation has been the most pleasant surprise this season.

One last note, I wanted to admit that I broke down and watched the American Idol charity show last week. It was great to see my girl Carrie Underwood again, and as cold-hearted as I am, i was sucked in immediately by the awful stories from Africa and America as well. I loved the Jack Black segment, he was perfect for the show last week to give me an excuse to laugh. as my old fried Dick Clark would've said (not the Dick Clark, a different one,) pitter patter on the old heartstrings.

That's all for now, I'll be back sooner than usual hopefully.

-Bender Out

So Sad to Say Goodbye

Time for another exciting edition of The Bender, and sadly this will probably be the last time that I get to talk about little Sanjaya Malakar. Sanjaya, the boy who single-handedly saved this season of American Idol. He was like William Hung, Kelly Pickler, Kevin Covais and Justin Guarini all rolled into one (ok, maybe not Kelly Pickler.) Every week he would bring something new and exciting to the show, mostly through his hair styles, but also with his poor singing and his ability to take in Simon's attacks without losing his innocence. The aforementioned Covais was doing great last year until he decided to fight back, as if he actually thought his singing warranted his presence on the show. Anyway, I don;t know if I'll watch this week's Idol, between their constant patting of themselves on the back over the idea that they might give a little something to the less fortunate and with Sanjaya out of the picture I may need to take this week off. I actually felt really bad for Sanjaya when he got voted off, he seemed so crushed, it just reminded me that he's only seventeen. When I was seventeen I couldn;t have possibly handled the beating that he's been taking publicly, he even was the victim of a very unfunny parody on Saturday Night Live a couple weeks back. I'm all for comedy, but when it isn;t even that funny you might as well give the kid a break.

Before I get off the subject of American Idol, I want to say that I must be getting very cynical in my old age. I can;t help but view this whole Idols gives back as a giant co-opting of the people in need. I feel like the People at American Idol are going to make a ton of money for themselves while trumpeting the nice chunk of change that they're donating to young people in need both in Africa and in The US. Granted, this money wouldn't be going to these people who definitely need the help, but let us not forget the impetus for this show is not completely altruistic. At the very least they are making the American Idol brand more profitable, but more than likely they will profit off this individual act of "charity" as well. I'm tired in general of these people who have more money than they could spend in ten lifetimes (and that's taking into account inflation) but they can't stop kissing their own asses for making a large donation. By the way I wanted to congratulate Oprah for fully funding one school in Africa. I may have given away a larger portion of my income the time I gave Mr. Butch my change outside of Store 24 last month.

On a totally unrelated note, I watched the Jonestown documentary on PBS last week, and it was an incredible story. I've never been a fan of documentaries, I've always suspected that it was because I'm not very bright, but anyway, this may have been the most enthralling hour and a half of television watching I ever experienced. While many may construe that as faint praise but remember that I've watched every episode of Lost the last three years, so I take my television very seriously. So I guess this is my recommendation for the week, put that documentary on top of your Netflix queue. I might try to get the rights to this story so I can turn it into an Oscar winning flick, I know I could get Kevin Spacey to play Jim Jones in hope of winning an Oscar, this is why I should be in the movie business, there's a fortune to be made here. But I guess the studios would rather re-make Rear Window or put out crap like Vacancy.

One last note about new movies, it seems the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie is turning out to be a huge flop. This is terrible news, not because I'm necessarily a huge fan of the show, but this definitely means it'll harder to get a full movie of The Venture Bros. Which would be a great choice for the next Cartoon Network show to make it to the theaters. I sometimes feel like ATHF has trouble filling up a full 15 minute show without boring me, so I don;t know who thought it would make a good movie, but Venture Brothers has continuing plot lines that almost fill out a movie in its current half hour format. While we're on the subject, go out and buy the second season of Venture Bros. It just come out on DVD this week. So that's my second DVD recommendation for this week, I might have a legitimite DVD addiction going on, I've spent the last week trying to figure out if I lost my copy of Ordinary People or if I just never bought one, this has to be some sort of sign.

Wanted to comment on a couple sports stories from the last week. First, Drew Bledsoe retired, he never really got his due here in the Boston area. He was a damn good quarterback for the Patriots for a nine years, and aside from Tom Brady he was the most important player in franchise history. Bledsoe isn't quite up to Hall of Fame standards, although now that Warren Moon is in there, he wouldn't be the worst QB to be in. Hopefully the Pats fans will finally appreciate him for all that he did, if not he'll just have to go home and roll around in his piles and piles of money, Drew retires having the highest career earnings of any player in NFL history.

The other sports story I wanted to comment on is the official beginning of the baseball season, the first Sox-Yankees series. The story of the series through two games, aside from the Sox winning, has to be A-Rod's incredible start. He seems to have slimmed down and added a good amount of muscle in his legs. I remember about eight years ago when another superstar re-dedicated himself through off-season conditioning, that stars name was Barry Bonds. I'm not gonna come out and accuse A-Roid of anything just yet, but it's rare to see someone his age gain a bunch of muscle without losing any bat speed. Understand that these sorts of things don;t really bother me, I'm not the type to bring up that the Sox may have won two world series in a row had it not been for Jason Giambi's steroid fueled homers in game seven of the ALCS in 2003. I just like pointing out evidence that steroids are still very prevalent in MLB, and this is just the latest piece of evidence. Many of the purists want to just point the finger at Barry Bonds ignoring all the evidence at so many other stars, btw how is that Sammy Sosa comeback going? I'm glad to see he got over the initial scare and is now back with his old friend the hypodermic needle.

Thats all I've got for now, I'm sure I'll be back soon with another load of my normal crap, til then.

-Bender Out

So It Goes

I just found out that Kurt Vonnegut has died, now I'm not what you'd call a "reader", but if I have a favorite writer, it's him. He was basically the only guy whose books I bought just because he'd written them. In High school I was never really able to grasp what my teachers were talking about in terms of a writer's personal style, but it becamo so clear to me when I read Slaughter-House Five. In the interest of full disclosure, I only started reading it because I thought that was the type of book that a smart, artistic person would read. To be sure, most people would agree I was considered neither of those back in high school (and probably still not.) His writing really did change my life, if only a tiny bit. His stories were interesting and imaginative, but the writing was brilliant and enthralling, it was more about the journey than the destination. He is certainly deserving of a small tribute before I get on to my usual gibberish. He died yesterday, so it goes.

Speaking of my usual gibberish, American Idol has been going on and I haven;t been keeping up. The last two weeks have been sub-par for me. I definitely wasn't a fan of the Tony Bennett week, although most of the contestants are best suited for such songs, that doesn't mean it's fun for me to listen to it. Rock Chick, Gina Glocksen got voted off which was a bit of a downer, I usually enjoy the contestants who think of themselves as rockers first, I love seeing them try to keep their rock cred every week while singing watered down versions of songs that can't really be captured in a minute and thirty seconds. It was sad to see her go when we could have gotten rid of Phil Stacey, who seems like a nice guy but really doesn;t bring anything to the table. As bad as last week was, this week was a slap in the face. The music didn't fit the skills of the two talented singers, and I'm really starting to fear that this Blake Lewis kid might win, everyone keeps gushing over him but he's awful. Latin music is fun, and it gave Sanjaya yet another look to go for during his performance, but it's not really made for these type of singers who want to turn every song into a ballad and specialize in the Patti LaBelle ending to songs but not much else. I watched both shows, mostly just to see what Sanjaya was gonna do, and also to see what Haley would wear (she looked sexy on both shows this week btw.) Tonight she showed an ample bosom to go along with those long legs, perhaps her legs had distracted me from all the other fine aspects of her figure, I noticed this just before she got voted off!! How could the voters betray me like that? Don't they understand that the hottest girl should be kept on right up until the point where there are only great singers to keep on instead? These rules apply to the train wreck that is Sanjay as well. I'll even let you guys keep that damn Blake Lewis on, but that means that Phil Stacey and Chris Richardson get the boot before the hot girl and the train wreck. I feel like I'm dealing with amateur hour here, who would rather watch Phil sing than Haley? It's completely ridiculous. They announced that next week is Country week. If I wasn't thrilled with the idea of seeing Sanjaya look ridiculous in a cowboy hat, I would boycott next week's show. But I swear, if Sanjaya gets the boot next, I'm not watching until they get a good genre and/or guest singer.

Ok, enough venting about Idol, I've been on a great run in terms of movie watching lately. In the last two weeks I've seen The Lookout, Blades of Glory, and Grindhouse in the theater and caught Layer Cake on video. And all of them delivered at least to expectations. Blades of Glory is not quite on the level of Anchorman or Talladega Nights, but it was pretty damn funny, Amy Poehler and Will Arnett were great as the bad guys and so was Jenna Fisher as their sister. The best of the movies though was The Lookout. It's definitely the best movie so far this year, I can;t recommend it highly enough. The plot sounds like a typical heist movie but the characters are a lot more interesting than most movies that get made these days, the plot may fit together a little too nicely at some points but it's both tense and emotional, and most movies can;t even pull off one of those things these days let alone both. Do yourself a favor, go see it. Anyway that's all I got.

-Bender Out

Great Oden's Raven

The title is a quote from Anchorman, I know that it would be more fitting to go with a title that celebrated Florida given that they won the tourney, but I like this one better. Plus the whole "It's good...To Be...A Florida Gator" thing just doesn;t come through that well in print. Anyway, for my purposes, Oden was the main story because I don;t care as much about who wins these things as I do about who could possibly help the Celtics win a few playoff series in the next decade. I'm not trying to be greedy but winning three playoff series since Larry Bird retired is just not gonna cut it. But I digress, Oden looked frickin awesome and I want him more than ever. He had at least two incredible blocks that made me salivate plus he showed decent touch on his post moves and he's already a better free throw shoote than Tim Duncan or Shaq. The other big story from an NBA fans perspective was Corey Brewer emerging as the best pro prospect on the Florida. The hyperbole got a little bit out of control when Billy Packer started claiming that Brewer was effectively guarding both Oden and Conley on seperate plays. Neither Dennis Rodman nor Scottie Pippen could've pulled off that feet, and they're the two greatest defensive small forwards ever. Brewer is a fine player, but he's the type who fills out the highlite reels moreso than dominates a game. I also couldn;t help but notice he acts kinda like a douchebag on the court, to paraphrase John Thompson's comments after the game, it's a good thing they play so well on the court because otherwise their shenanigans drive me crazy. After a timeout half way through the first half he walked away from his own bench and started clapping towards the OSU players, then later in the game he wagged his finger in Oden's face after Oden went for a pump fake. Of course all of this was far more acceptable than seeing Noah perform his tired act in the midst of falling to the bottom of the lottery in next June's draft. The only way I will ever root fo Jo Noah is if he does his hair like Sanjaya (the ponytail mohawk) on draft night. Until he realizes that he needs that hairdo, I shall not root for him. The one thing that I kept thinking during the broadcast monday night was, when did Lenny Kravitz get so old?

The main point of discussion for fans of college basketball should be , where does this Florida team rank in terms of all-time greats? Obviously they can;t be too high on the list because the dynamics of the college game have changed so much in the last twenty years, but given the fact that they one two in a row they have to be considered as better than any team this decade. They really played well together, they all knew their roles and were willing to let their teammates shine if the situation called for it, but I have trouble imagining this team being able win championships back in the early 90s. Certainly the Duke team who won back to back was better. I think that the UNLV teams of those years were a lot better as well. They were actually very similarly put together, but UNLV had Larry Johnson back when he was an explosive force and Greg Anthony was easily better than either Taurean Green or Lee Humphrey. Couls this Florida team have beaten the '93 UNC Tarheels? I think they would've had a shot but I still would take UNC if I was a betting man. All that being said, this team has officially put Florida on the map as a basketball power from this point forward. I was amazed to hear that Florida hadn't made the tournament before twenty years ago. I believe that was back in the days os the M&M boys, Vernon Maxwell and Andrew Moten, not even sure if Dwayne Schintzius was on the scene yet. but starting with Lon Kruger's run in the Early 90s and now with Billy Donovan leading them to two titles and a runner-up in 2000 they have been the most succesful south of Durham, NC.

The other subplot revolves around Billy Donovan's future with the team. I gotta believe that he'll hang around. Sure Kentucky is offering a bit more money, but there's something to be said for creating a national powerhouse that will last for a long time. Kentucky already has it's coaching legends, but Donovan could be to Florida what Coach K is to Duke. He could be the one true legend that created the program, he'll have plenty of money to live comfortably for the rest of his life and someday they'll name the arena after him. none of that can ever be his in Kentucky, and although they'll be rebuilding next year, they'll be a contender again just as easily as he could build UK into a contender.

On a final note, Billy Packer used the term "fag" on the Charlie Rose show last week, and I want him fired from announcing for CBS. I'm not a very PC person, and I think it's ridiculous that someone in his position would throw out that term in a normal conversation or interview. But really I just want him fired because I think he takes away from the broadcast, he seemingly takes the wrong side on most debates and sometimes during instant replays I honestly believe that he isn;t watching the monitor, perhaps signalling to a vendor instead. So I'm gonna try to use this incident to get Packer out fo there. Who's with me? No one? Oh well, in that case.

-Bender Out

Entertain Me!

Yesterday I caught up on all my sports thoughts, so I have to get caught up on my entertainment thoughts from the past couple weeks.

First things first, American Idol has had a couple eliminations since I last talked about it. Last week Stephanie Edwards was voted off, and it didn't surprise me that much, strictly from a talent stand point she was probably in the top five, but she never really did it for me. Something about her personality rubbed me the wrong way, as iof she thought she was a lot better than she was, she also seemed a little to ready for the fame, and when you have that lack of likeability you'd better be blowing everyone away with your talent. As far as this weeks elimination of Chris Sligh, well he was kinda the opposite, he was really likeable but he wasn't that talented. His singing was good enough but I never really thought he had a chance because he was too much like Taylor Hicks. Similar contestants never seem to win back to back years, and I think most Idol fans realize that Taylor had no business winning and they couldn't repeat that mistake. I really enjoyed that Gwen Stefani was the celebrity guest this week, she would never make it to the second round in an Idol competition, but she's really hot, very personable and has a great pop sensibilitywhich is far more important for a popstar than straight forward singing talent has ever been. As for Sanjaya sticking around, I'm of the opinion that he's the best thing that ever happened to this year's edition of the show. I tune in to see four people, Lakisha and Melinda cause they sing so damn well, Haley because I've decided she has a great body and sanjaya, because he also has a great body. Wait, no, I meant Sanjaya because he's totally wacky, between his hair-dos and wacky performances it's alomost as if William hung were being brought back week after week. Plus he makes the other more mature contestants seem more legitimate. My real hope at this point is for Sanjaya and Haley to hang around longer than that fraud Blake Lewis, musically he's like a homeless man's JT (thank you, Bill Simmons.) I'm so utterly unimpressed by his performances, and it makes me cry when Simon reacts with anything other than scathing remarks for him. 311 isn;t looking for a new singer, so there's no need to completely bite their style, if goes on and wins this competetion, I swear I won;t watch any more Idol, at least not until next winter anyway.

Just after Idol ended there was another great episode of Lost. Since coming back from their hiatus Lost has had more than a couple episodes that were greatly entertaining, but had nothing to add to the big story. Wednesday's episode was the king of such episodes. It seemed to me like the writers had an old script they had submitted to the new Twilight Zone a few years back but it never made it to air. The episode was great as a one hour experience but it wasn't anything more. Simliar to the last Hurley episode, it was all filler, greatly entertaining filler, but still filler all the same. The worst part of this episode was that they killed off the Nikki character who was quickly emerging as the second hottest woman on the show. Sure Kate is still on the show, but lets say you're on this island, and you're a guy, who are you supposed to go after if you're not Jack or Sawyer? Maybe they can write someone else onto the show, but it's not looking good for the castaways.

All during my TV watching I saw a ton of ads for new movies coming out. since when did so many heavily hyped movies come out in March? Over the last two weeks they've realeased Shooter, Pride, TMNT, The Last Mimzy, Reign Over Me, The Lookout, Blades of Glory, and Meet The Robinsons. I feel like it's the middle of summer, they all had tons of ads, big stars and big hype. This is over two weeks, not to mention it comes on the heels of 300 and just before we get Grindhouse. I'd say that all of these movies are at least worthy of a DVD rental and I'd probably be willing to see TMNT, Reign Over Me and Shooter in the theater if there weren't so many better options right now. Robinsons looks pretty damn funny but it'll have to take a back seat to The Lookout and Blades of Glory which are bordering on must see for me. The Lookout sounds like my kinda movie to begin with but it's also getting great reviews. The best news, Isla Fisher is in it as well and she's damn sexy. As far as Blades fo Glory is concerned, I have yet to miss a Will Ferrell movie in the theaters, and I would never miss the opportunity to see Ferrell doing his Neil Diamond impersonation for an hour and a half.

The best news for me was that they previewed next years pilots on AOL today. It was like they wrote this article just for me. The top highlights on the list of pilots were Football Wives, The Sarah Conner Chronicles, and Cavemen. Football wives is based on the birtish series that was totally over the top, I've never seen Footballers' Wives but I've heard the stories. I expect that the plots wioll be toned way down, there will be a lot less homosexuality in the american version which has of course switched from soccer players to football players. My most bold prediction is that this show will be more successful than the CW series "The Game." That show also centered around football players wives and it was another flop in the storied career of the oh so sexy Brittany Daniel. Do you think Brittany ever walked on the set and longed for the great writing from the series Swan's Crossing? Now Swan's Crossing, that was a show.

The Sarah Conner chronicles is a new series that takes place in between the first two terminator movies. I don;t know if it's gonna be as great as it sounds just because it's tough to make a show like this live up to the movies given the low budget of television, but I'm glad to see them trying, if I had to describe this idea in one word that word would be "awesomeness." As far as the Caveman series goes, it's a full sit-com based on the characters in those Geico.com ads. I love the ads as much as anyone, but I find it hard to believe this show will be a hit. I'll be more than happy to watch all six episodes of the show, maybe I'll sit back and enjoy it while having the roast duck with the mango salsa. I was also excited that Carrie-Anne Moss will star in a new series, it sounds pretty cool, just a new way to approach a mystery, the show all the suspects and tell their version of what happened at the time of the crime. This show could be really cool if it's done right. The other cool things were that Parker Posey, Jordana Bewster and Lucy Liu will all be in new shows and there's apparently a spin-off of Grey's Anatomy, which I won;t watch but should be a big deal. So now I'm starting a countdown for next fall already.

Anyway, That's all for today, enjoy the tourney.

-Bender Out