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| This has been a very disappointing evening. Oklahoma and Kansas fell to Indiana and Maryland, respectively, and, in turn, lost me some money. The Raptors had better not draft Hollis Price or Drew Gooden in the near future, because they are chokers. But moving on to happier things.... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| I was looking through the old Sports-Den.net archives, thanks to web.archive.org, and I happened to stumble across this brilliant piece of writing that I wrote over a year ago, back when Sports-Den was still going strong (boy, that seems like longer ago than just a few months). Okay, so it is not especially brilliant, but I enjoyed writing it, and it was fun to read it again now. Also, the second part of my Top Fives Ramblings is up. Knock yourselves out. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Today's Updates: Top Fives Ramblings: Part II | Ode to the '92-'93 Blue Jays
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Friday, March 29, 2002 - 1:34 PM |
So, I was doing some channel-surfing last night, and there was, as per usual, nothing good on. But something caught my eye when I passed FOX. I flipped back. They were showing a special entitled "The Corruption of the American Child". If this isn't the most hilariously ironic thing in the world, I don't know what is. I mean, were they going to show this presentation in between "Celebrity Boxing" and "Who Wants to Marry A Millionaire" or what? |
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I have spun up a special Ramblings column for you today. Inspired by the major motion picture "High Fidelity", I present part one of my Top Fives Ramblings. Part two to come tomorrow. For more information, plus, of course, the lists, I would recommend: reading the column. |
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Today's Updates: Top Fives Ramblings: Part I
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Sunday, March 24, 2002 - 2:17 PM |
Two reviews in two days. Dan and I are machines. We are coming at you like Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dennis Rodman (I would be Van Damme) in the epic action-thriller "DOUBLE TEAM". |
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On the subject of films, if you can call "Double Team" a film, tonight is Oscar night! This is very exciting, of course, because it is that one night of the year where the great films of the year are truly....pushed to the side, and some other movies are given awards. But, hey, just because "Memento", "The Royal Tenenbaums", and "Ghost World" combined for half the nominations that "Moulin Rouge" did doesn't mean that I will abstain from viewing the Academy Awards, or stop making ill-advised predictions about who will win! So without further ado, here are my picks for the big six: |
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Best Supporting Actress: |
Who I am rooting for: Maggie Smith (Gosford Park) |
Who I am picking: Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind) |
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Best Supporting Actor: |
Who I am rooting for: Steve Buscemi (Ghost World). No wait, he was not nominated. Jude Law (A.I.). No dice, try again. Okay, Ian McKellen (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring). The Academy really goofed on this category.
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Who I am picking: Jim Broadbent (Iris) |
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Best Lead Actress: |
Who I am rooting for: Halle Berry (Monster's Ball), though I don't think this is her year. |
Who I am picking: Sissy Spacek (In the Bedroom) |
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Best Lead Actor: |
Who I am rooting for: Tom Wilkinson (In the Bedroom) |
Who I am picking: Russell Crowe seems to be the odds-on favourite, but something tells me that the Academy is not quite ready to put him in the company of Tom Hanks, with back-to-back Oscars, quite yet. On the other hand, with three African-American actors nominated this year, they will be heavily questioned if one doesn't win -- stupid, but true. My pick is Denzel Washington (Training Day). |
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Best Director: |
Who I am rooting for: David Lynch (Mulholland Drive) |
Who I am picking: Robert Altman (Gosford Park) |
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Best Picture: |
Who I am rooting for: Well, let's see, haven't seen "In the Bedroom" or "A Beautiful Mind". I did not particularly enjoy "Moulin Rouge!", and "Gosford Park" was good, but not great. That leaves us with "Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring". |
Who I am picking: "A Beautiful Mind" |
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And there you have it. Tune it to the Oscars tonight, and watch as my psychic abilities are revealed. Although if both "Memento" or "The Royal Tenenbaums" lose the Original Screenplay category, I may be inclined to hit my television with a baseball bat. |
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Oh, I did mention that Dan wrote a review for today, didn't I? He has covered Perfect From Now On, Built to Spill's epic 1997 release. I also enjoy this one, though not quite as much as a couple of BTS's other albums. However, "Stop the Show", track three on Perfect, is definitely one of their best songs and worth checking out. Uh-oh. In true Oscar fashion, the music is playing and I am not finished my speech. I had better wrap up! Also worth checking out is: Dan's review. The End. |
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Today's Updates: Built to Spill - Perfect From Now On review
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Saturday, March 23, 2002 - 3:21 PM |
Finally. Another update. See, what happened this past week was that both Dan and I were sick at some point, not to mention that I was returning to school following Spring Break. This was problematic because not only were there parent/teacher interviews this week, but also early-progress report cards. Unsurprisingly, my lowest mark was in Chemistry. Considering the microscopic ratio of work-I-do to work-assigned-in-the-class, it is miracle that my mark is as high as it is. |
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But, hey, enough of that. I discovered something far more important in the last couple of days, and that is: How much fun it can be to trash an album. No, not physically throwing it in the trash; that would not be much fun at all. What I mean is that it is much more fun for me to complain about how bad a CD is than excitedly babble about how good it is, or worse yet, describe, in intimate detail, its mediocrity. Understandably, I had an enjoyable time reviewing Veni Vidi Vicious by The Hives. |
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Today's Updates: The Hives - Veni Vidi Vicious review
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Tuesday, March 19, 2002 - 9:47 PM |
No updates until the weekend because Dan and I are so lazy. Two reviews will be up by Monday though, I promise. |
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Today's Updates: None!
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Friday, March 15, 2002 - 12:58 AM |
I feel bad. I am an hour (well, 58 minutes) late on my March 14 guarantee. I have let you, my loyal reader |
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With Spring Break taking place this week, and with me not going on a vacation of any sort, I thought I would write a lot for this very site. Sadly, I was wrong. There is just something about days on which you don't go to school that makes you want to sleep for twelve hours, and lounge around for the other twelve. This does not provide much inspiration for, say, a Ramblings column, but I have managed to make do with what I have. |
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Today's Updates: 03/15 Ramblings
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Sunday, March 10, 2002 - 4:29 PM |
Look at that. March 2 update. March 6 update. March 10 update. Bam. I am well-oiled machine. Don't come back until March 14. |
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In all seriousness though, I have been waiting for a while to introduce this album review. Not only was this the best CD released in 2001, it is probably the best one I have ever heard. Yes, ever. If there is only one review from this site that you pay attention to, let it be this one, and listen to these songs as soon as you can. Oh, Dan wrote the actual review. You really ought to read it. |
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Today's Updates: The Strokes - Is This It review
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Wednesday, March 6, 2002 - 10:31 PM |
Writer's block struck this week. I could not begin a Ramblings column to save my life (well, maybe if the situation arose). I blame this awful turn of events on E-PRIME (Extremely Pointless Rule In Modern English). My English teacher assigned an essay using this writing style, which involves not using the verb "to be" -- at all. So I poured all of my creative energy into this masterpiece. For a good 40, even 45 minutes, I pounded out a piece of E-Prime brilliance, and now I can't write any Ramblings. |
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It will pass, I'm sure. In the meantime, I have worked my way around actually 'writing', while still managing to produce this review of Days of the New's second full-length album. Intrigued? I should think so. This update was written in E-PrimeTM. |
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Today's Updates: Days of the New - Days of the New 2 review
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Saturday, March 2, 2002 - 2:25 PM |
Big update today. Break out the confetti and the party hats. Dan Kricke has written his second review for the site, and it has already won an award for The World's Longest CD Review. I am joking, of course, but you should head over to the reviews section and check it out just to see the size of the thing. It took me days to format it all. Curse you for the raising the bar for us all, Dan. |
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In other news, I have gotten rid of the pointless "Contact Me" link at the top of the page and replaced it with an "Archive" section, where I will move all of the updates on the main page (that is this one) when each month ends. Hence, February's updates have been moved over there, and I am starting over on this page for March. If you are saddened by the fact that I removed the link to e-mail me, because you really wanted to send me something, then you can go to one of my album reviews and click on my name at the bottom. I don't anticipate anyone doing this, but I like to keep the information flowing. |
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Today's Updates: Modest Mouse - The Lonesome Crowded West review | Archive section |
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