BCS. Arrrgh. BCS. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHH.
King Kaufman is rather more eloquent about it. Here's the key section:
Hawaii didn't lose to anybody, ever. The Warriors started the season ranked No. 23 in the Associated Press poll, No. 24 in the USA Today poll, went 12-0, and finished the season No. 10. They'll play Georgia in the Sugar Exhibition Game on New Year's Night in New Orleans. Here's a list of the teams that passed Hawaii at some point this year in the three polls -- AP, USA Today and Harris Interactive -- and the BCS standings, all without the Warriors ever losing a game: Georgia Tech, Tennessee, Boston College, Clemson, Oregon, South Carolina and Texas A&M. Hang on. Just catching my breath. That was all in the first two weeks of the season. Here's the rest of the list: Alabama, South Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Cincinnati, Arizona State, Missouri, Kansas, Kentucky (again), Virginia, Georgia (again), Connecticut, Michigan, USC, Virginia Tech, Florida, Texas, Clemson (again), Virginia (again) and Boston College (again). Hawaii was passed 20 times in the AP poll and 19 times in the USA Today poll without ever losing a game. The Warriors were passed 10 times in 10 weeks in the Harris Interactive poll while going undefeated. They were leapfrogged 10 times in eight weeks in the BCS standings, winning all the while. To wit: If there were ever a year when a team like Hawaii, a team from a smaller conference, would get a shot at the title game, this was that year, with not even one squad from a big conference having an unchallenged claim to a berth.
Like I give a hoot about Hawaii. But seriously, this is evidence of corruption and bias of the worst possible sort.
I've decided to basically stop watching college football. Yes, even Michigan.
Maybe the bowl games will have some great commercials!Current Mood: angry Current Music: White Stripes, "Offend in Every Way" |
This comic is...SO amazing...
So, here's the question: in the last panel, who's right?
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To paraphrase that freaky little girl in the TI TV commercials, "It's the replicants!"
http://www.geocities.com/outlawvern/ReviewsB.html#blade_runner
I agree with Vern's sentiment, although I didn't mind the emptiness of Deckard's character. To me it worked. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Kubrick made an entire career of filming actors as empty vessels that could be a canvass for his vision and by the end it got pretty goddam tiresome.
Anyway, what strikes me about his characterization of Deckard is that this character is like many the other Phillip K. Dick characters. Remember the incompetent character (and incompetent actor, but that's a different thing) in A Scanner Darkly? Dick is drawn to a certain passivity, and certain uselessness that characterizes a lot of what he writes.
I'm going to test this theory by getting some Dick and passively reading it. Ohbejuan I'll be in touch. |
Monsoon Wedding -- A gorgeous film, with a wonderful mix of Hindi and English culture that describes the three days before an arranged marriage (and an unexpected lovematch) in Delhi. Although the narrative is almost hijacked by what seemed to be a secondary plot point, it still trucks along. Worth seeing because of the great music, unabashed romanticism, and almost documentary eye into the world of a wealthy Indian family.
Dot the i -- Ostensibly a film about cold feet before a wedding, it turns into more of a thiller/exploitation movie. I'm not sure I liked the characters at all, but I also think the director might have been doing that on purpose, which takes some courage. At the end of the movie I felt like I needed a shower. Again, not a bad thing if you're into it, but I can generally do without.
Angel-A -- A Luc Besson movie about an angel who comes down to rehabilitate an Algerian/French/American ne'er do well. It's an old conceit, and the use of multicultural elements and black-white film doesn't really do anything to make the story fresh. I'm increasingly coming to the conclusion that popular French cinema is the worst kind of sentimental, outrageous dreck. Even Luc Besson, who I think is really quite talented, can bring so much bombast that you snort your popcorn. It's like Michael Bay is running a school over there.
Coming up: Land of the Dead, Laura, and the original Solaris
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Nidia (my wife's new approved pseudonym) and I are at her mom's house for Thanksgiving weekend. The whole tribe are unrepentant night owls so I am sitting with the cats doing my Sunday morning thing. As usual when I mix coffee with The Internets I get kinda philosophical.
We went to visit Nidia's step-dad and his new wife, and while we were driving home Nidia's sister said, "She never stops talking. Do you think she ever stops thinking?" It's an interesting comparison to her husband, who speaks rather less and spends his free time making furniture, desks, and anything else of wood. Barb's words dominate the conversation, but Frank's work dominates the house: the entertainment center in the living room, whose doors silently turn 180 degrees and slide back into the sides so that the TV can pull out and then turn 120 degrees with just a finger touch of pressure; rich cherry bookshelves and bedframes; the rewired, refinished kitchen.
There is this essential, eternal tension between the things that are made and the things that are envisioned; Barb and Frank epitomize that. I am sitting in this silent space posting abstractions of thought that others (few others!) might read, but to do so I must sit on this physical couch, and rely on the abilities of engineers from around the world who created this physical computer and the communication network that allowed it to happen. The couch feels more physical and real; it always seems to me that the more involved in the abstractions of thought a device is the less compelling it is as a physical presence.
I don't really feel qualified to talk about this; someone with a philosophy degree has probably already done it. But it does feel like there is this interesting dichotomy between the soap bubbles of thought that are captured, more or less imperfectly, by writers such as Somerset Maughn or Proust or Joyce and the mute but somehow more durable and believable structures of creation, like a house, or a couch, or a knife.
At this moment I spend my life more like Barb, but to be honest I want to be more like Frank. Making feels so much more attractive right now than talking. It's a feeling that's been growing steadily in the last few months.Current Mood: melancholy Current Music: Bobby McFerrin, "Sweet in the Morning" |
| » Just love that Old Time Rock n' Roll (movie) |
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So, it turns out that Against All Odds is based on this movie Out of the Past, and since I have a thing both for Noir and Jeff Bridges I thought I'd start with the 1947 film and then see the remake.
So, I've seen the original, and I can't imagine watching a remake, Jeff Bridges or no. Why mess with perfection?
One of the (many, many, MANY) great things about Netflix is that it is like one of those survey tools where your true preferences emerge over time based on what you liked and didn't. As I look back at my list, I've had some interesting realizations.
1) Traditional "Robot" anime , while pretty, bores me to tears eight falls out of ten. Nontraditional anime often has something cool to say.
2) Just because it's an English TV show doesn't mean it's good.
3) Sidney Poitier. Sidney Poitier. SIDNEY. POITIER.
4) Humphrey Bogard. Humphrey Bogart. HUMPHREY. BOGART.
5) If the movie was made before 1971, I'm much more likely to like it. If it was made before 1960 I'm probably going to love it.
This last one really resonated as I reviewed my list. Top faves of the last sixty-odd movies in the last six months:
High Noon
In the Heat of the Night
Out of the Past
Hari Kiri
To Catch a Thief
Old Boys
Weeds
Napoleon Dynamite
Jackass 2
My Neighbors the Yamadas
Okay, Napoleon Dynamite doesn't really fit. Jackass...look, indulge me, okay?
But Weeds does, as does Old Boy. Weeds is at its heart a morality play whose essential tension is how much of a disaster the central character will become -- and who she will throw under the bus -- in her quest to keep her sense of entitlement and privilege alive. Old Boy involves some repulsive things, but they are largely there to drive plot. There's only one unnecessary scene in the whole movie, and I think it was largely there because it took over the director's brain and he couldn't imagine not shooting it. It's a great scene. Could be cut and nobody would mind, though.
Essentially I like a tight, simply made, focused film. Turns out I'm not a big fan of explosions or eye candy, unless that eye candy is the sensuous drooping eye of Robert Mitchum, Grace Kelly's exquisite face, or a perfectly framed shot.
I did love My Neighbors the Yamadas, but I think that goes down a different thread I'll explore another time.
Not sure what this means for my future movie tastes, but I'm pretty sure I'm not going to see Transformers anytime soon.
What's been your personal discovery from your netflix list?
Nov. 20th, 2007 @ 06:58 am
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| » Go Red Raiders |
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First, U of M game: Ain't gonna talk about it. Especially since I'm watching this Oklahoma-Texas Tech game.
DAAAAAAMMMMMMMNNNN.
A couple of years back I wrote about how rational assessment can really challenge classic football assumptions. One of the college level coaches who has completely changed the way that football is played is Mike Leach of the Texas Tech Red Raiders. I have seen bits and pieces of their games, and always watched the numbers, but I have never had a chance to watch a Tech game until today. Huh. How to describe this?
Well, here's the simplest way: the first quarter took TWO HOURS TO PLAY. Oh yeah, and Tech put up TWO HUNDRED YARDS of offense. Against Oklahoma. They went for it twice on fourth down. Their time of possession was ten minutes. And this is...well, apparently this is typical.
I've never seen anything like it. What a fun way to play football.
Nov. 17th, 2007 @ 09:04 pm
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| » Dude, it's been 23 weeks |
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That's, like almost HALF A YEAR.
Sorry. Kinda busy getting married and then experiencing that. Been thinking a lot, though. I'm going to start posting twice a week and build up from there.
Nov. 17th, 2007 @ 09:29 am
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| » Knocked Up, The Queen |
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Knocked up really is as good as everyone says it is. Might perhaps be the most honest relationship movie I've seen all year. It's also DAMN funny, like, laugh just about every minute funny. Highly recommended.
Oh, and Paul Ruud can put his whole hand in his mouth.
I also saw The Queen on DVD last night. Has anyone else seen this film? It feels like I could riff on this movie for any number of postings. I just thought it was just a remarkable depiction of a political arrangement that, from my Yellow-Dog, populist, peasant farmer roots perspective is sick and kind of pathetic in just about every important way. My take on it was that Stephen Frears was creating a film that was a rhetorical plea to put to rest the entire arrangement as quickly as possible while helping these strange, sad dinosaurs keep some semblance of their dignity.
Okay, so now you know how I really feel about kings and queens. I doubt you're surprised. But I have pretty major filters on this kind of topic. So, to explore things a little, did anyone leave this film feeling more supportive of England's constitutional monarchy?
Jun. 3rd, 2007 @ 11:01 pm
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| » Neocons in need of lovin' |
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You know, there are times when I wish that the kinds of articles I posted about recently could just be proven to be some kind of liberal paranoia.
But then the Wall Street Journal posts fascist love letters from tenured Harvard professors and you realize that we probably aren't being paranoid ENOUGH.
Glenn Greenwald deconstructs, excellently as always. Since he pretty much sums it up, he leaves me free to stand to the side and stare in wonder at these unhappy, bitter, dangerous people.
Not to be crude, but does anyone else suspect that a lot of these problems would just go away if nimrods like Mansfield were getting blow jobs on a regular basis?
May. 2nd, 2007 @ 06:20 pm
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