Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
Without Temerity
Thursday
June 16, 2005
I've been having fun playing some single table free No Limit Texas Hold 'Em poker tournaments online. Generally speaking, if I don't do anything rash, I can do pretty well. I might get outdrawn, as I did earlier today with King-Jack suited versus 8-6 offsuit where my opponent, who was short-stacked, went all in, but usually tight play early, parlayed into playing some real hands when the table is whittled down a bit, and then mixing my game up with some bluffing involved when the table thinks I'm only playing "real" hands... that is a usually decent gameplan. Does it always work? No. But it's not for real money. Part of the fun, for sure.
Last night I watched Collateral. I know that Tom Cruise appears to have lost his mind in what is either a PR meltdown or a brilliant PR stunt that is simply Cruise re-inventing himself and keeping his name top-of-mind, but he and Jamie Foxx were both fantastic actors in that movie. I was looking forward to seeing it to see how the two would interact, and they pulled it off great. It was unusual seeing Cruise play a rudos (a bad guy, for those of you not familiar with Mexican pro wrestling jargon), but he pulled it off great. It didn't come across as strange, like Robin Williams did in One Hour Photo. Foxx's character was a bit muddled, and it was tough to tell if his limo business idea was a reality or a pipe dream (what is a pipe dream, anyway?), but Foxx played it as well as it could be played. It wasn't a perfect movie by any means, but it deserved the three stars that the cable gods gave it. How both it and Gremlins 2 (which I also spotted in the cable listings) received *** is beyond me, but judging and star ratings are subjective things, I suppose. But three stars to Gremlins 2! I'm still mad about that, and I've already devoted an entire column to griping about it.
|  | Marcus Camby (far left) tried to save Tony Parker (middle) from colliding with 6'11", 260 pound Nenê (right) earlier this season.
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Spurs/Pistons Game 4 is tonight. Detroit is always going to be tough at home, end of story. Plus I get worried when Tony Parker drives through the line with temerity, especially when it ends with him taking a Rey Mysterio Jr. style bump onto the hardwood floor. I know Detroit is a hard city, but c'mon Tony, you've already proven yourself to me, and everyone rooting for San Antonio for that matter. The Pistons are physical, and I'm concerned that the Spurs might see Parker get hurt, especially with the string of good luck Detroit has had when it comes to other teams and injuries.
But back to Parker, in 2003 I was pissed when the Spurs were contemplating bringing in Jason Kidd to replace him (take age and contracts into account, and look at where both players are today, and you'll see why). But even the picture I used in this commentary from last year shows #9 flying toward Shaq, which is the equivalent of Mysterio doing a flying spinning leg kick into the Big Show. Only instead of bouncing off and hitting a wrestling mat, like Mysterio would do, Parker would hit the hardwood bouncing off of Shaq while going toward the basket. Notice that they don't call it softwood. There's a reason for that.
After spending three days busting my ass working on it, the newly redesigned BTLS.com is up. The old site functioned fine, but I couldn't change the buttons (since they were threaded with the picture of the girl in the bikini behind them). The result was a front page that ran on and on, which made it tough for people to find what they wanted on there. The boiling point for me was when I was showing the site to Donald Wolfe and Ronnie Aquino two weeks ago in Nashville and I had trouble figuring out what I needed. At that point I knew it had to change. But I think it looks better now, and I didn't sacrifice style for execution. I managed to even get it to where the Google AdSense on the left side matches up perfect with the buttons. That didn't happen by accident, I assure you. I learned a great deal in the process, which is a positive. Learning is a good thing, particularly when it comes to web design.
Tomorrow I'm going back to Nashville. Why so soon? Because my friend Glenn Brown is getting married there on Saturday, and I'm going to be there for it. Speaking of which, I'd best get to work on packing for my trip now...
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