interesting defects
i love perusing the "best of craigslist" every now and again. it's usually good for a larf or two, and sometimes you can find some truly inspired shit. or just some actual shit.
i love perusing the "best of craigslist" every now and again. it's usually good for a larf or two, and sometimes you can find some truly inspired shit. or just some actual shit.
i don't know what's happened exactly, but my love for 24 is quickly tumbling of a cliff. the plot contrivances seem more forced, the storyline seems less interesting, and kim bauer is driving me fucking nuts. (intersting side note: type "i hate kim bauer" into google, and the first link you get is to this page of marc's blog from last season. good stuff.)
so anyway, when the first week of this season ended showing jack about to shoot up, i got all jazzed because who the hell saw that coming? but we're forced to buy that kim (without benefit a college degree!) is now working at CTU, and not only that, but she's right in the middle of big important things. then there's the romance with the rugged chase, jack's partner. double ugh. but ok, at least we got salazar killing his lawyer and a corpse delivery out of the deal. plus more intrigue with president palmer and his romantic entanglements, and another mole inside CTU!
then last night, we're supposed to buy that kyle singer managed to elude capture despite the fact that there were security guards, cops and federal agents surrounding the whole scene? i understand that tony getting shot was a bit distracting, but this kid is harboring a deadly infectious disease that could wipe out thousands of people, and no one watched where he was heading? meanwhile, michelle is getting a call from tony's surgeon just 10 real time minutes after he was shot saying they're ready to operate? then she calls the hospital 18 minutes later to check on him, and is told he's still under the knife. well duh! how long do you think vascular surgery takes? this is just sloppiness on the show's part, and shows that they don't trust viewers to remember things beyond one or two commercial breaks.
and now jack's gonna go all commando again, striking out on his own to stop the virus from being released? he claims that it will look like he's "switched sides" since he has a history of pulling these types of stunts. but he's always been vindicated before by the nobler goals that he has tethered himself to, so why wouldn't anyone see through this charade right from the get go? what this means is that we're now going to get a lot of scenes with kim where she's confused and/or crying over her father's actions while chase has to 1) comfort her, and 2) try to figure out how to dump her sorry ass without jeopardizing his job.
i just don't know. not that they're similar, but i got sick of survivor after the second season as well, so maybe i have some sort of tolerance threshhold that has been exceeded. then again, i loved the part where they locked kyle singer and his pop tart girlfriend in the isolation chamber, so i'm not giving up yet. but i need a rally here.
much as i hate to support anything micorsoft-related, i was very pleased yesterday to discover that two of my favorite sportswriters, allen barra and paul lukas, are writing for slate these days.
barra wrote for salon for a time and recently riled some folks up when he supported rush limbaugh's comments about donovan mcnabb*. while i didn't necessarily agree with that, he is one of the few sportswriters who i feel has a truly unique voice and actually challenges readers to think. his latest column dissects all the rumors surrounding alex rodriguez.
lukas is the man behind the beer frame fanzine, which i was happy to find out is still available. for the past few years he has also written the uni watch column for the village voice, tracking trends and changes in professional sports uniforms. the voice, in an apparent cost-saving maneuver, just 86ed their sports coverage entirely. which is fine, since i've been digging the ny sports express lately (especially some of the stuff that's only available in the print version). but i am glad to see that uni watch has survived.
* the gist of the argument goes like this: mcnabb has never put up gaudy offensive numbers, and the team has been characterized in recent years by its great defensive performances. therefore, the praise that has been heaped on him has been largely because he is black. it is certainly true that has never led an elite offense, but this ignores a very key point: that mcnabb has never, not for one season, had an above average running back or wide receiver on his team. no marshall faulks; no marvin harrisons; not even a tony gonzalez. and yet he has done more with a bunch of scrubs that most any other quarterback outside of steve mcnair could hope to do. if that team ever made a commitment to offense, instead of wasting time with guys like todd pinkston and correll buckhalter, they'd be rolling over the rest of the NFC. instead they consistently rank near the top of the list in terms of room under the salary cap. some pundits were even criticizing him earlier this year for not completing passes to his wide receivers. but you can't throw to guys who can't get open!
by way of explanation, i feel compelled to mention that the name of this thing comes from the fact that a group of apes is called "a shrewdness", which i discovered thanks to the folks at the Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center. i love how many animals groups have very apt names like a tower of giraffes, a prickle of porcupines and a crash of rhinoceroses.
in other mammalian news, i trimmed my beard for the first time last night, and i can't even tell you how much better it made me feel about keeping it. i was beginning to get a little weary of the whole process. not that i want to start shaving again, but suffice to say i will be trimming it on a very regular basis until such a time as it becomes unwieldy (i.e. the next day above 70 degrees). check me out at the National Beard Registry. a quick search of their database shows that the only other fella from brooklyn on there right now is named "banjo bob". i feel good about that for some reason.
in order to fulfill my contractual requirements with balgavy.com, expect to see these facial hair updates on a semi-regular basis.
so just what the world needed, another weblog. thanks to marc for generously sharing his brand name with me, where i can hopefully ride the coattails of the site's ever-increasing popularity. i have no agenda here other than to recycle bits that cross my path and purge some of the nonsense that clutters my brain.
in that vein, i'm guessing that most of you ignored the world bridge chapionships (aka "the bermuda bowl") taking place in monaco. i'll guiltily admit that i often read the bridge column in the NYTimes, as i learned to play when i was younger and, well, a lot geekier. but the finals between the USA and Italy actually made the front section yesterday (page A10), and it was a hugely exciting finish. read about it here. i wish the article had been about twice as long as they didn't even really get to go over the progression of play in the hand.
there's a picture of some of the winning team on this site. i won't bore you with more bridge links, but i will say that i love that the points used in the scoring are called "IMPs". if you ever feel like taking some tricks and winning some rubbers, let me know.