caulfield12

Fincher will clearly win Best Director for The Social Network. King's Speech could still pull the upset for Best Picture, although I'd say the odds are only about 20-25%. A lot of critics have read into the Mila Kunis character and many parts of The Black Swan....that she didn't even exist but in Natalie Portman's imagination, to goad and push her (just like the director, Cassel) along the way on her evolution (literally and figuratively) into the black swan, a complete physical and mental metamorphasis. I agree the Barbara Hershey as Mommie Dearest (can I also use Tiger Mother now?) character was a bit over the top and too grating/stereotypical...but you need those kinds of one-dimensional, simplistic characters in the background to make Natalie's descent into artistic hell (and ultimate "rapture") more credible, that everything around her, "dark forces," are pushing her in this direction. It's strange her next movie being released after she probably wins the Academy Award (it's her or Anne Benning for The Kids Are All Right) will be a two-star romantic comedy with Ashton Kutcher (Bruce Willis' dad, and the one surviving Univ. of Iowa basketball fan left).

Remember Jon Van Benschoten or whatever his name?....although I think he must have had more injury problems, about the last players who have come out of nowhere to make the Sox pitching staff have been Loiaza and Boone Logan. I guess you can count someone like loogy Williams, but he hardly made a huge contribution, I suppose he was "okay" in 2009 when almost nothing was expected out of him but he was quickly overexposed ala D-Weezy. We hardly turned around Jeff Marquez...another high draft pick that a lot were hoping could turn it around with Cooper. Another pitcher that kind of comes to mind in this category is Jason Grilli with the Sox...although he did his best work in DET, the White Sox are the team who resuscitated his career. And... If Bruney looks like the Bruney of old (doubtful) and less like Jeff Nelson in the last year of his career, he's got a definite shot. Dolsi is another candidate....he's definitely got a live arm, it only takes one or two pitchers having Politte/Hermanson/Cotts career years to really make a bullpen.

Saw Dinner for Schmucks, I remember at least one or two posters here really didn't like that movie....but actually thought it wasn't bad at all, and definitely not a Steve Carell fan (unless it's offbeat like Little Miss Sunshine or Life of Dan). Really like Paul Rudd, Role Models and I Love You, Man are two of my favorite comedies of the last 5 years or so. If I remember correctly, he was also in Knocked Up, too. I know Katherine Heigl has a lot of haters these days (because of her movies and her "attitude" in interviews and a few controversial issues with Grey's Anatomy)....but I liked Knocked Up, and I'm really getting bored with Seth Rogen. The only thing I liked about Green Hornet was Cameron Diaz (horribly underutilized) and his tech-savvy sidekick, the famous Chinese singer Jay Chou. Christopher Waltz from Inglorious Basterds was a barely tolerable villain, seems like the role was way underwritten and he was trying to hard to force it, but not good at all. Definitely not the type of movie you pay $10 to see.

The Way Back, looks like an excellent movie with a fine cast...my kind of historical tale. http://www.boxofficemagazine.com/reviews/2...12-the-way-back

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Jan 20, 2011 -> 09:32 PM) Nobody on this site is less of a Teahen fan than I am, but the last thing you ever do with a rookie is make it out like a starting job in the Majors is his to lose. Teahen, Omar, Lillibridge, and Viciedo should all get good reps in Spring to push him and for good reason, because it'll benefit everyone. The team as constructed though seems to point to our starting rotation and middle of the order offense are our key strengths, which means we can afford a light-hitting 9th place hitter in theory so long as he helps our strong pitching become even stronger. Nobody we've got aside from Omar is going to outplay Morel defensively, and Omar can't be relied upon every day, so it really is Morel's job to lose. You won't find a positive quote from Greg775 or myself on the Teahen debacle either (since we are/were both witnesses to his atrocities committed in Kauffman Stadium)...I still wanted Uribe back in 2009. He was always my favorite player. Well, Teahen's a great interview, always available for a quote, good sense of humor, stellar clubhouse guy, etc. It's the Erstad/Mackowiak/Kotsay thing all over again. On the other hand, when Wise and Anderson faced off in ST coming into 2009, Ozzie at least temporarily gave the job to Wise when conventional wisdom says you have to give it to one of your own home-grown prospects and a former first rounder. Wise was the dictionary definition of a journeyman player with limited upside if overexposed. Ozzie's not blind, if Morel can hit somewhere between Crede and Anderson (2006)/Beckham first half of 2010, then the position is his. Everyone knows the impact Vizquel had not only on 3B but on Alexei as well....it's the old domino effect.

Watched Blue Valentine. Had the same feeling I did watching Reservation Road, I respected the acting performances, but it's not the kind of movie you really want to watch again. Actually, Gosling performed in a similar lesser-known movie about the dissolution of a family and marriage (based on a real life story) called "All Good Things" with Kirsten Dunst that I enjoyed twice as much as Blue Valentine. I would still recommend anyone watch B.V., but it's not close to the movie that Half Nelson is in terms of his best performances, or even All Good Things. Finally watched "She's Out of My League" and you can't help but root for Jay Baruchel and his "aw shucks" niceness....his character is so helpless and passive at times, but that's the whole point of the movie. The best part, at least to me, was the constant banter amongst the 3 friends who are all rooting for him while simultaneously jealous and masking their own relationship insecurities by putting up bold and brave fronts. I'm sure TSA didn't exactly appreciate their portrayal in this movie...especially the harassment of cute/hot female passengers when going through security, guess they didn't have the invasive full-body scan when this picture was wrapped or the director would have had another scene to make hilarity out of.

I guess this is Colin Firth week for me so far. A Single Man and The King's Speech. Although Love Actually, still, is my all-time favorite of his. Has anyone seen Hereafter? The reviews were so mixed (Ebert gave it a 4), I didn't know what to expect. It's obviously a BIG topic to deal with in a movie, but I thought it was quite well-done and thought-provoking. It wasn't Gran Torino or Million Dollar Baby, but I actually enjoyed it a lot. Damon's perhaps evolving into one of the top 3-5 actors of his generation. You can put him right up there with Bale, Russell Crowe, Depp, DiCaprio and anyone else you might care to name...Will Smith when he has the right role, too.

I'll echo the comments about Vanguard. My dad a long time ago put me in a very conservative/traditional stock fund called Nicholas Fund out of Milwaukee. Of course, in the late 90's, like everyone, I got greedy and sold low on it (just like everyone giving up on the antiquarian Warren Buffett) and bought high on one of those "high tech/computer driven" model funds at American Century in Kansas City. I've made the same mistake before picking up Bill Miller's funds (Legg Mason Value Trust) when he had beaten the S&P 12-13 years in a row. Bill Nygren and Oakmark weren't too far behind, both had impeccable track records and have underperformed. I actually have Berkshire stock now (3 shares, haha) and mostly Vanguard Index funds, international/emerging markets, small/large cap, some gold (and mining stocks), utilities, a good mix. It's always those basic rules like never have more than 10% of your net worth in any one asset (including houses) and take 100 minus your age for the amount of money you should have in stocks....100-40, I still should be at least 60% in growth stocks, and I'm probably closer in reality to 80-85% (the rest is in bond funds, some CDs and money market, etc.) in a bid to make up for the last decade of lost growth in the market. Should have listened to my dad and not been overcome by hubris. I still remember buying JDS-Uniphase at $110 per share (it was only 100 shares, but still) riding it to $140, not selling, and seeing the whole thing collapse...as my uncle said, there's no such thing as a bad profit, I could have made a great 27% return on investment in less than a year and I got greedy. Well, I'm sure there are millions of stories out there that involve losing a lot more than $10,000 the last 13-14 years. At least I wasn't a Madoff investor. Something like that just makes u sick to your stomach, all my mistakes were made with nobody to blame but myself, I won't blame brokerage houses and places like Edward Jones, everyone was caught up in the same spirit, and it happened with houses too, luckily I sold my house in 2004 and made a pretty good profit.

Dead time in movieworld.... Did anyone see THE GREEN HORNET? Ebert gave it a 1 star, quite unusual for him. Of Gods and Men and Exit Through the Gift Shop...both "high recommends" Tried to watch Season of the Witch online and gave up after an hour...Burlesque was so-so at best and not an Aguilera fan (she has a great voice, you have to give her that much, but as an actress, forget it), Love and Other Drugs was actually better than I thought it would be because I liked Jake Gylenhaal's character (Anne Hathaway, not so much, except for boobs) and Hank Azaria, he's one of those character actors like Steve Buscemi, Stanley Tucci and Richard Jenkins I almost always enjoy, but never quite rising to Agadore Spartcus in The Birdcage...(even watching the original True Grit, it made me think of Nathan Lane's John Wayne impression, quite hilarious) Conviction you'll like if you are a Hilary Swank or Sam Rockwell fan, based on true story...that role is a "fastball down and in" for LH hitter Hilary Swank, in my opinion Will try to watch Hereafter and She's Out of My League (yes, reaching the bottom of the barrel) and figure out some better ones to watch from the last five years or so that I haven't already seen....any recommendations? Am going to watch The King's Speech, will be interesting to see if Social Network wins the OSCAR, all momentum seems to be pointing that direction.

I think that's a LARGE reason we're seeing the fingers pointed...because of the anti-government rhetoric in movies like the aforementioned one, or Collapse. Of course, there are "conspiracy theorists" on the liberal/radical side (think of JFK the movie, for example)...but I can't count how many times the last two years I've heard that the Federal Government in Washington has no right to impose or levy taxes, about the IMF/World Bank/Trilateral Commission, Davos, World Economic Forum, WTO, George Soros, shadowy world bankers, etc. But the weirdest part of this guy's "world view" was the one of the grammar/mind/thought control...based on the preaching of some guy in Hawaii who I'd never even heard of, I guess the anti-Noam Chomsky as it were.

Did THE Dallas Green, the grandfather/former manager, ever put forth a public quote about this whole situation?

The week of that interview (with Chuck Todd) began with the House passing the health care bill on Sunday. Within hours, on Monday morning, vandals smashed the front door of Giffords’s office in Tucson. The Palin “target” map (and the accompanying Twitter dictum to “RELOAD”) went up on Tuesday, just one day after that vandalism — timing that was at best tone-deaf and at worst nastily provocative. Not just Giffords, but at least three other of the 20 members of Congress on the Palin map were also hit with vandalism or death threats. In her MSNBC interview that Wednesday, Giffords said that Palin had put the “crosshairs of a gun sight over our district,” adding that “when people do that, they’ve got to realize there’s consequences to that action.” Chuck Todd then asked Giffords if “in fairness, campaign rhetoric and war rhetoric have been interchangeable for years.” She responded that colleagues who had been in the House “20, 30 years” had never seen vitriol this bad. But Todd moved on, and so did the Beltway. What’s the big deal about a little broken glass? Few wanted to see what Giffords saw — that the vandalism and death threats were the latest consequences of a tide of ugly insurrectionism that had been rising since the final weeks of the 2008 campaign and that had threatened to turn violent from the start. Giffords’s first brush with that reality had occurred some seven months before her office was vandalized — in the red-hot health care fever of August 2009. She had held another “Congress on Your Corner” meeting, at a Safeway in the town of Douglas. There the crowd’s rage and the dropping of a gun by one attendee prompted aides worried about her safety to summon the police. The Tucson Tea Party co-founder, Trent Humphries, told The Arizona Daily Star afterward that this was a lie, that “nobody was threatening Gabby.” After Loughner’s massacre, Humphries was still faulting her — this time for holding “an event in full view of the public with no security whatsoever.” .......... But that sidesteps the issue. This isn’t about angry blog posts or verbal fisticuffs. Since Obama’s ascension, we’ve seen repeated incidents of political violence. Just a short list would include the 2009 killing of three Pittsburgh police officers by a neo-Nazi Obama-hater; last year’s murder-suicide kamikaze attack on an I.R.S. office in Austin, Tex.; and the California police shootout with an assailant plotting to attack an obscure liberal foundation obsessively vilified by Beck. A few unexpected voices have expressed alarm. After an antigovernment gunman struck at Washington’s Holocaust museum in June 2009, Shepard Smith of Fox News noted the rising vitriol in his e-mail traffic and warned on air that more “amped up” Americans could be “getting the gun out.” The former Bush administration speechwriter David Frum took on the “reckless right” that August, citing the incident at the Giffords Safeway event. But when a Department of Homeland Security report warned of far-right extremism and attacks by “lone wolves” that same summer, Gingrich called it a smear and John Boehner demanded an apology. Last week a conservative presidential candidate, Tim Pawlenty, timidly said it wouldn’t be his “style” to use Palin’s target map, but was savaged so viciously by his own camp that he immediately retreated. A senior Republican senator told Politico that he saw the Tucson bloodbath as a “cautionary tale” for his party, yet refused to be named. What are they and their peers so afraid of? No doubt that someone might reload — the same fears that prompted Gabrielle Giffords to speak up, calmly but firmly, last March. Unless and until they can match her courage and speak out too, it’s hard to see what will change. Frank Rich, nytimes.com

Yes, Balta, I already read that post. That's what I was responding to.

As thorough as C. Amanpour is, I would have thought someone would have had an idea beforehand of the combustible mix they would be putting together with Fuller and anyone representing the Tea Party or Palin on the same panel....I mean, it's sort of understandable if you've been shot and the Congresswoman you supported and volunteered for was almost murdered to look for blame and be a little bit less objective and clear-headed than those of us not involved in the events that day. And to sit on a panel after you've been shot and listen to people who have ZERO bend on ANY ASPECT of gun control laws, it has to be frustrating. I still don't know what has to take place in our country before it becomes "enough is enough" since every school shooting led to this same conversation and even movies like Bowling for Columbine and then faded from consciousness again. At the very LEAST, they should make it clear to gun dealers at shows that they don't have to sell a gun to EVERYONE who clears the background check. Clearly, many reasonable people had suspicions about the shooter (including the person who sold him the gun). Eric Fuller, 63, who was struck by a bullet in the hail of gunfire in Tucson that killed six and wounded 13 on Saturday, claimed Thursday that conservative figureheads such as Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and Sharron Angle were to blame for the violence in Arizona. "How many more demented people are out there? It looks like Palin, Beck, Sharron Angle and the rest got their first target," Fuller, a former campaigner for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), told Democracy Now. "Their wish for Second Amendment activism has been fulfilled -- senseless hatred leading to murder, lunatic-fringe anarchism, subscribed to by John Boehner, mainstream rebels with vengeance for all, even nine-year-old girls," he added, reading from comments he said he had written down while being treated for his wounds. huffingtonpost.com

And just imagine if the Democratic Party asked for a lot of the state and Federal monies that have been cut to pay for mental health care and counseling to be reinstated...? Very few people have even mentioned the main cause of the shooting, an individual who was clearly troubled, was identified as such by everyone from classmates to the person who THOUGHT he had to sell him that gun because he'd passed a background check (patently incorrect), to teachers to neighbors to staff at the school....heck, he even had a prior run-in with Giffords in 2007 that put him on the radar screen. And yet it's a very slippery slope to incarcerate someone against their will until they've actually done something heinous/murderous. Obviously, that's the trickiest discussion. Let's say I am a teacher and I meet a parent and think they MIGHT abuse their child...I can't report them until I actually see bruises, and, if I do, I might be wrong and I might end up the victim of a violent crime instead.

QUOTE (Controlled Chaos @ Jan 14, 2011 -> 03:26 PM) <!--quoteo(post=2314060:date=Jan 14, 2011 -> 12:06 PM:name=NorthSideSox72)-->QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 14, 2011 -> 12:06 PM) <!--quotec-->Yeah that helps the discussion. I don't agree with BS here, but he's at least trying to make a salient point and defend it. He said it's human nature. It's not. It is a political map from 9+ months ago, targeting Democrats in vulnerable districts who voted for ObamaCare. That's it. That's all. On the map it says, "Let's take back the 20 together! Join me today" On the page with the map it says: We’re paying particular attention to those House members who voted in favor of Obamacare and represent districts that Senator John McCain and I carried during the 2008 election. Three of these House members are retiring…The others are running for re-election, and we’re going to hold them accountable for this disastrous Obamacare vote. We’ll aim for these races and many others. This is just the first salvo in a fight to elect people across the nation who will bring common sense to Washington. Please go to sarahpac.com and join me in the fight. It's not a call to arms. It is all about targeting districts. All politicians use that term. I don't care if the pictures are bulls eyes, targets or cross hairs. To turn around and say that political map, is linked with somebody buying a gun and murdering all these innocent people, is not human nature. To even equate the two is not human nature…it is 100% ludicrous!! It's even worse to place blood on anothers hands without a shred of evidence, but let's be honest here…some people wanted this to be about Palin and the right so bad, it doesn't f***in matter. Just look at how repulsive some of headlines below are. Sick and demented! Deep down in the depths of their black f***in souls, they'd be ok with a few deaths if they could have pinned this on Palin or Beck or Rush or the Tea Party. That's why they're so quick to go there, instead of sorrow. "It was just a matter of time" has been the new battle cry of the left. I saw it on countless, now deleted, tweets, posts and facebook statuses this week. The left just can't wait to lay blame...damn the evidence or consequences. Damn the apologies after proven wrong time and time again. 3 Pittsburgh cops gunned down. - "It was just a matter of time" 13 murdered at immigration center. - "It was just a matter of time" Security guard gunned down at Holocaust museum. - "It was just a matter of time" Democratic headquarters in Denver windows smashed - "It was just a matter of time" Census worker found dead - "It was just a matter of time" Professor guns down three of her colleagues at University of Alabama-Huntsville - "It was just a matter of time" Pilot flys small plane into IRS building - "It was just a matter of time" Firebombing at a democratic congressman’s St. Louis office - "It was just a matter of time" Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords shot. - "It was just a matter of time" Truly sad! http://www.therightscoop.com/wp-content/up...ffordsdeath.jpg http://www.therightscoop.com/wp-content/up...dsarahpalin.jpg http://www.therightscoop.com/wp-content/up...pazshooting.jpg http://www.therightscoop.com/wp-content/up...fondatweets.jpg http://www.therightscoop.com/wp-content/up...ordshooting.jpg http://www.therightscoop.com/wp-content/up...1/joanwalsh.jpg http://www.therightscoop.com/wp-content/up...ichealdaly1.jpg Go to Yahoo News sometime and read ANY article about Obama. I don't know if people are pretending or not, but the level of hate/bigotry/racism recorded in those threads is 100X scarier than anything you'll see here. No matter what he does, 10-15% of America (not necessarily the same group who would STILL vote for Palin for POTUS if she ran today) will hate him, with at least half of that group or more using words like Hitler, Anti-Christ, Stalin, Mao, Marxist/Socialist/Communist to "hide" their true feelings. The fact is, that Palin's camp DID remove the crosshairs after the weekend? Why? Wouldn't they know that's basically an admission of guilty feelings? If she had real political courage, she would have left it up, then she's have at least ONE reason I would/could admire her. But no, she had a spokesperson actually throwing out lines like "they're actually surveyor's symbols" like anyone could POSSIBLY believe that one. Sharon Angle is also taking hits for using the "might have to resort to second Amendment remedies" line in one of her speeches. Many politicians used "relock/reload" analogies about taking down the Congress and Health Care law... As Paul Krugman wrote yesterday or the day before in the NY Times, both sides are too entrenched here...the two different philosophies about government. There are many more people who hate Obama viscerally who simply believe taxation is wrong, that any government program like Medicaid or the health care program is pure evil, to redistribute income in any way from someone with more money to less is pure, unadulterated evil, even though there are numerous billionaires like Gates and Buffett who repeatedly say they don't pay enough in taxes. The sad thing is there's not even a WHISPER of momentum to get rid of reloadable magazines with more than 10+ bullets (I think it was 28) like the Glock. What founding father could ever have imagined automatic weapons when they wrote an amendment having more to do with regional militias and protection against Native American populations? It's telling that Congress with their huge majority of D's in 2009/10 didn't even dare to touch this mythical 3rd rail due to the dreaded NRA. Why would a hunter OR someone defending their home need to fire 28 shots? Has that ever happened in the history of home invasions/burglaries? I just hope the GOP does what they did under Reagan, Gingrich and "W" and they go after Medicare and Social Security.

A couple of points...it was deliberately designed that way, as a "uniting" event (by the University of Arizona) for the community and that has something to do with the pep rally aspect of it, a lot of people thought it was a "memorial service" and it wasn't, although there were certainly elements of that as well with the Old and New Testament recitations. Someone made a comment that the hospital was only one mile away where all of the survivors were recovering. With 13-14,000 in McHale and almost the same amount at the football stadium with big screens, there was a sense that "they wanted to be heard" as far across the city as they could...no city wants to be thought of as the "OK Corral" or "Tombstone," and yes, solemnity had its place, and the Native American invocation/pray ceremony was a bit too much, but overall, for anyone in Tucson and Arizona feeling down, it was pretty hard not to be uplifted. And, as I noted, the single biggest cheer was for student Daniel Hernandez and related to his speech, moreso than anything else, the students and community were proud of his actions, and he was a volunteer in Giffords' office, not to mention both Hernandez and the student president were well acquainted with Giffords personally and the fact that one of her aides (Gabe Zimmerman) died, I think that also had a lot to do with the feelings and reactions. Now there's even accusations coming out against John Boehner that he was invited (at the last second) to ride along on AF One and he refused. I don't think it was the administration's intention to embarass him....apparently one of his former aides is in the running for Michael Steele's position and there was a previously scheduled fundraiser on his agenda, and he in all fairness was part of 8 hours of "kind words" in the House and the prayer service at lunchtime. This isn't Newt Gingrich whining over having to sit in the back of the plane. For what it's worth, John McCain was even crying. Not sure about Mr. Kyl, he of the recent attempt to block the Russian/Start nuclear arms agreement.

The Fockers movie was borderline unwatchable....I'm not sure which was worse, I didn't see the latest Reese Witherspoon How Do You Know? "debacle" (James Brooks directed)...or maybe Gulliver's Travels takes the cake?

I thought I was listening to a "compassionate Conservative" Sunday school lesson...rather than the President. It was actually almost the perfect tone. Might have been better had they allowed Kyl or McCain to speak as well, would have taken away from the suggestions it was a glorified campaign rally. Those college campuses ae Obama's bread and butter spots, and his staff knows it. I think MOST of the cheering was because of Daniel Hernandez (the UAriz student who essentially saved Giffords' life) and not so much because of the partisan nature of the speakers (Brewer, Napolitano, Holder). Most of the "speeches" were Bible quotations/recitations. I do think the UAriz president (Robert Shelton) went a bit overboard praising/introducing Obama, but other than that, there were no clear mistakes. Contrasting the victims' roles (grandparents/parents, brother, son/daughter, community servant) with the tapestry of the American community fabric was a brilliant rhetorical flourish at the end...he was in danger of sermonizing too much but then the part about Dallas Green's grand-daughter and how America should be the country as children perceive it, through their eyes, it's the closest he has come to connecting emotionally/viscerally with the American public since I've been listening to him. If he would have lost it or teared up, someone would have accused him of manipulation, but he was as close as he can come to Bill Clinton in a speech, and somewhere between John F.Kennedy/Cuomo/Jackson/MLK/FDR and where he usually resides, obscured by his intellectual distance and cool aloofness.

I dare anyone to admit they've seen Season of the Witch... Meanwhile, Armond White (NY Post film critic) sparred with Darren Aronofsky over recent reviews at a film awards night...White basically argued Kanye West's "Runaway" video was much better than Aronofsky's work, etc. Since Aronofsky brought up the subject, let's look at the record. What did White write about Aronofsky? He said Black Swan was a "ridiculous psychological thriller ." He said, "Nina’s artistic struggle only represents the indulgence of escapist filmmaking. He pretends that wacky thoughts and paranoid hysteria are the stuff of great cinema more so than the concentration and discipline that go into a ballet dancer’s skill and hard work." He said, "This berserk combination of Repulsion and The Red Shoes shows how Aronofsky, since his debut feature Pi, has come to specialize in specious deep thoughts—usually melding them to sentimentality (The Wrestler) or sensationalism (Requiem for a Dream). He’s gotten away from the original ethnic emphasis that distinguished Pi’s story of Jewish paranoia as an exploration of Hasidic arcana. The way Black Swan deprives Upper West Side art maven Nina of any specific ethnic characteristics, makes it a horror story in more than one way. Aronofsky’s ethnic denial and escape into Nina’s psychological trauma actually trivializes her artistic pursuit. Turning art into genre movie silliness is a careerist’s dance." Of "The Wrestler," Aronofsky's previous film, White wrote , "Director Darren Aronofsky has made a literal-minded parable about suffering and mankind’s miserable existence. Aronofsky inflicts as much pain on the audience as self-flagellating Ram Jam does when brutalizing/mutilating himself in and outside the ring. . . .Sanctimony like this appeals primarily to cynics who scoff at Mel Gibson’s sincerity yet cheer Aronofsky’s repulsive, violent nihilism.The message that life is hell is a pseudo-intellectual’s version of professional wrestling bunkum. ...in The Wrestler, Rourke’s tenderness is degraded and made pitiful—another selfexploiting tabloid spectacle. Ram Jam is a distorted white working-class stereotype, but Aronofsky can’t tell courage from vainglory, foolhardiness from sacrifice. Shame on Bruce Springsteen for contributing a self-pitying title song to Aronofsky’s indie artsiness." nypost.com

Catching up on more movies The Company Men 3.25/4.0 (depressing, but quite well done, almost as good as UP IN THE AIR in many ways, Costner looking old but actually becoming a better actor with age) True Grit 3.5 (wish I hadn't just watched the original 2 weeks ago, it would have been much better not knowing what would happen) 127 Hours 3.5 (great job by Franco, I tried hard to watch THE SCENE and couldn't quite stomach it) The Fighter 3.75 (I actually enjoyed Cinderella Man and the last Rocky movie almost as much, all very good movies...The Fighter because of Bale's performance as well as Amy Adams in an unchacteristic streetwise role has to be ranked #1, what was that movie she played in where she ran a cleaning service?) The A-Team 3.0/3.25 (surprisingly better than I thought it would be)....the impersonations were close to spot on, really recaptured the 'feel' of that show in my mind Secretariat 3.75 (probably my favorite of all the movies I just watched, that or Fighter....I know it's hokey and Disney, it's one of those movies like Miracle, Seabiscuit or The Rookie that you can't help rooting even though you know exactly what's going to happen...a lot of people have compared it to THE BLIND SIDE because of the religious overtones, but this was the far superior movie)

Love all the Shaara books (father and son) simply because I was forced by my dad and cousin to become a "Civil War buff." Freedom by Franzen is excellent, to me, better than The Corrections. List of books I'd like to read in 3 weeks when I go back to the States. City of Thieves The Help Swamplandia! Blood's a Rover Last Night in Twisted River Savages I'd Know You Anywhere Infinite Jest (will try again) War & Peace (re-read) The Surrendered Rich Boy The Imperfectionists Matterhorn One Day Skippy Dies The Invisible Bridge Room The Lonely Polygamist Any more suggestions? Just got back from visiting Corregidor Island and my g/f in the Philippines. Very interesting to learn more about the War in the Pacific/WW II.

Obviously, someone's going to say we should have signed Beltre and R. Soriano, since we're living in an alternative universe here. 2006 should serve as evidence that too much tinkering and roster turnover, no matter how good it all looks on paper, isn't always the magic answer either. KHP provided a pretty good summary of the current state of the team...obviously, there's concern about a Konerko falloff, 3B, Pierre and Teahen, Santos pitching like the first 3-4 months of 2010, the bullpen in general (how it will all come together in terms of consistent roles if we can't find ONE permanent closer for the back end) and the fifth starter's role. Every team in baseball has a similar laundry list of question marks, many much longer than ours. There's no glaring hole like CF in 2009 or DH coming into 2010, at least there's that.

I thought Fathom was Mr. Pessimism? At this point. I'd make us slight favorites over the Twins, depending on what ends up being the Twins' final starting rotation and any bullpen additions in the next 3 months to their roster. I'm not as excited as in 2001 or 2006, largely because Peavy's a huge question mark and I'm still not convinced about the bullpen. I think we need a major contribution from Jake to take the division. We also have either a hole in the bullpen (if Sale's starting) or a very iffy stopgap for an indeterminate period of time which could end up reminding many of our 5th starter issues from 2001-2004. We're all projecting Konerko to come back down to earth, which essentially leaves it up to Rios, Beckham and Quentin to determine how good this team will eventually become. And I'm really interested in seeing who ends up with the most AB's at 3B this season, Morel, Vizquel, Viciedo or Teahen.

Other than Jon Rauch, Swisher, Sean Tracey, Orlando Cabrera....and maybe Thome after what was said in the middle of the season last year (but I still doubt it), how many former White Sox players wouldn't come back to Chicago? Obviously, Jenks wanted to stay, that's why he felt "hurt" to be dumped, although when you're talking about a professional athlete making millions (or like Jermaine Dye being "insulted" by the offers he received) it's all relative I suppose. It's not like we have spent a boatload of money on free agents during the KW tenure. For all the negative comments and "worst manager" things, there's a long list of players like Griffey, Sandy Alomar, Vizquel, etc., who have nothing but positive words for the Sox. Omar is one of the most highly-respected players in the game, easily top five. Despite what may or may not have happened in the clubhouse the last 2-3 seasons, it speaks a lot that he came back. Andruw Jones had no issues playing under Ozzie that we know of....heck, veteran players like Erstad, Kotsay, Mackowiak, etc., love to play under Ozzie because he follows the "baseball code" of giving the veterans (like Jenks again) get the benefit of the doubt. Still, he's given Beckham, Sale and Viciedo plenty of chances to prove themselves when they shined....and stuck with Beckham and perhaps handled his slump as well last year as any manager or front office possibly could have with all the pressure on Gordon. And think of all the players like AJ, Konerko and Buehrle who have stuck around all these years. A lot of the players we shed like Lofton, Ordonez, Carlos Lee or D'Angelo Jimenez were simply really bad fits in the end with this organization winning a championship. I'd like to think KW has learned that talent doesn't always win out...that chemistry and intangibles/character are just as important. But they've taken chances with players like Thornton, Loaiza, Wil Cordero (yikes), Dye, Ellis Burks, Bo Jackson, Jenks, Sergio Santos, Hermanson, El Duque, AJ....this list of players who've had a second or third life with Chicago is immense. And players like Pods were basically worshipped when they were on the South Side (because of 2005) and consequently were welcomed back by many fans with open arms. Aaron Rowand, Carl Everett, Frank Thomas, Joe Crede or Brian Anderson could be placed on the roster again and quite a few Sox fans would be elated.