The Frinklin and Fred Show

Kevin Smith has seen Revenge of the Sith

...and according to him, "it's fucking awesome". Considering Mr. Smith is a true geek this is some damned good news.

This could be a new trend

I noticed James, one of my fellow Comhugeco worker-bees, eating popcorn at his desk today. That isn’t odd in of itself, but James was eating said popcorn with chopsticks.

I couldn’t help myself, and I asked him why.

He looked at me with a blank look on his face and said, “Because I don’t like using my fingers."

Well, there you go.

James, it should also be noted , is the proud owner of a world-class (I’m taking ABA in the 70’s) afro. It may be the most impressive hair I’ve ever seen.

Should it freak me out she's calling it a cage match?

The amazing Missus has her fourth -and hopefully last- giant mega-interview at BH&WP for the promotion to Seattle.

Wish her luck everybody...

The brave new world of School fundraisers

As in most office settings, we here at Comhugeco are plagued with children’s fundraisers. In the 2 short months I’ve been here we’ve been hit up for magazines, candy bars, homemade cupcakes and now smencils. What in the name of all that is good and decent is a smencil you ask? Just sound it out… smencil…”S” –something pencil…stolen pencil….silver pencil? Scented Pencil?

Yes, scented pencil.

For those of you who haven’t seen these things yet, just imagine this. They come in sealed packages, and instead of normal yellow, they’re a dusty gray material that seems to disintegrate in your hand. And they smell of various things like pineapple or strawberry or bubblegum. It is a very strong scent too. Like strong enough to be picked up across the office. Now, I can almost understand the novelty of a scented pencil, but I’m hoping –for all our sakes- that the damned things wear off quickly. Can ya’ll imagine three, four days down the line, being continually assaulted by pineapples?

Just wrong… go back to candy bars. Everyone loves a Snickers.

Amateur Music Review: The Sights - Jem

The Sights – The Sights

Like all rock bands from Detroit, from the MC5 and The Stooges on down to the White Stripes, The Sights favor loud, hard and fast. This record is a blazing throwback that could have been released in 1968. It would have sounded as good then as it does now. Lead Sight Eddie Baranek is a deft songwriter, moving between the psychedelic crunch of “Circus” and “Will I Be True?” with the more pop sensibilities of “Suited Fine” and “Baby’s Knocking Me Down.” He also hides a deceptively cynical streak in his lyrics. To wit: the chorus of “Waiting on a Friend”, a seemingly sweet country-pop ballad, is “I don’t care what happens to you.” The standout track on this album is the aforementioned “Baby’s Knocking Me Down”, a note-perfect late-60’s ballad that sounds like a long-lost Badfinger track. The Sights also show a good sense of history; a thunderous cover of The Faces’ bad-boy anthem “Stay With Me” is the album’s hidden track.

The Sights kicks off with a Mahalia Jackson cover, of all things. When Baranek belts out “I’m Going to Live the Life I Sing About in my Song” he isn’t talking about traditional gospel, it’s the gospel of rock. And he means it.

Jem – Finally Woken

Welsh songstress Jem Griffiths mines the same cool electronica pop popularized by artists like Beth Orton and Dido, though she’s less depressed than the former and a lot more adventurous than the latter. Finally Woken is her strong full-length album debut. The standout title track, a sly and subdued vocal under a repeating drum line, was recorded a couple years before this album, and actually got her a record deal in the first place. This debut starts well –were this an LP it would have a dynamite first side- with the single “They”, a playful track highlighted by a sample of a child spouting gibberish. The warmly erotic “Come on Closer” , the insistent, rock-tinged “24” and the R&B bump of “Save Me” round out a killer opener. The album falters somewhat at that point. “Missing You” sounds like a rightfully forgotten Everything But The Girl outtake, and the 60’s pop “Wish I” misfires badly. Finally Woken recovers near the end with the soaring “Falling for You” and “Flying High”, which sounds like a good ETBTG track.

Jem’s debut album is a touch erratic, but her sense of playful adventure is refreshing. There is much to like about this album.

The Darthside?

Did you know Lord Vader had a blog? He does, and it's pretty nifty.

Amateur Music Review: Ray Charles and Crosby, Stills and Nash

As promised, I’m beginning to tackle the mountain of free CD’s the Missus picked up at her Vendor Expo, starting with a couple of American icons.

Ray Charles – The Genius Anthology

This collection is slightly misnamed. Not a greatest-hits or career summation, The Genius Anthology is a snapshot of Ray Charles’ early career. Covering 20 tracks and 10 years between his debut in 1949 with the Maxin Trio until the seminal “What’d I Say” in 1959, this collection is a fascinating look at the growth of an artist and one of the true innovators in American music. The early tracks feature Ray imitating Nat King Cole and Charles Brown, but over the course of the tracks his own voice emerges, culminating on the spine-tingling electric piano intro of “What’d I Say.” This album isn’t a must-own by any means, but will prove interesting and enjoyable to anyone into the history of music.

Crosby, Stills and Nash – Greatest Hits

How many different collections has “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” appeared on, anyway? This latest recompilation and remixing of these hippie icons is a worthy listen, though nothing new or different. This is a Neil Young-free record, so Greatest Hits is missing Young’s daring moments like “Helpless” or “Ohio”. CSN (and CSNY) have always been about individual songwriting, and that is very evident here. Stephen Stills music is the earthiest, focusing more on roots rock and country influences. Graham Nash’s work is the simplest, and David Crosby focuses on meandering hippie musings. Crosby’s work hasn’t aged well, and now seems pointless at times. Nash’s paeans to country life “Our House” and “Teach Your Children”, while the most pop on the collection, also hold up the best. As befitting a band who has been together for three decades in any one permutation or the other, the harmonies are air-tight.

Beyond these early-70’s classics, the album also includes a sampling of CSN’s later work, including the 80’s gem “Southern Cross”. This disc is a little scatterbrained though, jumping between the early-70’s and mid-80’s for no apparent reason.

Tomorrow I'll be back with some music you probably haven't heard of.

The Chicago White Sox Must be Stopped.

The Sox, a team I figured was headed for a fall, have the best record in baseball at 16-4.

16-4!

A team run by Ken Williams and Ozzie (OBP? What’s that?) cannot, by all that is treasured by the Baseball Gods, be allowed to be this successful. A manager who pinch-hits for Juan Uribe with Willie Harris; who goes with the sacrifice bunt in the first inning, a manager who seems to believe in all his heart that everyone needs to swing at the first pitch like he did just can’t be this successful.

I don’t say this as a White Sox hater. Far from it, were I a Chicagoan, I would be far more likely to root for the gritty southside team than the Cubs. Why? Cub fans, that’s why.

I very nearly became a Cubs fan at one point though. I spent a small but vital portion of my teen years in Spokane Washington, home of Ryne Sandberg and John Stockton. This was the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, and an entire generation of Spokane youth ended up fans of both the Chicago Cubs and Utah Jazz.

Yep, they’re pretty much all assholes.

Stupid Days

Stupid Days…. We all have them, don’t we? Days that you just can’t seem to get anything straight? You forget stuff at work, or at school. Easy things, like how to spell “Graffiti” or when another person (one hopefully not having a Stupid Day) has to repeat account numbers or phone numbers again and again and again, just so you can finally get it right?

Today at work my friend Katherine had a Stupid Day. She made a rash of stupid, easily avoided mistakes. She usually isn’t like this. I’m not sure how it came to this, but at one point I overheard her ask, “So what year is it now?”

Stupid Days… they happen to everyone.

I've been proven right... for once.

Last year during my look at NFC uniforms I said this:

Last year the Lions updated yet another classic NFL look. It went well, but with a giant red (or rather, black) flag. The Lions kept their beautiful light blue and silver color scheme, and distinctive leaping lion logo, but they added black. It isn’t much, just black stripes on the sleeve and outline of the numbers, but its enough to raise the hackles on my neck. Not this year, maybe not next, but sometime in the next 3-4 years you’ll see an alternate black jersey, available at the NFL shop for the low, low price of $159.99.

Well, just this week the Lions announced they would wear this awful black uniform, and you can buy it online. I was wrong on the price though, $75.00 for the replica and $250.00 for the authentic.

Whew

The Sonics just seem damned intent on making this interesting. At one point they were up on the Kings by 21, only to see Sacramento come storming back and cut the lead to 2. The Sonics managed to pull it out, but not before making me (and Supes fan across the land) cover our eyes, pace across the room, gnash teeth or rend garments or some combination thereof.

It has been a long time since I've actually cared about an NBA game this much.

With the 26th pick....

The Seahawks select Ole Miss C Chris Spencer in the first round, eschewing d-lineman such as Dan Cody and Matt Roth.

What the hell? Seriously, what the hell is up with this?

According to the TNT's Mike Sando, this could be the precurser to a deal for New Orleans' DE Darren Howard. I sure hope so.

Somebody needs to tell Tim Ruskell that the key for Seahawk drafts is to follow the best-player-available method. That has picked up guys like Shawn Alexander. Picking for needs makes Dan McGwire and Owen Gil 'Hawks.

Update@ 5:04 Okay, Timmy... you can go now. The Seahawks traded three picks to move up in the second, then bypassed both Cody and Roth again and drafted USC LB Lofa Tatupu. Tatupu had a fine college career and was very productive, but was expected to be a 3rd or 4th rounder. What ARE these people doing?

Yet Another Update@ 10:35 The Seahawks end the first day of the draft with 4 players: Spencer, Taputu, Georgia QB David Greene and Clemson LB Leroy Hill. I'm not impressed at all with this class so far. Spencer is an okay pick, but picking him ignored a more pressing need position. Taputu is a fine player, but overdrafted by at least 1 round. Seattle did get better as the draft went on. Greene was a fine pick. He was an excellent college QB who will have a better NFL career than the overrated Jason Campbell, and Hill looks like a slightly slower clone of Anthony Simmons. On the whole though, this isn't a quality draft. A backup QB and offensive lineman and two undersized linebackers aren't what this team needed.

Frinklin Basketball Forecaster: 1st Round

East
#1 Miami Heat over #8 New Jersey Nets in 6
Jason Kidd and the rejuvenated Vince Carter will steal a couple, but Shaq and Dwayne Wade are too much for the thin Nets.

# 2 Detroit Pistons over # 7 Philadelphia 76ers in 5
The trade for Chris Webber hasn’t worked at all, and an MVP-caliber year by AI is wasted. Iverson will have at least one game where he goes nuts for 45-55, but the Pistons coast.

#3 Boston Celtics over #6 Indiana Pacers in 6
Reggie Miller has saved the Pacers this year, after the disaster in Detroit and Jermaine O’Neal’s injury problems, but the road ends here. O’Neal still isn’t completely ready, and Miller can’t keep up on D.

#5 Washington Bullets over #4 Chicago Bulls in 7
Man, who thought this match-up would be a must-see before the season started? Without Luol Deng and Eddy Curry the Baby Bulls are in trouble. Ben Gordon could go off and carry them, but too much Arenas, Hughes and Jamison.

West
#1 Phoenix Suns over #8 Memphis Grizzlies in 5
I still hate it that Memphis kept the Grizzlies name, which was lame even in BC. The Grizz limped into the playoffs, and don’t have enough to deal with the Showtime Suns. Shawn Marion will control Pau Gasol and Steve Nash will just own Jason Williams.

#7 Denver Nuggets over #2 San Antonio Spurs in 7
Good Lord, can George Karl coach or what? He’s taken a lousy and lazy Nuggets team and turned them into an absolute beast. Tim Duncan is at less than 100% and nobody is as close to as hot as Denver is.

#3 Seattle SuperSonics over #6 Sacramento Kings in 7
I know better than this. The Sonics have been awful the last 2 weeks of the regular season, and the Ridnour-Mike Bibby match-up scares the dickens out of me. The Kings don’t look much better though, especially with Brad Miller out and Peja hurting.

#4 Dallas Mavericks over #5 Houston Rockets in 5
How did a team with Yao Ming and Tracey McGrady turn into the leagues oldest? Doesn’t make much sense, but not much does in Houston. The Mavs are 16-2 since Avery Johnson was named permanent head coach, and Houston doesn’t have a soul who can guard Dirk Nowitzki.

A blog just about Sports Logos?

Rock on brotherman.

If you EVER need a guest-poster, just let me know.

It's a bird, it's a plane... It's a soap opera actor wearing tights!

The first official picture of Brandon Routh in Superman Returns

There are some costume changes from the comic book version. The overall color scheme is muted, far darker than the primary colors in the original movies and comics. There is the S logo added to the belt. The biggest difference is the chest logo. It's smaller, set a lot higher and is more of three-dimensional plate instead of painted on.

I have no idea why the felt the need to change Superman's look. The original color scheme has done just fine for the last 60 years or so. At least they didn't resurrect this blue nightmare.

Amateur Book Review: Sails on the Horizon: A Novel of the Napoleonic Wars

It’s the year 1797. England is at war with Revolutionary France and her ally Spain. Young Lieutenant Charles Edgemont is at his post on the gun deck of the HMS Argonaut and he’s about to see action for the first time, off the French coast at Brest. This, and the excellent battle scenes, begin Jay Worrall’s first novel, Sails on the Horizon, a fine –if flawed- book that owes a lot to the tales of Horatio Hornblower and Lucky Jack Aubrey. We follow Charlie for one year, a year where he takes his own command.

There is much to recommend about this book. Worrall obviously connects with the time period, and his love for maritime lore is obvious. Sails is full of the small details that make a book about this time so memorable, and wouldn’t feel out of place in a Patrick O’Brien novel. The numerous battle scenes, a staple for this genre, are uniformly excellent. Worrall captures the terror, mayhem and sheer confusion of the naval battle well. These scenes, spread evenly throughout, are the heart of this book.

The characters are less successful. The protagonist is a bit too perfect. Charles starts as a second lieutenant, hesitant and worried. The opening chapters, a battle between an overmatched Argonaut and several Spanish vessels, is the highlight of the book. It’s both a cracklin’ battle scene and the best look inside the head of Charles Edgemont. He’s hesitant about his abilities, worries about a very scared young midshipman and wonders if he’s performing well. He sort of stumbles into the role of Captain and his doubts and fears ring truer than anything that follows.

After the battle, things just go too damned well for Charlie. There is little reason to empathize with him, since he becomes a major landowner quickly, finds (and eventually marries) the girl of his dreams and starts out on a successful career. There aren’t many obstacles, and what ones do come up, like his future wife Penny Brown being a Quaker who has major problems with being with a military man, are wrapped up quickly and neatly. There are also possible problems with his best friend Daniel Bevan, who now acts as his First Lieutenant by dint of Charlie joining the Navy a mere week and a half earlier. Again, this is quickly dealt with. Charlie is obviously The Hero, but he seems a cold one, too shiny and perfect to connect with. There is also a minor issue with Penny. She is a fine character, smart and engaging, but she talks in a very –even for the time- archaic way filled with “thee” and “thou”. It starts as an amusing diversion, but becomes supremely annoying. There are times near the end of the book where the reader has to fight the temptation to skip her parts.

Despite the flaws, Sails on the Horizon is a very enjoyable book. The action scenes are excellent, and the potential is there for memorable characters, even if that doesn’t quite pan out. This is obviously meant as the first chapter in a continuing saga, and I hope it does continue.

Freestuff ‘05 II: The Quickening

After a difficult week of waiting, The Missus’ boxes (all 9 of them) from the Bob’s Hogs and Wiener Pigs’ Vender Expo finally showed up on Monday. As you can see from her blog, we made quite the mess going through it all. Our haul was an impressive one. I picked out about 2 dozen books, ranging from must-reads like Pulitzer Prize winner Stacy Schiff’s look at Benjamin Franklin in Paris to bizarre curios like The Christian Wisdom of the Jedi Masters. Many of the books are advance reader copies of titles not available yet.

We didn’t get just books either. Ensie picked up dozens of CD’s. Most of them are relative or completely unknown, but some names were included like U2, Tori Amos and Jimmy Eat World, plus the inexplicably popular Michael Buble and Simon Cowell’s pop-opera monstrosity Il Divo.

DVDS? Yep, got them too. Again, mostly unknown stuff highlighted by (for me) End of the Century, a documentary about the Ramones and (for her) the long-awaited DVD special edition of License to Drive starring both Corey Haim and Corey Feldman. Yes, you read that correctly, a special edition License to Drive. With never-before-seen deleted scenes and bloopers no less. No word on any dual-Corey drug-fueled debauchery. Ensie also went nuts in the Showtime both, or rather the Showtime booth went nuts with her, giving out DVD previews of Queer as Folk, Fat Actress, Bullshit, Family Business and a couple upcoming made-for-TV movies I can’t even remember.

The fun part of this, besides the sheer joy of piles and piles of free junk, is the utter randomness. The Expo is meant to showcase upcoming product releases, but that doesn’t much explain the DVDs of Oceans Eleven and Anchorman or the soundtrack to Save the Last Dance. I’ll do my best to pull interesting stuff out of this and tell people about it. I’ve already made one find, Sails on the Horizon, a Napoleonic Wars book that owes much to the Horatio Hornblower and Master and Commander series.

Dispatches from Baseball City, U.S.A.

Two cheerful vignettes now that we have a baseball team:

Vignette #1: At lunch yesterday with my dad the Yankee fan, I asked him, "If we'd stopped 100 people on the street last month and told them one of us would be rooting for a first-place team and one of us for a last-place team, how many people would have correctly guessed which was which?"

He said, "Not me."

I said, "Me either."

Vignette #2: Later in the afternoon, I'm sitting at a red light when a complete stranger in another car pulls alongside, rolls down his window and shouts, "First place, man!" I replied, "Isn't it great? And we just hung 6 in the 7th inning to go up 7-3!" He said, "Is the game on the radio?" I said, "Yes, on 1050!" He flashed a thumbs-up, honked and drove away.

Yes, friends, life is good.

The JV team

Last April I pointed to an Expos lineup that included such names as Endy Chavez, Matt Cepicky and Ron Calloway as one of the worst lineups ever. Well, when the beloved M's run out Willie Bloomquist, Dan Wilson, Scott the Sandfrog and Wilson Valdez, that comes pretty damned close too.

As you might expect, the M's only managed three hits (all of them by Ichiro!) and lost 2-1, wasting one of the very finite amount of good starts this team will get in 2005.

Your Sonics: Slowly collapsing like a flan in the cupboard.

The NotQuiteSuperSonics finally won again, clinching the Northwest division. The Supes have won 51 games, or about twice what I thought they would at the beginning of the year.

You really have to wonder though; this team has been stuck on a magic number of 1 for more than a week, and loses six in a row before clinching against an awful Hornets team. This season, for all its surprising success, has seemed really bittersweet. The chances of Ray Allen leaving are growing every day. Howard Schultz has all but announced he wants to sell the team, and Nate McMillan, the most popular Sonic of the past 20 years, hasn’t gotten a contract extension. Now this, a fluttering team facing the prospect of the Nuggets, 24-2 over the last month and change- in the first round.

When this season started, I thought the Sonics would suck. They surprised me, and now make the playoffs as a division champ. I don’t they’ll do anything once they get there though. If they take on Denver, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them swept.

Weird-ass NBA season.

Can we play the Royals every day?

The Mariners are above .500 after a three-game sweep of Kansas City, where an awful Royal team made Ryan Franklin, Aaron Sele and Jamie Moyer look like Maddux, Smoltz and Glavine.

Now Seattle takes on some grown-ups, the Chicago White Sox. The Sox are off to a stronger start than meets the eye. Chicago currently is last in the AL in OBP (a sickening .279). Their BA of .226 and OPS of .664 are pretty ugly too. But they are 6-3 at this point, due to some nice pitching from Mark Buehrle and Freddy Garcia. The pitching matchups sure favor the Chisox. After Joel Piniero goes tonight after starting the year on the DL, Ryan Franklin will take on Buehrle and Garcia will face Gil Meche. Meche is off to a horrid start, and has been complaining of elbow problems.

Right now, the Sox are currently bitch-slapping the M's 5-0.

Only five? I could go on for days

This post over at Zygote’s place got me to thinking. I decided to come up with my own list, with one rule: only one song from each artist.

1. London Calling – The Clash
One of the best intro’s in the history of rock: Paul Simonon’s rolling bass line leads into Joe Strummer and Mick Jones’ crashing guitars, and the best song ever about impending apocalypse is off and running. The song ends on a eerie note; Jones’ echoing “I never felt so much a like”.

2. I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man – Prince
I’ve gone into detail about Sign O’ The Times before, but all that needs to be known is this: Before it came out, I thought Huey Lewis was cool. This has always been my favorite song from that album, an upbeat but melancholy story about meeting the right person at the wrong time.

3. We Can Work It Out – The Beatles
Picking just one Beatles song is difficult for me, but I chose this one as much for the feeling behind it as the song itself. We Can Work it Out is one of the very few times Paul McCartney and John Lennon actually wrote a song together. It’s a perfect encapsulation of their relationship. Just before Paul’s desperate earnestness begins to overwhelm the song, John’s hard-edged chorus cuts to the point.

4. Gimme Shelter – The Rolling Stones
Forget Alice Cooper or Black Sabbath or any of the myriad of knockoffs that have come out the last 30 or so years. This is the scariest rock song ever. Mick Jagger gets more and more desperate, Keith Richards’ guitar blazes, and Merry Clayton cries “rape” and “murder” … it’s a beautiful, terrifying mess.

5. Mr. Jones – Counting Crows
A band often derided due to the bland soundalikes that followed it, the Counting Crows make quintessential American sensitive guy music. This song came out my freshman year in college, when walking down the street with my best friend looking at girls and wishing we were famous was one of the highlights of my existence.

Also receiving consideration: Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters – Elton John, Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana, Superstition – Stevie Wonder, Every Breath You Take – The Police, Supersonic – Oasis, Maggie May – Rod Stewart, Suspicious Minds – Elvis Presley, Northern Sky – Nick Drake, Stayin’ Alive- Bee Gees, Nightswimming - REM, What’s Goin’ On – Marvin Gaye, Wouldn’t it be Nice – The Beach Boys, Is She Really Going Out With Him? – Joe Jackson, Sweet Jane – The Cowboy Junkies, Silent All These Years – Tori Amos, Billie Jean – Michael Jackson, Hey Ya – OutKast, Lose Yourself – Eminem, No Woman, No Cry – Bob Marley and the Wailers, Won’t Get Fooled Again – The Who, Waterloo Sunset – The Kinks, Life During Wartime – Talking Heads, Blitzkrieg Bop – The Ramones

Heck of an Opening Day

Since my blogpartner is probably still celebrating, I'd like to congratulate the Nationals and their fans for a great Opening Day.

Amateur Movie Review: Fever Pitch

I knew going this wasn’t a baseball movie, it was a date movie. A date movie that I, honestly, didn’t get my hopes up for. Fever Pitch is the Farrelly Bros-helmed remake of an English movie which is in turn based on Nick Hornby’s book about being an obsessive Arsenal fan. While I’m a Hornby fan, I haven’t read Fever Pitch, as European football is arcane enough to make my head hurt.

This Americanized version stars Jimmy Fallon as Ben the Teacher, a nice, normal guy who just happens to be an obsessive Boston Red Sox fan. He meets cute with Drew Barrymore’s Lindsey, a… well; she’s something to do with math and corporate efficiency, though what is never explained. They quickly and adorably fall in love, until he has to explain his obsession with the Red Sox. Hijinks ensue, they break up for a time until –shockingly- everything works out at the end.

Date-movie romantic comedies aren’t known for being brainy or difficult and this movie is no exception. It’s short and sweet and has enough very funny bits to be remembered, if not particularly memorable. It’s certainly softer than other Hornby adaptations, and lacks the bite and depth of High Fidelity and the excellent About a Boy. For the most part Fallon and Barrymore have a nice, bubbly chemistry; though they can be so adorable and cute you’re liable to go into diabetic shock.

The biggest problem with the movie is the ending. It seems thrown-together and slapdash. It is. The script had counted on the Sox failing yet again, and had to be completely rewritten to include Boston’s amazing run to the World Series championship. Sox fans, while some agree with Bill Simmons and loathe this movie, should enjoy the ballpark scenes. The Farrellys, New England boys themselves, obviously love Fenway Park and the Sox as much as Ben does.

Fever Pitch is a sweet, engaging movie, and well worth seeing.

The Voices

Curt Smith, author of Voices of Summer, has ranked the top 101 baseball announcers of all time. Dave Neihaus comes in 26, which seems pretty low.

C'mon... Bob Costas and Tim McCarver in front of Dave? Give me a break.

You gotta love soccer hooligans

Flares

Is this some odd soccer tradition that I didn't know about? Bring flares to a game? For those who haven't seen the amazing video on ESPN and elsewhere, the Champions League quarterfinals between AC Milan and Inter Milan was upset after more than 30 flares were tossed onto the field. The first flare hit and injured a player. The game was halted for 25 minutes before being suspended.

What's really incredible is that this is the second time this season that there has been a flare-related incident at an Italian soccer stadium. In September a game between AS Roma and Dynamo Kiev (gotta love European club names) was halted by hooligans throwing flares. To makes matters worse, later on in this tournament, Liverpool and Juventus will face each other for the first time since a riot left 39 people dead in 1985.

My only possible reaction is: What the hell is wrong with these people?

Will the Michael Bay movie be this entertaining?

Probably not, but few things can compare to breakdancing Transformers.

Freestuff 05

I'm currently enjoying my first pieces of the Missus' enormous pile of free junk she got at the Bob's Hogs and Weiner Pigs Vendor Expo. I was a little shaken when she came back with only 1 tote bag full of stuff, but she assuaged my fears by telling me the other eight boxes will be shipped this week. Yep, free shipping for free stuff. Most of which she isn't sure what is. It will be like Christmas in April for the Frinklin house.

Anyway, of the pile that did make it home I'm reading Players:The Mysterious Identity of William Shakespeare by Bertram Fields. It's a nice read, but reviews that I've read noted some serious scholarly goofs, so I don't take it too seriously. Also, she picked up Tori Amos' new CD The Beekeeper. I was a bigger Tori fan back in college -I know, it made people think I was gay then too- and this album sounds much like the early albums like Little Earthquakes. Beekeeper needs an editor though, at 19 songs plus a hidden track it's just too damned long. The material is there for a great album.

Update on Bobby

Jeff over at Lookout Landing is reporting that Bobby Madritsch had an MRI showing a torn capsule in his shoulder. Best case he's out for 6-8 weeks, worse case is out for the year.

The best case scenario sucks enough.

What the HELL?

I was watching the Nationals-Marlins game via the Sports In Demand free MLB preview week (which I would buy if I could ever convince my wife), via the Marlins feed. First of all, the announcer is Rich Waltz, which kind of wierds me out. The other thing that got me is the "this telecast is property of the Florida Marlins and MLB and may not be disseminated... blah blah blah" message is done by and advertiser. Yeah, they cut to the end of some personal injury attorney’s ad and there his is giving the spiel. Does this mean the Marlins sold the rights to this? Can they do that? Does any other team?

Just odd as hell; this creepy guy giving the message while his “HAVE YOU BEEN INJURED IN AN ACCIDENT” message flashes below him. Just wrong…

This was not expected

After being pushed around by Mark Redman and Josh Fogg, I didn't expect the Padres to rough up Oliver Perez last night. But they did, putting 5 runs up in only 4 innings.

Have Padres fans noticed that Xavier Nady, only playing because Dave Roberts is hurt, is off to a hot start. His OPS is a nice 1.635, with 3 HR and a triple already. He isn't a CF however, and the Padres would do anything to find someone to take Ryan Klesko off their hands.

The M's slight weakness

The Mariners bullpen has blown 3 saves in 2 games against the Rangers. That's pretty impressive if you think about it. For those keeping track, Villone and Putz did the deed on Friday night, and Eddie Guardado lost a three run lead in the 9th yesterday.

That's not good.

The Masters

Wouldn't you think that a four-stroke lead would hold up for more than an half-hour? You would be wrong, as Tiger Woods birdied seven holes in a row on the back 9 of the third round, turning a four stroke Chris DiMarco lead into a three stroke Tiger lead. He hit 4 birdies in a matter of 26 minutes.

Unbelievable....

Fourth round should be fun, to say the least.

A week… okay 4 days, into baseball season

Just about every team is through their first series, and this is what I’ve noticed.

-Jeremy Reed and Miguel Olivo really don’t look comfortable right now. That’s probably at least partly due to facing Radke, Santana and Silva, but I hope they can relax.

-I would gladly swap any Mariner bullpen pitcher for anyone in Minnesota’s bullpen, save for perhaps Terry Mullholland. The M’s pen looks really weak, especially compared to the Twins.

-Despite what my friend at work thinks, the Padres aren’t likely to keep putting up 12 runs a game. The Padres hitters looked better, though it’s much, much more difficult to look good in PETCO than in Coors.

-You gotta love the Nationals, and you have to worry about the Phillies. Philadelphia was on my list of teams that could collapse, and losing two out of three to Washington in Citizen’s Bank Park can’t help.

-What the hell happened to Javier Vasquez?

-I take a certain twisted pleasure in seeing guys who look noticeably smaller than they did last year. Ivan Rodriguez is the most obvious, having lost 23 pounds. It was amusing to listen to the ESPN guys mention that he did this to become more of a threat on the base paths. Scott Spezio is another. I didn’t get a chance to see the M’s during ST; I was shocked to see how much smaller he is.

-Do the Red Sox own Mariano Rivera?

-The White Sox had 10,000 fans for the second and third games of the season? Seriously? Buehrle looked terrific though, and Garcia was good too.

-As much I enjoy the Sunday Night game before Opening Day, I miss the Reds not opening the season for everyone.

-I don’t bitch about salaries much, but it is worth pointing out that just the difference between the Yankees payroll ($205,938,439) and the next highest team, the Red Sox ($121,311,945) would place 11th on the overall list of salaries. Right behind the Braves ($85,148,582) and well in front of the Dodgers ($81,029,500).

-Chan Ho Park versus Aaron Sele? Can’t top that pitching matchup, can we?

Suddenly, $50 mill doesn't look quite so bad

Hard to think of a better way to start the season. Sexon hits homers his first two at-bats as a Mariner, Moyer is steady through 5 2/3, neither Villone nor Mateo starts any fires, and the forces of good are victorious. 161 to go...

Happy Opening Day

It's Opening Day, and I took the day off work. Life is good.

Go M's!

Frinklin’s Fashion Show: MLB 2005 Edition

Not a whole hell of a lot going on this season. Only one team, the brand-new (err… established in 1905) Washington Nationals have a new uniforms, and the number of annoying tweaks is minimal this year. Let’s start there, shall we?

The Red Sox, to celebrate their championship, will model this mild, gold-accented home jersey for their opener. I like it. It’s simple and classy, which isn’t much done in baseball anymore.

Going in the opposite direction are the Braves, with this nasty bloodshot-red alternate. Didn’t we go through this with the Twins and Indians already?

The Devil Rays make a mild change to their road jersey lettering. The change is really so minor to be meaningless. They also add a nice alternate green jersey. Again, I like the current D-Ray color scheme, but this looks a little too similar to their current BP jersey for my taste.

The Pirates have a new pinstriped alternate home uniform. I know the Pirates have done the stripes before, but other than the Yankees and maybe the White Sox, pinstripes are never necessary. I just don’t like this look for them. Besides, the sleeveless jersey and black alternate is enough.

According to Paul Lukas’ UniWatch column (this man is an idol of mine, getting paid to do this), the Rockies are coming out with a black vest/purple undershirt combination, but no pictures seem to exist. This should be predictably hideous.

Now for the Nationals. I still dislike the name. It’s bland and seems sort of stale, which is not what you want right out of the box. I was a strong supporter of the Grays name, and I could have gone with the Monuments. Senators is okay too, though DC politicos not liking it because the District has no senatorial representation is rather amusing. The logo and color scheme is good, perhaps a little overmuch with the gold accents, but I can live with that. The Nats best look is their road grays, with the Washington in navy and gold outlined with red, and the interlocking DC logo on the sleeve. The home jersey is pretty much the same, though with Nationals on white. I do have a problem with the home jersey. It adds the player number on the belly, and I’ve never liked that. It disrupts the symmetry. I haven’t seen the road jersey in-game, so it might do the same. I hope it doesn’t.

The biggest problem with the Nationals are the caps. They’re virtual copies of the old Senators caps, and were chosen far before the logo or jersey were designed. They don’t match. The hat features a looping W, everything else is in block letters with the navy and gold. The Senator caps were a nice touch, but they should have been an alternate or some such. The BP caps, featuring the DC logo also on the road uniform, work much, much better. The Nationals’ uniforms are a pretty good indication of the thrown-together nature of the franchise. The look is there, it just needs some tweaking. And no awful red alternates like the BP uniform.

Bright Eyes

This might be the sweetest, simplest love song I've ever heard, and it has a video to match. The song is "First Day of My Life", and you should watch it here.

Damn

Bonds recants, says he won't retire.

Don't make us beg Barry.

Battlestar Galactica Season Finale

OH
MY
GOD.

The questions abound. How can Boomer 2 be pregnant? Can they actually kill Adama? Does this mean Tigh, of all people, is in charge of the fleet? What is up with Boomer 1? Can you really arrest the President?

I have to wait until July now?

48 Hours until Baseball

National League Most Valuable Player Not Named Barry Bonds
1. Albert Pujols – Cardinals
2. Miguel Cabrera – Marlins
3. Carlos Beltran – Mets

National League Cy Young
1. Jake Peavy – Padres
2. AJ Burnett – Marlins
3. Tim Hudson - Braves

National League Rookie of the Year
1. Jeff Francis – Rockies
2. Andy Marte – Braves
3. Gavin Floyd – Phillies

NL East Champion - Florida Marlins
NL Central Champion - St. Louis Cardinals
NL West Champion - San Diego Padres
NL Wild Card - San Francisco Giants

National League Champion - Florida Marlins

American League Most Valuable Player
1. Alex Rodriguez – New York Yankees
2. Manny Ramirez – Boston Red Sox
3. Vladimir Guerrero – Los Angeles Angels

American League Cy Young
1. Johan Santana – Minnesota Twins
2. Randy Johnson – New York Yankees
3. Francisco Rodriguez – Los Angeles Angels

American League Rookie of the Year
1. Dallas McPherson – Los Angeles Angels
2. Nick Swisher – Oakland A’s
3. Felix Hernandez – Seattle Mariners

AL East Champion – New York Yankees
AL Central Champion – Minnesota Twins
AL West Champions – Los Angeles Angels
AL Wild Card – Boston Red Sox

American League Champion – New York Yankees
World Series Champion – Florida Marlins

NL East, NL Central, NL West, AL East, AL Central, AL West

If anybody thinks I have a clue about baseball, remember I thought the Angels would beat the Phillies in the World Series last year.