Hardest sport for me to watch? Ducks playoff hockey, win or lose. Goals are way more precious than touchdowns or baskets, so it's excruciating to watch them fall behind, and nerve-wracking to watch them cling to a lead. No other sport compares.
Tonight's opener of the Stanley Cup Finals gave me a dose of both, more of the former than I would have liked, but thankfully the Ducks led when it counted and hung on for a 3-2 victory to take the early series lead!
Russell actually asked me to call the next goal with four minutes remaining and the game tied 2-2, and I replied, "Pahlsson Moen Niedermayer line." A minute later, Moen snapped the game winner from Niedermayer, with Pahlsson in front of the net.
If I had to rank my current preferences for championships, the Ducks winning the Cup would be number one, just ahead of Stanford Hoops winning a national title. The Broncos dropped way down the list after Elway got the monkey off his back and retired, and the Lakers have won eight championships in my lifetime, so I'm not exactly long-suffering in that department. I don't think Stanford Football qualifies as sport these days, and while it would be nice for this area to see the Giants win a series, I'm just not hardcore about them.
I am hardcore about the Ducks. I've watched almost every game the team has played this season, thanks to the miracle of illegal internet feeds, so I feel particularly connected to this squad. They came so damn close in '03 with Kariya (my favorite player ever), who has since left, but now Selanne (my second favorite player ever) is around to give me that sentimental connection to the group of guys that first brought me into the Ducks' fold back in the mid '90s (ghee ay bare!).
Plus, the Ducks would become the first team from California to ever win the Cup, which would just drive Drew crazy. Bonus! ;)
It's fate. The Broncos went to new uniforms in '97 and won their first Super Bowl that year, and the Ducks went to new uniforms this year and are playing for their first Cup. There's no clearer sign than that.
Now that the disappointment that was the Heroes finale is behind us, let's see what we have to look forward to on the boob tube in the upcoming week.
Wednesday, May 23
Champions League Final, 11:30am, ESPN2 - AC Milan vs. Liverpool. As a side note, Team Chang (aka Everton FC) qualified for next year's UEFA Cup by finishing a solid 6th in The Premiership this season!
Saturday Night Live in the 90s: Pop Culture Nation, 8pm, NBC - Overlaps with the Lost finale, so set your Tivos. I didn't watch the show regularly, but it had its moments. Gotta have more cowbell!
Lost 2-Hour Season Finale, 9pm, ABC - The hobbit is so dead. Who's going with him? Not Locke (no kidney where he got shot!). Will anyone get rescued? Will the episode make us want to tear our hair out? Almost certainly, but after the unsatisfyingly quick resolution of Heroes, I've come to understand that the on-going Lost mysteries are what make the show special.
Friday, May 25
If you watch anything on Fridays (doubtful), Tivo it so you can catch Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End on opening night! It just has to be better than Spider-Man 3, right? Right?
Monday, May 28
NHL Stanley Cup Finals, Game 1, 5pm, Versus - The Ducks are in! WOO HOO!!! They'll be facing the Ottawa Senators for the greatest trophy in sports. I'm gonna go ahead and throw this out there, fully expecting the sound of crickets in response, but I don't want to pass up on the opportunity to see my team play in the Finals in The Pond, so if anyone is willing to shell out big bucks to join me...
Star Wars Tech, 8pm, History Channel - Takes a scientific look at the feasibility of light sabers and other trilogy technology. What do you guys think, could the Death Star happen? And if you were a contractor, would you take a job on the Death Star?
Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed, 9pm, History Channel - A bunch of celebrities, critics, academics, and politicians examine the enduring impact of the trilogy and trace its origins in Greek mythology, the Bible, politics, etc. Among the names? Peter Jackson, Kevin Smith, Tom Brokaw, Nancy Pelosi, Newt Gingrich, and... Stephen Colbert!
I'm not sure if you have heard about Le Sport Sac's line of tokidoki bags. But it's huge here in Hawaii, and my med school friends and I have gotten sucked into the new fad. I think each of us has a different pattern, including some knock-offs. And here is the newest design, which I had to buy today. I have come to the realization that I am a bag addict.
Isn't the design cute? And I actually don't mind the fish! Oh, yeah, my Pediatrics rotation is going okay. Can't wait to be done with third year!
Turns out there are 20 levels, with invisible tanks in the final one. Thank God we beat it on our first try, 'cause I'm not sure we would have bothered to try getting back. We didn't even know what we were doing; we just kept shooting in scatters and dodging each other's bullets until we won.
Speaking of Wii Play, I've seen few video game feats in person freakier than Hubert's shooting on Wii Play Shooting Range. Just behind Jeremy's button-pushing on Mario Party and Gina's whack-a-moling on Super Mario DS. I couldn't stay within 150 points of him, and I was beating him in all of the other games, so you'd have figured I had the advantage. Not even close.
With Tanks dominated, it's time to finish up Rayman Raving Rabids, which should hold me until May 29, when Mario Party 8 comes out!
P.S. Apologies for the title, but Gina did it previously with Michelle Wie, so I couldn't help myself. It's a damn shame Michelle can't promote the Wii, since she's a Sony girl. Match made in marketing heaven.
It was recently announced that Lost will continue for two more seasons' worth of episodes (48, the first two of Hurley's numbers), spread over three seasons. Sixteen uninterrupted weeks of episodes per year, identical to the current run of episodes this season, which has succeeded in mitigating a lot of the frustrations fans experienced during the choppy season two.
It's a relief to know that the creators plan to have this all wrapped up in 50 episodes, which doesn't leave much time for useless episodes about Hurley finding inner-peace in a VW bus, and it gives fans the confidence that this is heading somewhere and won't be dragged on indefinitely, à la The X-Files. The show has already been moving at a faster pace over the last few weeks, and now with a finite end on the horizon, the creators have to start unraveling mysteries tout de suite.
Speaking of mysteries, who the hell is Jacob? What was Locke thinking? What is Jack planning? Only two more weeks until the season finale! The hobbit is so dead...
I was enjoying a nice outdoor lunch today with five of my coworkers, and our discussion centered around the suckiness of Spider-Man 3 and trilogy-capping movies in general, most notably X-Men: The Last Stand, The Godfather 3, and Back to the Future 3. This naturally led to a discussion on which of the many new ones coming out this summer would be worth watching, in addition to Spidey. Shrek 3, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Oceans 13, The Bourne Ultimatum, and Rush Hour 3, as well as a fourth Die Hard and fifth Potter. It's the summer of sequels!
Then the strangest comment from Dave: "T3 sucked so bad that I completely blocked out T4."
First of all, I didn't think T3 was that bad, even if it did ruin Cameron's "No fate but what we make for ourselves" theme from T2. But more importantly, T4? What the hell was Dave talking about?
Apparently, he wasn't alone. Everyone at the table agreed that there was a T4, despite my protestations to the contrary. I felt like Mugatu...am I on crazy pills?! It's the same look!
The absurdity of the situation pushed me to challenge everyone there to a bet, and to my shock and delight, three of them actually took me up on it for $20 each. I would have happily gone higher.
There's a scene in the new Harry Potter trailer (riveting trailer, by the way), where Hermione says it feels fun to break the rules, and Ron says, "Who are you, and what have you done with Hermione Granger?" Clichéd, but nonetheless, it came to mind as I was watching Spiderman 3. "Who are you, and what have you done with Sam Raimi?"
Except...I knew who he was. He was Brett Ratner.
I hate to say this about the man responsible for the Evil Dead trilogy (not to mention the first two Spidermans, which were quality flicks), but what Raimi just did to the Spiderman series was worse than what Ratner did to the X-Men series. That's right, I said it.
Spiderman 3 was an overwrought, cringe-inducing mess, with some of the cheesiest "What were they thinking?" moments imagineable, especially when Peter Parker entered his Little Nicky phase. I mean, what was that?
The only thing that helped me get through it was the heckling provided by my cohort Tomas, similar to the relief Jeremy provided me during the most infamous of cringe-inducing scenes, the Anakin sand monologue in Episode 2 (which, as it happens, Tomas and I started quoting during an early Sandman scene..."I hate sand. It's so coarse. Not like here. Everything here is smooth.").
Earlier in the day, Tomas had shown me a blog in which the writer accused Sam Raimi of date-raping his eye sockets. At the time I just thought it was a hilarious line, but halfway through the film, I finally understood. I turned to Tomas and moaned, "My eye sockets!" For they, too, had been date-raped by Sam Raimi. And I only had myself to blame. (Wait, that's not true. I was a victim! No means no, and I yelled "no" many, many times throughout the film. It's not my fault. It's not my fault...)
And this from the same guy who so wondrously capped the Evil Dead trilogy with Army of Darkness. I guess lightning doesn't strike twice.
I know this isn't going to stop anyone from watching (though it's definitely going to stop me from a planned second viewing), so go ahead and subject yourself to the mess. If nothing else, you can keep count of the number of times each character cries. Tomas and I tried, but we couldn't always agree on whether or not the emotion being portrayed qualified as crying.
At least I didn't pay.
P.S. Naturally, Spidey set a new opening day record, with a whopping $59 million. It'll undoubtedly break the opening weekend record of Pirates 2. But let's see if this film has legs. I can't imagine word of mouth will be strong. Then again, maybe all that people want are good action sequences and special effects, of which this movie has an abundance.
P.P.S. If your heart was set on going to the theater, but I've killed your buzz for Spiderman 3, I highly recommend Hot Fuzz, done by the same guys who made Shaun of the Dead.
I can go along with that. The Matrix was revolutionary, and one of my most memorable movie experiences.
I think they way, way, way underrated The Terminator and T2, which as a tandem probably deserved to be top three. But it was nice to see the inclusion of some recent favorites like Heroes and Lost, and I was pleasantly surprised that Children of Men made the cut. I thought it was incredible, but I know that many people disagree (right, Steph?). If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend Netflixing it and seeing for yourself.
My question is, where are the first two X-Men or Spiderman movies, or Batman Begins? They included Heroes, so it's not like the comic book genre wasn't eligible.
I also thought Minority Report was worthy. Probably my second-favorite Tom Cruise flick.
The greatest grass-court player of all time. The greatest clay-court player of all time. Two completely different surfaces, favoring different playing styles, dominated like never before by two contemporaries. Some say the neutral surface is on the hardcourts of Flushing Meadows. But how about this?
No, this isn't a Photoshop trick. Last night, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal played an exhibition match in Spain on a specially made half-grass, half-clay court that cost over $1.5 million and took three weeks to prepare.
Federer hasn't lost on grass in 48 straight matches over four years, including four straight Wimbledon titles, and Nadal hasn't lost on clay in a record 72 straight matches over three years, including two straight French Open titles. Sick, sick dominance.
So who won? Hometown favorite Nadal, 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (10), the tight match finishing with each player on his dominant surface. Great trophy.
Hopefully this turns into an annual matchup between the reigning Wimbledon and French Open champions, which, for the forseeable future, means many more rematches between Federer and Nadal.
