Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
Parameters
Thursday
June 5, 2003
As I type this, Game 5 of the NHL Finals between the Devils and the Ducks is being placed in East Rutherford, New Jersey. It's been a wild shootout... It's been tough to figure out who to root for in the series. The Mighty Ducks have always disgusted me with their connection to the Disney movie of the same name and that company's attempt to tie it in with a real-life NHL team. But then the Devils have never been favorites of mine in years past, and that's been the case again this season, complete with their win over the Lightning in the playoffs. Their offsides trap doesn't make for the most exciting brand of hockey, and then on top of that there are a number of friends of mine who are pretty fervent in their rooting for the Devils. Now I cheered for Jersey vs. Dallas three years ago, but that's like a Mets fan trying to figure out who to cheer for in a Yankees vs. Red Sox playoff game.
It's Spurs 1, Nets 0 in their best of seven series. Let's hope that Tony Parker's performance shuts the door on those ridiculous Jason Kidd-to-San Antonio rumors. The Spurs have some nice cap room (though they can't outpay New Jersey for Kidd under league rules); that cap room would be best used in keeping Stephen Jackson and possibly signing Jermaine O'Neal from the Pacers as a free agent. What's funny with O'Neal is how he's looked at as a veteran (after jumping from high school to the NBA, being drafted by Portland and eventually ending up in Indiana), yet he's more than one year younger than I am (he won't turn 25 until mid-October). Imagine the Spurs with Duncan, O'Neal and Parker all in their 20s. For Spurs fans, it's a reason to smile.
I saw the movie The Italian Job on Tuesday night. It was rather disappointing in many ways, particularly in a number of of the dialoge sequences. You get the impression in watching it that the movie's makers had just watched
Ocean's Eleven and tried to emulate as many elements from it as possible (with a splash of
Charlie's Angels thrown in). Such a waste of
Ed Norton's talents (though he did fine with what his role involved). Suspending disbelief is very, very difficult at times in The Italian Job. But I will give the second half of the movie credit in that it finally started to pick up, and it had one of the coolest movie chase scenes that I've ever seen. That alone makes it worth at least renting. One shocker for me is that I found
Seth Green's character to be amusing. Which is surprising given that I've never cared for his acting at all and wondered who he had naked pictures of to land all of those high-profile roles. But in this one, he's solid.
I've heard good things about the game
Animal Crossing for the GameCube. Kelly at work told me about it, and my sister Mary Beth filled me in more on it tonight. It seems to fit right in with the all ages theme of most contemporary Nintendo-produced games (going for that niche audience), it teaches kindness toward animals, and it's a game that's described as "2,000 times more detailed" than The Sims as far as what you can do and what not. Sounds like fun.
Also, I hear from Scott Massey that
NHL 2003 for the PS2 is an excellent game. I definitely need to give that the once-over... NHL '97 for the PSX is one of my all-time favorites, and I dig hockey games. Meanwhile, I'm waiting for
NBA Live '04, with Yao Ming (sans the John Kerry haircut that Scott gave him in his create-a-player creation on
NBA Live '03), Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James, etc. in it. I wonder if NBA Live '04 will have features like "Earn #1 seed, advance to conference finals, lose job to coach who you beat in the conference semis?" Hey, if it's in the game...
Here's an actual synopsis of an episode of the show "The Fifth Wheel" that airs locally on the WB affiliate in Tampa late night at 2:30 AM: "A man tries to choose between a woman who likes sex and another with loose morals." Now that's TV worth watching...
Last night at the Green Iguana, it was funny seeing some of the girls mark out for the members of the Buccaneers who showed up. "Ooooh, that's Shawn King!" Speaking of Shawn King, had he never been forced into action in last year's Monday night disaster vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers, he would have commanded a hefty sum and probably a starting job on the open market. Instead, he'll be back with the Bucs in a backup role. But, hey, he's a Super Bowl champion.
Method Man on Jimmy Kimmel Live has been great this week. I don't get to watch JKL regularly (and my VCR problem precludes me from taping it), but when I'm up to see it... it's some funny stuff.
On the work front, my boss, Bubba the Love Sponge, just signed a three-year contract extension with
Clear Channel that will keep him with the company through at least December 2006. That's good news for the show, and it's also good news on the syndication front. We're on the verge of officially signing on with KANR Wichita (once the first refusal deal goes through), and there are things looming for a number of other markets. It's exciting, and it doesn't feel like work at all to me. I really enjoy what I'm doing. Of course it didn't hurt from a perspective standpoint coming from the awful situation I faced at my previous job, but still several months into it I'm continuing to really enjoy the work...
|
