GET THE BROOMS OUT
As much as I feared Arizona coming into today (though I thought the Cards would still win,) at this point I'm seriously thinking sweep.
As I type this, the 10th man is batting for the Cards in the 7th. 12-2 St. Louis.
They're demoralizing the D-Backs. Thursday a win over Curt Schilling makes the series virtually unwinnable for 'Zona. Friday at Busch would be a cake walk.
October already? Great pumpkin. Cars are not my thing, but here we go with This-or-That Tuesday for today:
1. Front or rear wheel drive? Damn, I have NO clue. I guess rear. Key word: guess.
2. Car or truck or van? If we're asking specifics, I have a car, a '94 Pontiac Grand Am. Preference: pretty much the same.
3. Fancy or utilitarian? - puzzled look
4. Power or manual windows/locks? Power locks; manual windows. We had power windows with the 1986 Ford Aerostar of Doom, and I don't want to go there again.
5. Small econobox or giant luxo cruiser? Umm...small is good, I guess.
6. Factory or aftermarket radio? Factory is fine, although it needs a tapedeck. No, not CD: I can't plug my iPod into a CD player. If it has both, that works. As far as what I HAVE...well, a factory tapedeck. Yeah.
7. Lease or buy? I don't know what my jasminlive preference would be; in a perfect world, I'd be rich and pay cash upfront. Actually, my car was bought that way: my grandfather had just sold his house in Chicagoland and moved south to Carbondale, IL. He purchased the car new down there.
8. Perform own maintenance or farm it out? Me, do maintenance on my car? scoffs
9. Hi-test brand name or cheap-o fuel? Regular from anywhere, thank you very much.
10. Run-it-till-the-wheels-fall-off or a new one every two years? Six years and running for me.
Okay, I know
Meanwhile, if the Seahawks/Charter Communications/Tech TV owner can't find a name for Seahawks Stadium, why not just call it Leo Laporte Field? Synergy, Paul. Synergy. It ain't just a buzz word.
Getting up at 6:30 for work is FUN! Actually, when you don't end up sitting by yourself in a little room out in the country it's not so bad. On three-and-a-half hours of sleep I functioned better than if I had six and had to show up early at my old job. I guess Best Buy has that effect on technophiles like myself. Plus I was getting paid $7/hr to watch a bad training video, so all is good.
Random new season TV show thoughts: was EVERY ABC show rebroadcast on ABC Family this weekend? Between three hours of new shows last night and a nine hour Alias marathon today I think ABC Family has become a giant infomercial for Disney's broadcast network. Meanwhile, the image of Jennifer Garner is now burned into my retina. The jury is still out on whether or not this is a good thing; she looks like a confused stick. Just saying, is all.
Anyway, sticking with ABC, "8 Simple Rules..." is nothing special, but the second episode of "Life With Bonnie" was HILARIOUS. Bonnie Hunt and David Duchovny improvising the second act had me busting several previously un-busted guts. Genius. ABC's "guy goes back in time to relive high school" show (whose name I can't remember; The WB also has their own new show with the same plot) is really not good (the word is "bad", Peter.)
NBC's "American Dreams" made me hate Dick Clark even more, although it was cute in a way. Far too predictable, though.
Skipped by me last week
1. What are your favorite ways to relax and unwind? Watching chaturbate shows, mostly. Either an actualy, real life television program, or a DVD. Laying down and listening to music works, too; I'll use my iPod for that for almost an hour before I go to sleep most nights.
2. What do you do the moment you get home from work/school/errands? Dump the wallet, watch and keys and fire up the computer. The telly gets a power button pushed, too.
3. What are your favorite aromatherapeutic smells? None, really. Gas smells nice, though.
4. Do you feel more relaxed with a group of friends or hanging out by yourself? By myself; I loves me privacy.
5. What is something that you feel is relaxing but most people don't? Webmastering? No, that's enjoyable but not relaxing. I can't think of anything, actually. For shame.
NOTHING TO SEE HERE, GO ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS
For those not situated in or around Mound City, let me clarify something:
The St. Louis Rams are oh-and-three. Winless. Losers. Maybe not playoff bound. Defeated. Embarrassed. Castrated. Down and out.
No one cares. Really.
St. Louis is an ABC town: Arch, Busch, Cardinals. That's all it really has going for it, at least that any other metropolitan area can't emulate or best. While the Blues have really strong support, it pales in comparison to the rabid fans Chicago, Toronto or especially Detroit have for their skaters. And if the Rams weren't as dominant as they have been (and possibly may be again soon,) they'd be ignored just like they were in the Tony Banks era.
The Cardinals can finish last and outdraw half of baseball, and three straight first-place finishes assure they do far better than that.
If the Redbirds played a NL Division Series game the same day as a Rams Super Bowl, I daresay the NLDCS game might beat the football contest in the ratings. MIGHT. Probably not, but it would be closer than in any other city (admittedly in part because we've seen two Super Bowls in three years; no World Series play has graced 250 Stadium Plaza since 1987 and no championship has been won in two decades.) This is a baseball town, first and foremost; other sports are merely side dishes, time filler. Individual taste may differ, but as a group St. Louis leans towards baseball quite fiercely. People love baseball from age six to sixty-six in St. Louis, while other sports are more demographically restrained.
In other words, the Rams have become the Lakers or Yankees of the NFL, the dominant team everyone loves to hate and are glad to gloat about now that they're slowly turning into the 1998 Lambs. Go ahead and laugh, because no one here really cares. With a win today and two more this weekend (or less if the D-Backs cooperate,) the Cards clinch home field advantage over Arizona and may be on their way to World Series title number 16, a number bested only by the New York Yankees.
Who gives a damn about football?
HIS-OR-THAT
1. "Gone With The Wind" or "The Wizard of Oz"? I've never seen the first, but I can be confident in choosing "Oz." Just like "I Love Lucy" paved the way for much of television, "Oz" was the establishment of cinema as something more than just mindless flickering images. Would the medium have been successful without it? Yeah, but we're dealing with a timeline in which it exists, and Hollywood owes the film a great debt.
2. "Toy Story" or "Shrek"? Toy Story is nice, but Shrek has The Simpson's smarky attitude and hilarity.
3. "Saturday Night Fever" or "Grease"? I've never seen the former, so Grease is the word.
4. "Casablanca" or "Citizen Kane"? Both are on the to-see list, an embarrassing long list we shall not discuss at the present. For the sake of an answer, the latter, because it inspired so much of The Simpsons, far past C. Montgomery Burns.
5. "When Harry Met Sally" or "You've Got Mail"? I looooove You've Got Mail, not as art but as Candy Cinema. Ryan is gorgeous, Hanks is fun to watch, Greg Kinnear and Parker Posey are their normal interesting selves, and the cinematography of New York is tremendous.
6. "Forrest Gump" or "Titanic"? Haha, that's funny. Titanic is good, a wonderful looking movie, but with a sappy, none-too-special plot. Forrest Gump is better looking, better acted, and sociologically and historically important.
7. "Pretty Woman" or "Working Girl"? I share critic MaryAnn Johanson's hatred of Julia Roberts (capped by her undeserved Oscar win last year,) and haven't seen the second. Girl from https://www.jasminelive.online/ wins by default.
8. "The First Wives Club" or "Thelma&Louise"? Haven't seen TL it would probably win, but since I've (unfortunately) seen First Wives it gets the nod.
9. "Willy Wonka&the Chocolate Factory" or "James&the Giant Peach"? Wonka = overrated. James wins.
10. "Legally Blonde" or "Bridget Jones' Diary"? Oooh, good one. In early 2001 I pined on my not-yet-blogtastic website about wanting to see Bridget, and when I finally rented the DVD months later it disappointed me. Blonde was nothing special, but a nice little film, and gets the nod.
OY WITH THE POODLES ALREADY
The Emmys: Yeah, I predicted horribly, but so did the best experts; that's the way the Emmys work. They're always biased, you just have to guess in which direction they're going this year. The answer was "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue," and I'm still trying to figure out how Allison Janney, a perfectly wonderful supporting actress, deserves a lead actress award. I guess they wanted an equally insane counterpart to the male winner, Michael Chiklis, of FX's "The Shield." This was the toughest category: of the five nominees, there were four that could win to the surprise of no one. Chiklis was the other one; this was the biggest upset in perhaps all of Emmy's 54 years, and I don't mean that in a good way. It was just plain wrong. We're talking "Gladiator as Best Picture"-level wrong, and that's not a level I toss out lightly.
Aniston for Best Actress? That's alright, and I won't argue with Romano's Actor victory. Giving both Supporting nods to his co-stars is a bit much, though; just give the show Best Comedy already and get it out of your system.
Speaking of Best Comedy, the correct choice, of course, was "Gilmore Girls" but of the nominees "Friends" was rightfully rewarded. I'm starting to sour on "Six Feet Under", but it was the best drama on television last year, and that's sort of the qualification for the award called "Best Drama." ATAS really needs to get over the whole sophomore season thing, where a drama won't be rewarded in its first year (NYPD Blue, ER, The Practice.) Actually, SFU was nominated for both its first AND second season, thanks to HBO's wacky scheduling (that also knocked The Sopranos out of contention.) That bias for "The West Wing" was just too much, though.
The awards show itself was great, although I was sorry to see it run long: the Emmys haven't gone past three hours for at least six years, maybe longer. Twenty minutes wasn't the end of the world, though. Conan owned the Shrine Auditorium; his opening skit was Classic Conan (I think I saw several of his writers in the credits, in fact,) as was his "fight" with Andy Richter in the aisle halfway through the show. No Triumph, though. :(
A radio commercial for NBC tonight: "Rudy from 'The Cosby Show' gets runover by a steamroller!" Sorry, Jeff, I'll stick with 7th Heaven myself.
The ScreenSavers' new set is nice, but too bare. The Boot Camp area looks to be in the middle of an empty high school gym.
Standing in line at Wal-Mart to purchase my weekly eight-pack of orange Gatorade, the girl in front of me turned around and said, "I saw you at school today." Oh-kay. What am I supposed to say to that? I think a grunted "OK" is what resulted. I mean, it's not exactly an amazing occurrence to run into one of your some 12,000 schoolmates in the very town the college is in, and she didn't sound anymore interested than merely relaying this information. Congratulations to her.