Monday morning notes
- Well, I'm certainly glad that the Brewers road trip is over. They managed to score 12 runs in 10 games and pretty much totally embarrassed themselves throughout the trip. Errors everywhere, poor baserunning, and absolutely no hitting. (.176 average for the team on the trip.)
Ugh. Flat out... ugh. Terrible stuff.
Thankfully Greinke pitches tonight and maybe something good will come of that.
- Considering the fact that I'm not really a fan of NBA basketball, I actually wanted to watch some of game 4 from the Mavericks and Lakers... as it's just nice to see Phil Jackson and Kobe Bryant get a beat down.
For a guy who is considered a real zen sort of guy... he doesn't really give his players that sort of play style as Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum got tossed for, very ugly, flagrant fouls. Is there a worse way for a coach to go out? Looking like you completely lost your team? Another ugh.
Every time I try to give myself a chance to watch some of the NBA, it makes me want to stay away. Games like that... it's pretty obvious as to why I don't go back all that often.
- I was pretty tempted to get out and see Thor. Anyone get a chance to see it this weekend and have a brief review? I am still stunned to see that Kenneth Branaugh is the director for the film. To go from Hamlet... to Thor... seems odd.. and strangely appropriate all at the same time. (Danish... and Norse... am I alone here?)
- As far as sports games go, we have Virtua Tennis 4 coming out this week... and I don't have a slot open in my Gamefly queue. Damn. I wanted to see how that matched up against Top Spin 4.
- Nice to see Sony is finally offering us some credit card protection to go along with the free month of Playstation Plus and a free game. The whole thing has been terribly handled from the get go and that is really all there is to say about it. Now I just want the damn service back up again so I can play some co-op of Portal 2... even though I could just as easily play it on the PC.
- Lastly, the Stanley Cup playoffs have been amazing... outside of the Eastern conference, which ended in two sweeps. The Western conference matchups have been terrific hockey games. 2 more-Game 6's coming up over the next two days. Gotta love it.
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Dan:
May 9th, 2011 - 17:42
NBA is a players league so even if Jackson really wanted to mold the players into becoming zen masters in training, most players would tell him to get lost. Sure he gives them books but how many of them read and take it to heart?
But mostly Jackson has a schtick. He’s been successful because he chose the right jobs after being elevated to coach Jordan, after the Bulls had hard time advancing in the playoffs. He was hired just as Jordan and Pippen were coming into their own.
Of course that personality made him very wealthy, commanding probably bigger salaries than the teams needed to pay. But maybe he was almost as much of a draw as the superstar players he always had.
As far as Branagh and Thor, I guess it’s a commercial move. Thor will be seen by a much bigger audience than his other films and he probably can’t get those smaller films financed any more.
Instead, it’s the comic book movies that get greenlighted, not Shakespeare. Sad reflection on culture but some directors have made the most of it, making comic book movies which have more substance than the run of the mill action blockbuster. To their credit, directors like Raimi and Nolan have made the most of their opportunities.