Same old song, just a drop of water in an endless sea

Well today is an especially sad day, one of the true greats of modern cinema has passed from this world. Patrick Cranshaw of Fort Worth, Texas died yesterday, sending shockwaves through the Hollywood community. You might know Mr. Cranshaw by a different name: Blue. Thats right, Blue from Old School is no longer with us. I will be forever indebtted to his contributions to cinema. You're my boy, blue.
"I see Blue... he looks glorious!" - Frank the Tank

I promised New Years resolutions, but I think I'm going to put those off until next week.

• If you wonder why Mike Leach is fast becoming my favorite coach in college football, here's why.

While I was on the subject of media yesterday, I thought I'd list a few of my favorite announcers in sports:

• Marv Albert and Steve Kerr (TNT basketball)- both very knowledgeable, but they don't beat you over the head with theur "insider" knowledge. And nobody gets excited better than Marv. Yesssssss!
• Kevin Harlan (TNT basketball, CBS football)- while I feel his basketball partner Doug Collins really drags him down, nobody makes a bad game sound better than Harlan. I love listneing to him get worked up over everything.
• Keith Jackson and Dan Fouts (ABC college football)- Jackson sounds like your wise old grandfather, you can hear the experiences and great moments he's seen in his voice. He always sounds like he's on top of it, even when he messes up a name or two. Fouts is a professional too, never over-talking.
• Its tough to pick a favorite baseball announcer, only because the only national voices I get to hear are the awful Tim McCarver and Joe Buck. Guess I'd go with the local radio guys, Eric Nadel and Victor Rojas on the Rangers broadcast.
• Ralph Strangis and Razor Reaugh (Dallas Stars hockey)- Even if I'm not really into a Stars game, I'll listen just for the chemistry between these two. Razor is seriously one of the funniest men in sports, and if you dont believe me check this out.

Thats it, have a safe and happy New Year. Kiss someone at midnight.

I'm like a whilrling dervish...

Wow... I just realized that last post was really angry and bitter. I don't really know what got into me. I'll still watch ESPN, only because I don't have another option. Coming tomorrow: New Years Resolutions.

The Sports Satan

Wasn't sure what to write about today, until I was inspired by Mr. Scott.
So over the past few weeks I have undergone a revalation of sorts. The scales have fallen from my eyes.
I have found myself beginning to really detest the juggernaut that is the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network. Better known as ESPN. I hate the fact that ESPN has decided to make themselves the story, instead of being the medium. ESPN has decided that sports aren't entertainment enough for people, so they have to be force fed Sportsntainment. Its now all about ESPN, and what how it can promote itself further. So instead of a college basketball game, we get Dick Butkus coaching a high school football team reality show. Instead of insightful analysis, we get Tilt and Codebreakers. And we get mock press conferences, The Hot Seat, Dream Job, and freaking Chris Berman instead of great anlaysts such as Jaworksie, Gammons, Buster Olney, and Bob Ley. Stop making the story, just report it. (Terrel Owens, for example)
And I hate Stuart Scott.
And i hate how every team or player that comes along somehow HAS to be one of greatest/worst in history. Every thing has to be sensationalized into something way more meaningful than it should be.
I feel partly responsible for my next complaint. I love PTI, its one of my favorite shows. But because PTI was such a sucess, it opened the floodgates for all thew horrible copies. Becase Kornheiser and Wilbon are so good, we now get pompous windbags Woody Page and Jay Marriotti on TV. These guys are reporter, or they used to be. But now they think they are celebrities, and get to build up this fake image of a TV personality.
And by the way, ESPN, stop saying USC is on the verge of 3 straight. LSU won your precious BCS trophy 2 years ago. And please don't say anything about Auburn last year, these issues might tarnish your precious Rose Bowl on ABC (guess who owns ESPN!). Keep hyping up a game THAT WILL MAKE YOU MONEY IF IT DOES WELL, instead of giving us real analysis and news.
Screw ESPN, join the revolution with me. It starts with making Deadspin.com a raging sucess, because they print the stories ESPN won't touch.
Or I guess we can all go buy ESPN The Phone!...

Christmas recap

Christmas has passed once again, and now I'm back at work. Overall, I give Christmas this year a narrow thumbs-up. Before Chritsmas day, I was in an unexplainable holiday depression. For whatever reason, I had the holdiay blues, and nothing could get my Christmas spirit back. But I had such a good Christmas day with my family that I was back to my good old self in no time. I was like Scrooge on Christmas day. I really enjoyed having Chruch Christmas morning, that was cool.
It was a good haul this year, a quick rundown of the gift pack I recieved for playing in the Orr Family Christmas Bowl this year:

• 45$ worth of itunes cash, of which I have already spent like half
• clothing, always nice
• Bets Buy/Barnes and Noble Gift Cards
• How to Be Good, by Nick Hornby
• The Education of a Coach, by David Halberstam
• The ESPN College Football Encyclopedia
• A digital camera
• and my bed liner for my truck is also counting as a present

Anyways, I'm really excited about all the books I got, especially the one about Bellichick.

• I saw the Ringer last night, no classic by any means, but see it just for the retarded guys, they completely steal the show and definitely make the movie seem more classy.

Well I hope everyone had a great Christmas, and if you need to know where THE party will be for New Years, just ask me.

Christmas Eve fun

Well I plan on watching a bunch of Christmas movies today, thought maybe I'd post the list.

• The Ref- cult Christmas classic, about a guy who takes a bickering family hostage on Christmas Eve
• Christmas Vacation
• A Muppett Christmas Carrol
• It's A Wonderful Life
• A Charlie Brown Christmas
• A Christmas Story

And I'll levae you with a guess the quote game, what movie is this from? (Hint: not from any of the movies above.)

"It's Christmas Eve. It's-it's the one night of the year when we all act a little nicer, we-we-we smile a little easier, we-w-w-we-we-we cheer a little more. For a couple of hours out of the whole year we are the people that we always hoped we would be. "

Merry Christmas everyone, be safe and think of Jesus.

So all alone I keep the wolves at bay

Topic for today: Politics
Normally, I don't make my political views very well known. It's not something I like to proclaim from the rooftops. However, when asked I will reveal that I am a solid right winger on most all points. My views these days, are pretty different than in my younger years. I used to be a right wing attack dog, loudly procliaming my Republican views to anyone who would listen. But over the last couple of years I have grown increasingly disenchanted with the lack of thinking on both sides of the aisle. To me, politics these days consist of people basically joining a "team", like they would support a hometown sports team. And after you join your "team", you then defend every single policy of that party. Nobody looks at the individual issues anymore, its simply, "Well, what is my party's stance on it? Thats what I believe." And all we end up doing is trying to get our team to win. I don't pretend to know how to fix the issues I bring up, I just wanted to share my opinion on them. All I can say is keep your eyes and ears open to other ideas, always.

• It's been more than a year since I first got it, yet Green Day's American Idiot still probably gets more play than any other cd I own. Every time I listen I find a new song I enjoy. Its easier for me to separate art from politics than for alot of other people, I think.
• I've heard that once again Spielberg is taking the easy way out in his new movie, Munich by refusing to take sides. One of the most disappointing developments in film over the past decade has been Spielberg's increasing insistence on making movies that don't offend anyone and have everyone leaving the theater happy. His self from 20 years ago would be angry at his work these days.
• Stars are playing Canine tonight, I will be in the building.

"You are what you love, not what loves you."- Adaptation

• Link of the day: The Mighty MJD has a list up of all the free swag the players get at bowl games this year. Way to go, Alamo bowl
• Honestly, I think Johnny Damon's best years are behind him. Yankes will be looking for a new center fielder in the middle of the 2007 season or so.
• I'm filing a protest with the league, but for now I will do whatever it is you want, Heath, to get ahold of those tickets.
• So are people supposed to be serious with the new Facebook friend connection feature? I have the feeling it will end up being a big joke.
• Know that I'm getting paid to sit here and write in this blog.

So... I've been trying to think of some standard features that I can create that will become traditions of this blog. So far all I have is What I'm Watching, and the very occasional Overrated/Underrated. But today I bring you a brand new, semi-weekly feature. Mason's DVD Shelf. I wanted to have something kind of similar to Oprah's Book Club, you know, but I felt that no one would give a crap if i suggested a random movie every once in awhile that no one cared about. But by choosing movies from my own personal DVD collection, I hope that someone, someday will be inspired by one of these posts to borrow said movie from my room. Ask anyone who knows me, movies are my passion. Books and music and TV are oh so good, but my love will always be cinema. So I kick off the DVD Shelf with what I think is one of the most criminally underrated movies of all time. Probably in my all-time top 5 favorite movies.

Mason's DVD Shelf #1:
Adaptation (2002) Starring: Nicholas Cage, Chris Cooper, Meryl Streep
Never before has a movie better tried to capture the creative process of writing better than Adaptation. But there's more to it than that. Quite simply, this may be the most creative movie of all time. I don't want to give too much away, but in order to fully appreciate this movie you need backstory.
After writing the amazing Being John Malkovich, Charlie Kaufman was hired to adapt the book The Orchid Thief to the big screen. Written by a journalist for the New Yorker, Susan Orlean, the Orchid Thief was about her following a man in the Florida Everglades who would go to any length to get precious orchids out of the protected wildlife preserves.
The only problem was, this book was impossible to adapt. Charlie simply couldn't do it. He panicked, thinking he would never work in Hollywood again after they found out he couldn't adapt it. But the script that he eventually turned in would be a work of pure genius. The script he gave the executive was about a man named Charlie Kaufman, who was hired to adapt The Orchid Thief. Only problem is, he doesn't know how. In the script Charlie has a twin brother named Donald, also a screenwriter.
So Charlie wrote a story about Charlie trying to write a story. To give any more away would be criminal. Its a comedy, but also pretty moving. So if anyone feels the desire to watch Adaptation, just ask me. You will not be disappointed. Trust me.

"Charlie Kaufman writes the way he lives... With Great Difficulty. His Twin Brother Donald Lives the way he writes... with foolish abandon. Susan writes about life... But can't live it. John's life is a book... Waiting to be adapted. One story... Four Lives... A million ways it can end."

Hump Day

Quick hits on a Wednesday:

• Kobe is freaking uneblieveable... he could have put up 90 last night if he really wanted to.
• Had a good time at Clark's party last night, particularly enjoyed our little game of Do, Date, or Dump.
• This year kind of feels like one of those years where I don't quite all the way get into the Christmas spirit. Its cliche, but the commercialism kinda gets to me. Maybe after I watch Charlie Brown Christmas I will be all fixed.
• I'm going to start reading some Nick Hornby novels, I've heard they are funny and insightful, so I'm gonna give some fiction a shot.

And finally, the main point of my post today:

I've noticed a startling trend happening in my life the past few months. Its a recurring situation that usually happens like this: I see someone at church or from my high school days that I haven't seen in many months or maybe years, and we begin talking and catching up. But the thing is, as he/she is telling me about where theyve been for the past year or who they've been with, or what they've done, I already know these details because of the socially acceptable stalking methods of our time, Facebook, Xanga and Webshots. And so in our conversation I have to pretend that I don't know anything about their life in the last year, but I really do, but I don't want them to know that I know. Really just an awkward situation all the way around. I hate Facebook. But its too late to turn back. The Evil Empire has ensnared us all.

"We're sending you back...to the future!"

So, I'm working over the break. It's really boring. Right now I am looking over huge reports looking for specific dates and highlighting them. I want to take my eyes out with a staple remover.
But while I sit here and do nothing, it gives me time to simply think. Just think. I really like doing that, and I know it sounds weird, but just reflecting on life and stuff can be strangely satisfying.
Well what I have been thinking about lately, quite simply, is the future. I have almost gotten hooked ont he new CBS show How I Met Your Mother, which I talked about below. That, and I sent an email to myself that I will recieve in two years, just kind of talking about everything going on right now.
And so in thinking about the future, I asked myself these questions. Do I really want to know what my life will be like in 10 years? If I did, wouldn't I just be bound for disappointment? Do the little things we do now really add up to something in the future?
I think the future intrigues people so much because everyone wants to be able to justify the things they are having to go through right now. We want to know that the struggles we deal with in life will eventually lead us to a better place.
On HIMYM last night, (and yes, I know it is a cheesy sitcom, deal with it) the main character, the dad in the future who is telling his kids the story, has a rough New Years Eve. Tnings didn't go his way with the girl he was after. But he says "Don't feel sorry for me, it was all important, all of it was leading somewhere. And all of a suddden it was 2006, and 2006 was a really big one."
Thats the attitude I want to have when things don't go my way. Its all leading somewhere, its all shaping things for later. None of the things we do are meaningless, they are all little pieces of this giant puzzle that can't be seen. Even lazy, pointless afternoons in college are building towards something big. Through all kinds of expereices we learn what kind of people we are, and what people we will want to be with later on. And I'm kind of gald I can't see it yet. I want to be suprised, awed, and overjoyed when I see where I am in 20 years.
So never think that it doesn't matter, because it will, even if you never know it.

Hope that was deep and reflective enough for you. Soon you will be returned to your collection of useless pop culture, and semi-funny personal anecdotes.

What I'm Watching

Time to debut a new feature on this blog. Its going to be called What I'm Watching, and its a just gonna be a non regular look at the things I'm really enjoying on TV right now. I love TV, so its close to the heart.
What I'm Watching:

Lost

Had to get it out of the way, its everybody's favorite show right now. I'm having fun with it, it definitely is the X-Files for a new age group. I can only hope they don't string the show out over too many years, if it only takes 3 seasons to solve everyting, then so be it. The X-Files was ruined because they tried to stretch it out too long.

Arrested Development

Theres not a funnier show on Tv, plain and simple. Genius writing and a great cast make AD one of the sadder TV deaths I've had to deal with. Soon it probably will be gone, and I will cry inside for it.

How I Met Your Mother
Not many people know about this show, but I really think if any show has the potential to be the next friends, this one's it. The story is that kids in 2030 find a video from their dad, telling them about how he met their mother. The show is all flashbacks, telling about a love lorn guy who decideds its time he found true love. Neil Patrick Harris is the best part about it, completely throwing away his Doogie Howser persona in favor of a wild party animal. Lots of laughs, along with a heart? Yes please.

My Name is Earl
Definitely the guilitest pleasure of the season, MNIE is the most white trash show I have every seen on TV. But o how it is glorious white trash. Jason Lee has never been better, and its hard to fault a show where there are laughs and a message.

I know that was all kind of brief, but I really want to go play Madden right now.

Slow day at work

Well, Im actually getting paid to sit here and write in this blog, I'm at work. Bet theyd love to know thats what I'm doing right now. Oh well. Coolest new website I've found, that everyone should participate in:
www.futureme.org

Its a website where you can send an email to yourself in the fututre, kind of like a time capsule. Its awesome. I wrote about my plans and my life, and I really hope to just be completely suprised when I get it in 2 years. I want to know then what I was feeling now. Should be cool.
Anyways, back to work. I will write more i promise.

Sorry

Well... i feel bad, I haven't updated this thing in awhile. I'm gonna try, really. Ive had a busy last couple of weeks. Anyways, in lieu of any meaningful post, I'm going to reprint my favoirte Christmas sotry of all time, besides the Jesus one.

Twas the Fight Before Christmas, by Rick Reilly:

You can take all your Tiny Tims and your Grinches and your Miracles on Whatever Street and stuff them in your stocking. The best Christmas story is about a boxer.
It starts the day in 1918 when a doctor tells a slender heavyweight named Billy Miske that his bum kidneys give him five years to live, if he's lucky. Turns out he's dying of Bright's disease. This comes as rotten news to Billy, who's only 24 years old and not half bad in the ring. He's good enough to fight guys like future light heavyweight champ Harry Greb twice to 10-round draws, which is sort of like tying with a twister. Still, the doc says if Billy's smart, he'll find a comfortable couch and retire right now.
Problem is, almost nobody but Billy knows he's up to his ears in debt, being $100,000 in the hole because the car distributorship he operates in St. Paul doesn't distribute near enough cars. Billy's weakness as a salesman is that he's too trusting. He keeps counting on his friends to pay up, and mostly they don't. So Billy keeps the kidney news to himself and decides to continue fighting and paying what he owes. In fact, Billy fights 30 more times after the doc's death sentence, including bust-ups with guys like Tommy Gibbons, who was knocked out only one time in his career, and three dances with Jack Dempsey, once for the title in 1920.
Dempsey hits people only slightly harder than a bus, and in that title bout he belts Billy once so flush in the heart that Billy goes down for a nine count. In those nine seconds a purple welt the size of a baseball pops up on Billy's chest, scaring Dempsey half to death. But then Billy himself pops up, wanting more. Dempsey knocks him clean out less than a minute later, this time with an anvil to the jaw, as Dempsey is trying to get the fight over before one of them faints, maybe Dempsey. "I was afraid I'd killed him," Dempsey says afterward, but Billy's kidneys are doing a good job of that all by themselves.
By the fall of 1923, Billy is dying fast. He looks like a broomstick on a diet. He's too weak to work out, much less prizefight. The only thing thinner than Billy's arms is his wallet. He hasn't had a bout since January, which is trouble, because Christmas is coming up hard.
Well, Billy isn't about to face his wife, Marie, and their three young kids, Billy Jr., Douglas and Donna, tapped out for his last Christmas, so he goes to his longtime manager, Jack Reddy, and asks him for one last fight. Reddy says no chance. "I don't like to say this," Reddy tells him, "but if you went in the ring now, in your condition, you might get killed."
"What's the difference?" Billy answers. "It's better than waiting for it in a rocking chair."
Reddy chews on that for a while and comes up with a proposition: "Do one thing for me. Go to the gym, start working out, and let's see if you can get into some kind of condition. Then we'll talk."
Billy says no can do. He says there's no way he can work out. He says he's got one last fight in him, and maybe not even that. A softie, Reddy arranges a Nov. 7 bout in Omaha against a brawler named Bill Brennan, who went 12 rounds with Dempsey and is still meaner than 10 miles in brand-new shoes.
True to his word, Billy doesn't get any nearer the gym than his aspirin bottle. He stays in hiding, slurping bowls of chicken soup and boiled fish, and rarely making it out of bed. But he turns up in Omaha on the appointed night, survives four rounds with Brennan and cashes a check for $2,400.
That check buys the best Christmas the Miskes ever have. The kids come flying downstairs in the morning to a Christmas tree, a toy train, a baby-grand piano and presents stacked higher than they can reach. They eat like Rockefellers and sing like angels and laugh all day. Do you know, the only smile bigger in Minneapolis that day than the ones on the faces of those three Miske kids is on Billy's mug.
The next morning Billy calls Reddy and whispers, "Come and get me, Jack. I'm dying." Reddy rushes Billy to St. Mary's Hospital, but the doctors can't do a thing. On New Year's Day 1924, Billy, 29, dies of kidney failure.
That's it, really. Except that if you ever pass through Omaha and run into an old-timer, ask him about the prizefight that day, the one that gave Billy Miske the finish he wanted, the one he won in four rounds, over Bill Brennan, by a knockout.