Vital Idol

My apologies to Billy on stealing his title. As is my tradition, I’ve been watching lots and lots of American Idol. I got hooked in season 2 and my love affair just grew, culminating in back to back seasons featuring Carrie Underwood and Kellie Pickler. After featuring those two southern belle sweethearts they have a lot of goodwill built up, although they really put that to the test after last season’s crapfest which featured only one mildly attractive and the best singer had me wondering if she had some mental deficiency given that she was the only person on earth who didn’t know she was by the best contestant. Only the magic that was young Sanjaya Malakar saved last season and has me coming back to watch every episode.

This season so far hasn’t really blown me away. They did a nice job of hyping the kid who lived in his car, but then they cut him and watched the waterworks fly. I felt bad for the kid, and really all the young contestants when they get voted off. Just tonight that poor young girl got voted off, and she was a mess, didn’t want to sing but they forced her, then tried to play it off as an uplifting moment. She didn’t deserve to get voted off, in fact the people at home always disappoint me with their voting. They’ve already voted off one of the hotter girls, Amy Davis, who cares if her singing was kinda crappy we need to keeps girls like her around, at least until after we’ve eliminated the annoying contestants. Right now I think the hottest girl they have left is that Danny Noriega chick.

Oh what’s that? No, you’re pulling my leg.

It has been brought to my attention that Danny Noriega is actually a guy, but still very pretty nonetheless. So, my deepest apologies go to young Danny.

Anyway, my early predictions are for Brook White, Carly Smithson, Asia’h Epperson, David Archuleta, Michael Johns and David Cook to be the final 6. I’m already tired of that Michael Johns character, but the judges seem to like him, and the fans, to me he just seems a bit smug and rather ordinary. The kid David Archuleta seems a bit overhyped as well, he reminds me of a singing version of Sam Levine from Freaks and Geeks fame. I just don’t trust people who smile that much. As for next weeks eliminations before we get to the final 12. I’m going to predict Cady Malloy is gone, even though she’s kinda hot, voters have shown a lack of respect for such things, anyway she seemed resigned to leaving tonight. Then Ramiele Sulabay will get voted off, she’s a good singer but in the past the Asian contestants have always been voted off too early, so I’m thinking she’ll continue that. For the men, Luke Menard is definitely going, he’s like a less talented James Vanderbeek out there, the bloom is definitely off his rose. And finally, David Hernandez will be voted, not because of his singing, but because I find him to be completely unlikeable.

That’s all I got for now, I’ll be back soon with some commentary about SNL’s triumphant return.

-Bender Out

Oscar Night

Well this year’s gala affair snuck up on me. And apparently it snuck up on a lot of other people, it was the least watched Oscars in years. I think it was a lot earlier this year, I always remember it being in March, so that could’ve had something to do with the fact that a lot of people didn’t to watch. Also it was a down year for movies. The two big movies that were vying for Best Picture, No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood, were indy movies, and while they were great, they definitely weren’t household names like The Departed was last year. Also the two Actor awards were foregone conclusion; I don’t know anyone who didn’t predict wins for Javier Bardem and Daniel Day-Lewis. Quick note, all of the acting awards went to foreign actors, which I think is a commentary on something, either positive or negative, not sure. Day-Lewis by the way is a real actor, so many of our supposed great actors essentially play the same role in every movie they just change the character's name (I'm talking about you Denzel) But it's refreshing when you look at the career of someone like Day-Lewis and find it hard to believe that the guy from Last of the Mohicans was the same guy who played Bill the Butcher. The feel good stories of the night, for me, were the two people winning for that song from Once and the former stripper Diablo Cody winning for best original screenplay for Juno. Has anyone figured out if this was her birth name, or is it her old stage name? I know this is a clichéd joke, but if you name your child Diablo aren’t you basically paving the way for her to become a stripper? Anyway, I’m happy for her as an individual and I guess it was nice for a comedy like Juno to get some nominations and even an award, but why do critics go nuts over quirky comedies like Juno when movies like Knocked Up or Superbad were so much more successful at their goal of making the audience laugh? The closest thing those movies will ever get to receiving an Oscar was the honor of Jonah hill and Seth Rogen presenting an award and doing a little shtick about which one of them was more like Halle Berry. By the way, it would’ve been totally genius for whoever won that award, (and the actually category slips my mind) to lay a big kiss on Jonah Hill a la Adrien Brody on the real Halle Berry a couple years back after she presented him for the best actor award. Anyway, that would’ve been the greatest Oscar moment ever.

Some disappointments from the show, those three songs from Enchanted sucked. Are you telling me that none of Eddie Vedder’s songs from Into the Wild were better than that crap? Also, speaking of Into the Wild, I personally wanted Hal Holbrook to win best supporting actor. Granted Javier Bardem did a great job playing a badass, but I can say unequivocally that Holbrook’s performance affected me much more. And here is my biggest gripe of the night, every year I enjoy the montage tribute to all of those in the film industry who passed away in the last year, it really is a highlight for me. I personally was hoping that they’d have Tab Thacker as part of the tribute; he played Finch in Wildcats and House in the Police Academy movies. And I do understand that you can’t include everyone, the list would be endless and someone is going to be forgotten or ignored, but not only was my guy left of, they also ignored Brad Renfro, who was a pretty famous kid, and died way before his time. They should definitely make this segment longer, more people deserve one final tribute, and perhaps they could’ve taken out one of their crappy self congratulatory montages of “Great Oscars Moments.” I don’t know, in some ways the whole thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth, it’s like a final kick to these people almost to say, “no, you weren’t good enough for a final tribute.”

All in all the Oscars were enjoyable, I really like Jon Stewart and I thought he was funny, but somehow it didn't feel like the event that it is meant to be. I don;t even mind that a bunch of danged foreigners won all the acting awards.

So That's all I got about the Oscars, I'll be back soon with some sports stuff, NBA trades, and of course I'll be giving my opinions on America's great democratic process, also known as American Idol

Giants Brought the Pain

I don’t know where to begin. I almost didn’t post on this, because of the pain, but my fans have been clamoring so here goes. It’s hard to believe The Patriots blew it, I know this is a rather New England-centric view, but that’s what I am. So how did it happen? Well it was obvious to anyone watching the game that the Giants D-line totally dominated the Pats O-line. Someone on that D-line should’ve been MVP, they beat an offensive line that was probably considered the best in football. But the big key to the game was the Pats didn’t make the proper adjustments to neutralize the Giants pass rush. The Patriots were out-coached. I can’t remember the last time I said that. It may have been all the way back in the Pete Carroll era. The reason I didn’t think this loss could happen was because I thought we had the greatest coach ever in football, I’m not even making a joke there. That is how highly I thought of Belichick, but he’s not perfect, and as a result, neither are the 2007 Patriots. The only time the Patriots had success was throwing the ball short, on three step drops, but they couldn’t commit to doing that until their final scoring drive in the fourth quarter. There were a couple decisions I disagreed with; i.e. not kicking a field on 4^th and 13 from the 31 yard-line, also not challenging the fumble recovery by Pierre Woods on the Giants 30, which Troy Aikman said they might want to challenge, but those were really minor things compared to the fact that they never made the in-game adjustments they are known for. So after all that, when the game came down to the end, and a more talented Pats team was clawing for a win to save their perfect season, The Giants players stepped up and made special plays, and the Pats didn’t capitalize on their opportunities. On the final drive Eli Manning figured out how break away from two Patriots players who had a grip on his jersey, then threw a pass that should’ve been broken up on the other end, but David Tyree made one of the greatest catches in NFL history, trapping the ball between his one hand and his helmet. It’s being talked about as the greatest play in Super Bowl history, if either player doesn’t make a very special play there, I’d probably be writing about how great the Pats were this year, but I’m not because The Giants stepped up and earned it. But that wasn’t the only play of the drive that differentiated the Giants from the Patriots. On three separate occasions Patriot defensive backs could’ve or should’ve intercepted Manning passes, but couldn’t get it done. Asante Samuel had an easy pick, thrown right to him, but he closed his hands too early and dropped the ball that would’ve ended the game. If you’re not familiar with Samuel, you’ll know him better this off-season when he becomes the highest paid cornerback in the NFL, he’s probably the Patriots best defensive playmaker, he could’ve won the game on a gimme interception and helped the Pats escape with a win despite being out-played and out-hustled but he wasn;t able to make the big play. I’m not trying to say Asante lost the game for the Pats, I’m just saying that David Tyree won the game for the Giants, and no one made a similar play for New England.

Did the Patriots choke? I think that’s unfair to the Giants to say that they won because the Patriots choked. That’s really not what I’m saying at all, as I said the Giants stepped up, but the Patriots also choked. If the Patriots had played the way they did all year, as the best coached team, with star players who made big plays, they would’ve completed their goal and been 19-0. The coaches choked, the players choked and that opened the door for the Giants to become the champions. All their hard work ended in disappointment, there will be no perfect season this year, and I doubt there will ever be one. Once again we realize exactly how special that 1972 Dolphins team was, and exactly ho impossible it’ll be to see it repeated.

So now I’ve had to spend the last couple days listening to all the Patriot haters get their licks in. So many are coming out of the woodwork to take their bows, trying hard not to be too cocky when they say “I told you so” for predicting this upset. Gregg Easterbrook who has been writing on espn.com all year as if Bill Belichick had personally come to his house and killed his dog, wrote about how the season was totally redeemed on Sunday. I guess the league still would’ve been in peril if the Pats won, and the league would’ve been going down the crapper despite 97 million fans watching the game. Michael Wilbon, who I am a fan of, was on PTI Monday afternoon talking about the Patriots loss with such satisfaction and voiced genuine anger about The Patriots attitude coming into this game. He bragged about how he had predicted this win, and said the classless Patriots had gotten their come-uppance (I’m paraphrasing here.) I’d be more willing to give these people credit for their predictions if a single one of them had said how the game would go, but no one predicted such a low scoring game. Even Plaxico Buress’ prediction which so many scoffed at was too high of a score. You really shouldn’t brag about predicting a 31-28 win for the Giants, because you had no clue how the game would go, just like the rest of us. There’s a difference between knowing why a team would win and predicting the victory as a result, but to me Wilbon’s prediction was more of a declaration that he really really wanted the Giants to win.

One thing I will agree with Wilbon about was Coach Belichick’s behavior at the end of the game. I don’t understand why Belichick left early, with a second to go in the game. There was some initial confusion, the clock actually ticked to zero and everyone rushed the field, Belichick and Coach Coughlin had a very nice handshake at midfield, but as they headed off people informed both coaches that there was one second still left and while everyone else was cleared off the field and sent back to the sidelines, Belichick just left and went to the locker room. I don’t think it was a crime against humanity the way Wilbon does, but it just makes no sense for an adult to not act like an adult and walk back to the sidelines and sit through one final play of a painful loss. It would’ve been very easy for him to run back to the sideline, watch the kneel-down, and then go sulk in the locker room, but it’s too much to ask Belichick I guess. This incident is getting blown out of proportion by many people who already hate him, and they all wait for these incidents as an excuse to pounce on him. Maybe it’s because he’s so dismissive during press conferences, maybe it’s because he doesn’t buddy up to the other coaches in the league, whatever the reason certain media members are just waiting for each misstep. So why do I say I agree with Wilbon at all? Because this is starting to become too much of a pattern with Coach Belichick, he refuses to play by any rules, the rules of common decency for example. Why not just do the human thing every now and then? It’s interesting to me that Bobby Knight retired the day after this incident, because Coach Belichick is on the same path, it’s going to keep escalating, and it’s going to end badly. This “spygate” is coming to a head now, and if there’s no evidence then he’ll be fine, but if there is a tape all the critics will pounce again, his legacy will be tarnished, and for people like me it’ll become even harder to defend him.

A quick note on spygate: Belichick’s biggest ally in all of this is Roger Goodell because there’s no telling how far this controversy could go if there’s any truth to this latest round of accusations.

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;

Thank you Rudyard, I couldn’t have said it better myself.

So now the Patriots try to start from scratch, and I’ll be there with them. They have the 7^th pick in the draft this April, and I’d predict that they use this off-season to rebuild their defense into the dominant squad we saw back in 2003 and 2004. They’ll need at least one new starting cornerback, and they need some inside linebackers. Junior Seau will most likely be gone, and I have a feeling he’ll be joined by Rosevelt Colvin, probably Asante Samuel as well. Bruschi? I think he’ll be back. Their defensive line is all set, and they’ll stick with the safeties as currently constituted with Sanders and Meriweather as the future of the position and Harrison hanging around to do his thing. I’ve already heard a rumor that Greg Ellis will be coming to town to help the linebackers, although their real need is inside. On Offense Most things will stay the same, they’ll re-sign Moss, but say goodbye to Stallworth and Gaffney (a personal favorite) and make due with Welker, Chad Jackson and Kelley Washington. The saddest goodbye will involve Troy Brown, a seventh round selection in 1993 out of Marshall, same year they drafted Vincent Brisby. Brown was actually cut by the Pats three different times, but he retires as their all-time leader in catches and also holds a record with Vinny Testaverde as being part of the oldest TD combo in NFL history.

It all begins again, Vegas has them as the favorites for Super Bowl XLIII

Andre the Terribnle

Andre Tippett, NFL Hall of Famer. It just sounds so right. He was my favorite Patriot growing up, really there weren;t many other choices. I do have a soft spot in my heart for Irving Fryar, Stanley Morgan and later Bruce Armstrong, but most of the other players came and went, Tip was the only guy who was consistently good during my formative years. He was dominant, probably the second best linebacker of his era, but he just played on crappy teams so he often seemed overlooked. I’m real happy about the Tippett situation, kinda the exact opposite of the Jim Rice situation, it shouldn’t really matter to me whether or not people agree with me about how good my favorite players were, but I like the validation. I’m just giddy, using this as an excuse to reminisce about those 80s pats teams, for some reason I enjoy thinking about the players, even if they were awful for a few stretches. In a 10 year period they had the worst record in football three times, but also made it to a Super Bowl. In some ways I’ll always look back more fondly on Raymond Claiborne, Ronnie Lippett, Don Blackmon, Johnny Rembert, and Steve Nelson than I will on the current Patriots dynasty.

Something else I really enjoyed more in my youth, or at least in my 20s was reality TV. But this year I haven’t really enjoyed the American Idol judges making fun of the “bewildered.” I’ve been trying to get into the new season of The Real World/Road Rules Challenge, but all I can do is judge the participants for being fame-hungry and pathetic. I’ll give it time, maybe some of the chicks will start to look hotter and Danny will have some ‘roid rage. Also a new Survivor starts next week, featuring some returning favorite participants and I can’t even get into it. Maybe it’s because of the writer’s strike and over-saturation of reality TV, but I’m just not feeling it right now. I’ve probably just had enough of these particular shows, and I’m not really in the MTV demographic anymore.

Some shows I am enjoying include, Dr. Drew’s Celebrity Rehab show and that new lie detector show on Fox. Both are pretty good quality, last week Dr. Drew unleashed his huge guns on the world. For an old dude he’s really jacked. The lie detector show is interesting, but it takes about five minutes per question, still worth a watch. The one other show I want to recommend is The L Word. If you get Showtime, you should check it out. I don’t really know any of the characters names yet, but when I see it’s on, I can’t turn away. It’s the only scripted TV I’m watching these days aside from some wrestling here or there, and of course Lost.

That’s all for today, I’ll be back with Post Super Bowl thoughts after the game.

-Bender Out

Hard Times in Minnesota

So this is all you can get in return for Johan Santana? A few prospects that may or may not help you come 2010? Minnesota sports have now hit an all-time low for any town. Is it possible that Kevin McHale isn’t the worst GM in Minnesota? Admittedly, I’m not an expert baseball scout, I don’t even read Baseball Prospectus or any of those publications which tell who the supposed stars of the future are, but I find it hard to believe that any of these lower level prospects from the Mets will be better than Jacoby Ellsbury or Phillip Hughes. The Twins just traded the best left-handed pitcher of this era, probably the best pitcher in baseball today, and they got back no one who is ready to step in and play right now. Obviously money was the real impetus for the deal, the Twins just can’t afford to pay Johan what he wanted, in fact there are probably less than a handful of teams who could afford to risk a 6-year $150 million contract, which could blow up in their faces given any injury or even standard decline due to aging. All that said, you have to take the best deal on the table. It seemed like both the Yankees and Red Sox breathed a sigh of relief over this trade, they just had to make sure their rival didn’t land the ace. The Twins had them both in a good spot and started a bidding war, but they overplayed their hand, and now they have some players who could help them by 2010, but also could be getting four guys who never make it.

The other trade news going around was in the NBA. The Grizz traded their overrated power forward, Pau Gasol to LA, and the Lakers think they may have just added the final piece to compete for a title this spring. The Lakers didn’t give up too much to get Gasol: two first-rounder draft picks, rookie point guard Javaris Crittenden and Pau’s younger brother Marc Gasol. On Espn.com Chris Wallace defended the deal claiming that they were getting four first round draft picks for Pau, a former all-star. The only thing that makes me dislike this deal for Memphis is that Chris Wallace made the deal. Wallace has no business being a GM, but this one might not look so bad in the long run. Memphis is in rebuilding mode and Gasol has been a malcontent for a few years, they had to trade him at some point. But this trade might expose Gasol as a flawed player, being put on center stage out in LA with more pressure and scrutiny he’ll be exposed for his softness and his inability to elevate his game in the clutch. He isn’t even a good fit in LA, he’s a good low-post scorer, but they already have the emerging Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom is better suited as a power forward than a small forward.

OK, enough sports, Lost is back, and it’s still awesome. The new flash-forward motif is great, there’s a whole new set of mysteries to unravel. Whose funeral was Jack the only person to show up to? Why did they leave people behind on the island? How can Charlie talk to Hurley, or is Hurley just crazy? Who are the rest of the “Oceanic Six”? The only real problems with the return of Lost are, waiting a whole week between episodes, and the impending stoppage of new episodes because of the writer’s strike. Apparently there are eight episodes already shot, but after that we’re SOL. I guess I have to just enjoy it while it lasts, but this strike is starting to piss me off.

That’s all I’ve got today. Go Pats!

-Bender Out