Showing 1 - 10 of 14 posts found matching: basketball

54/2220. Stray Dog (1949)
I intentionally followed my viewing of Cats with this Akira Kurosawa writen/directed police procedural, which is a much better movie. Its only real flaw is a lack of actual dogs. The true subject is the directionless state of young men in post-WWII Tokyo, hence the allegorical title.

55/2221. The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh (1979)
Unlike Strange Dogs, I bumped into this by pure happenstance. I'm glad I did. The premise of a basketball team built on astrology is inherently silly, but that's the sort of film this is, and it dives in head-first (see: Jonathan Winters as a goofball team owner and his own evil twin brother.) Like most home aquariums, it's fun but not deep.

Drink Coke! (The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh)
Coca-Cola is a performance-enhancing drug

56/2222. Carle Laemmle (2019)
The descendants of Universal Studios founder Carle Laemmle who participated in this documentary would have you believe that the man was a saint. Maybe he was, but it's hard to imagine that he united his competitors and defeated the Edison Motion Picture trust without at least having a iron-rod backbone.

60/2226. Burden of Dreams (1982)
The numbering on this one is out of order because I logged it late. Oops. But also pretty fitting considering the subject. In hindsight, I now know that this documentary was the explicit basis for the very silly 2-part 2022 Documentary Now episode "Soldier of Illusion." The lengths that Werner Herzog went through to make his Amazon River movie are terrifying.

57/2223. The Apple (1980)
The Apple is, without a doubt, the single greatest movie musical ever made about Adam and Eve as rockstars in a world dominated by the recording executive devil. The makers of Cats could learn a few lessons on how to do "bonkers" right.

Drink Coke! (The Apple)
There's a ton of Coke in this film, very little of which is bottled.

More to come.

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I know I just reviewed a batch of movies two days ago, but when I wrote that, these two felt like they should get a separate post. So they did.

103/2112. The Single Standard (1929)
Greta Garbo's capricious protagonist suffers through a series of romantic misadventures that illuminate how differently men and women are treated by society. There are a surprising number of suicide attempts, all of them by men, suggesting that maybe women aren't the weaker sex.

As it happens, I just a few days ago watched a surprisingly similar movie:

119/2128. The Grasshopper (1970)
Jaqueline Bisset's capricious protagonist suffers through a series of romantic misadventures that illuminate how differently men and women are treated by society, this time adding race and homosexuality and youth culture and drugs into the mix. I'm inclined to call this an exploitation film, both for its slapdash craftsmanship and overly sensational subject matter — Jim Brown beats a racist pedophile for raping his wife and is then shot to death in a revenge killing... on a basketball court!

Despite their stylistic differences (which, frankly aren't so different considering the cinema sensibilities of their eras), both The Single Standard and The Grasshopper ask their female leads to carry most of the emotional weight. The former seeks to showcase Garbo's protagonist's 1920s strength while the latter wallows in Bisset's 1960s weaknesses.

Did society change so much, or did Hollywood? Frankly, the key difference is probably that Garbo's movie was written by women, while Bisset's was written by men (including Garry Marshall of Happy Days and Pretty Woman fame). Everyone loses when their opponent is allowed to tell the story.

More to come.

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For those of you interested in my UGA season ticket dilemma, you may appreciate this correspondence between myself and the UGA Athletic Director.

Mr. McGarity:

I write to you in regard to 2018 football season ticket prices.

I've been a season ticket holder since I graduated from the University in 2002. I have attended almost every home game in that time. It has been my dream that I will be able to continue attending games in Sanford Stadium for the rest of my life. For the first time in the past 15 years, this year's jump in season ticket prices has me wondering if that will be possible.

I recognize the need for the Athletic Department to raise funds to maintain its competitiveness. I don't begrudge small adjustments from year to year -- especially after championship seasons -- to maintain operations in football and other sports.

However, I consider a 50% jump in ticket prices year-over-year to be excessive, even after reading the justifications provided at georgiadogs.com, especially considering that a less painful 25% increase per ticket would still have placed UGA squarely in the middle of the pack of your listed comparibles. I would have hoped that loyalty would have some value to the Athletic Department, but if your goal is to price out longtime ticket holders in pursuit of deeper pockets, that's your prerogative.

Please know that despite my disappointment at the steep increase in price and the difficulty it presents to my personal budget, I still plan to renew my season tickets for 2018 and beyond. I do so with the hope that going forward, I shall not again experience such a sticker shock.

Go Dawgs!

Walter Stephens, BFA 2002

To my surprise, I received a handwritten response, transcribed below.

(Before I go any further, let me publicly thank Mr. McGarity for responding, period. I'm sure if he'd read any of the terrible things I've said about him in the past 8 years here on my blog — which is accessible to Google — he would already have banned me from campus.)

Dear Walter,

Thanks for your letter of 2.8.18. I do understand the dilemma these ticket price increases caught our fans and in a perfect world, increases would never be necessary. I wish that were so! But in order to make all parts of our program work at the highest levels, football is one of the areas that allows us to raise the essential revenue.

I hope future increases are more in line with previous year increases, if and when necessary.

Thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely, Greg McGarity

Any price we football fans can pay is worth it to help the equestrian team win another national championship, I guess. Go horse-Dawgs!

Actually, I probably shouldn't pick on the equestrian team. Their most recent national title came in 2014 and is one of the few titles to be won by UGA teams since McGarity replaced Damon Evans (fired for having a DUI and red panties!) in 2010. Everyone knows UGA basketball is terrible and many other sports are under performing. Boosters have been pressuring for McGarity's replacement. Obviously, McGarity sees diving into football fans' pockets as a potential solution to his department's other woes.

I'm not sure I agree, but I'm willing to wait and find out. At least for one more year.

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Dear Walter-of-the-Future,

I write to you now to remind you that I watched large parts of both of UGA's last two basketball games of the 2014-2015 season. Not all, mind you, because I don't really have a strong stomach. I watched just enough to remind myself why I don't ever watch basketball. Especially when UGA is involved.

Therefore, when you come back and read this because you're once again surprised to discovered that you have used a "basketball" tag before (twice! I know, right?) or because tickets to a game in Stegeman Coliseum are incredibly cheap, know that the research has been done. Go play a video game instead.

Don't waste your time reinvestigating this issue, even if UGA does somehow make it past the first round of the NCAA tournament — something that they haven't done in the past 13 years as of this writing. (This is not a prediction that UGA can never improve at basketball. Maybe they will. [They won't.]).

The last time you liked basketball was when when you lived in Lithonia and played pick-up games with the neighborhood kids in Deshawn's driveway. You were the kid that always got assigned to the "good" team because you were so terrible it evened things out. The only thing you were good at was fouling. That's not a skill, it's a liability.

The bad news is that basketball hasn't changed, and you've only gotten slower and fatter. You and basketball have gone your separate ways, and now there's not even any need to acknowledge one another's presence when you pass crossing the street. Have a nice life, basketball.

What I'm trying to say is that it doesn't matter what UGA does. Or the Hawks or the second coming of "Thunder Dan" Majerle. Don't bother watching because you conclusively don't like the sport of basketball. You know how I know? Because I'm you.

You're welcome.

Signed Walter-of-the-Past

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While working, I tend to have the television on but the sound off. Occasionally, I look up and read the closed captioning to see if I'm missing anything. On Saturday night, I looked up and saw this:

It's a better name than Happy Feet

That's Atlanta's "11 Alive" 11PM newscast referencing the Georgia Bulldogs' basketball opponents. It's a good things the Bulldogs won. It'd be embarrassing to lose to a bunch of "Florida Gay Toes" in Athens.

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My confession: I've been watching a lot of women's curling in this Winter Olympics. It's hypnotic. Normally when I watch people throw stones, they're aiming for people.

I can't say I'm usually a big fan of women's sports. In most events that are divided between the sexes, it seems to me that the women's game is a watered-down version of the men's. Basketball, tennis, golf, etc. But in curling, the two games seem pretty much the same. Given a choice, who wouldn't rather have a woman sweep the floor instead of a man?

I have a couple of friends who insist on using female avatars when playing video games. Their logic has always been that they would rather look at the female form rather than the male. That may be true for my curling viewing as well. If I'm going to watch someone cradle stones all night, that someone might as well be a woman.

In the past, I've known men who watched gymnastic events because they thought the female gymnasts were sexy. Generally speaking, gymnasts are tiny things with overdeveloped muscles. Personally, I prefer athletes who wear glasses, like the girls of curling. Glasses are sexy. Don't deny it. You know it's true.

Anyway, after 2 weeks of watching curling, I think I have a pretty good grasp on the game. Too bad I'll forget it all before I see my next curling match in 2018.

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This LSU/Georgia game was probably the most exciting game I've seen in Sanford Stadium in the past decade.

LSU 41, UGA 44

I mean, I've seen some great games. Back when Tennessee was still the team to beat in the early 2000s, the atmosphere was electric. Before Cam Newton destroyed them, Auburn games always had a great atmosphere. I seem to recall that Steve Spurrier's first year as coach of the Gamecocks was a fantastic game. This one beat them all.

ESPN's College Game Day was in town for the game (the third time since I've had season tickets), and the fans were really worked up hours before kickoff. The crowd was on its feet making noise almost continuously for all for quarters. I screamed my head off, and I thought I was going to be sick when LSU got the ball in the final 2 minutes down by 3 points. (The Georgia offense scored nearly at will, but the secondary couldn't stop anything. It was terrifying!) I don't know that I've ever been so exhausted after a game.

After the game, the players thanked the fans leaving the stadium, something I've never seen before

In fact, the whole night was just crazy. UGA head basketball Mark Fox dressed in body paint to hang out with the student section. Former UGA golf star Bubba Watson tried not to upstage his wife, former UGA basketball star Angie Ball Watson, as she was celebrated between quarters. Olympic gold medal winner Allison Schmitt was among feted members of the SEC champion UGA swimming/diving team. After the game, David Pollack danced with his kid in the end zone as Mark Richt sought out and hugged his wife. When Aaron Murray came out of the locker room for an interview with ESPN (on the northwest corner of the field after the game), the rest of the team came with him. They lined up single-file to hi-five the crowd still trying to leave the stadium. I've never seen anything like that.

It was all pretty damn awesome. This is why I attend football games.

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The Miami Dolphins kicked off their 2012 season today in an opener against the Houston Texans. I know that you have read my constant rants against the Dolphins and how bad they are going to be for weeks months years, so I'll let Gregg Rosenthal of NFL.com do the talking here:

This game was actually close until the Dolphins offense imploded in the second quarter. They turned the ball over four times in four possessions including three Tannehill interceptions. At one point, they turned it over on three straight plays. It's going to be one of those kind of years.

Tannehill, it seems, never got the memo that he shouldn't throw the ball at people who aren't wearing Dolphins jerseys. The rookie looked worse than a typical rookie, throwing multiple passes at Texans linemen who tipped them in the air, turning our passing offense into the football equivalent of a basketball's jump ball.

The team surrendered 21 points in 1 minute and 53 seconds, a feat I wouldn't have thought possible if I hadn't seen it myself. When a reporter asked our brand new Head Coach what could stop the Dolphins' unprecedented string of turnovers, Joe Philbin replied, "halftime." If Joe Philbin is channeling John McKay, does that make the 2012 Dolphins the 1976 Buccaneers?

Here are a few more John McKay quotes that Philbin may want to borrow for some of the upcoming 15 remaining games in 2012:

  • "We didn't tackle well today but we made up for it by not blocking."
  • "We stunk. We blocked bad; we were terrible on defense and our kicking game made up for it by being absolutely horrible. I saw nothing that delighted me. We ran on the field fairly well."
  • On coaching: "You do a lot of praying, but most of the time the answer is 'no.'"
  • On experience: "If you have everyone back from a team that lost ten games, experience isn't too important."
  • On his post-season chances: "Three or four plane crashes and we're in the playoffs."
  • On his team's execution: "I'm all in favor of it."

Memorize these, coach. It's going to be a long season, and I'm going to need something to distract me from your team's performance.

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The fellow who pays me to open Magic cards was disappointed that I didn't mention him by name in my last post. That fellow's name is Randy, and this is my way of apologizing for not mentioning him earlier.

Randy loves to gamble. He'll bet on anything. That's not to say that Randy has a problem. I'm sure he could quit any time he could no longer find someone willing to take his money. He's preparing to have a second child, I suspect, because he's already lost the rights to his first kid.

Randy is excited about today's Super Bowl. He'll certainly be wagering on the game. That doesn't make Randy unique: it is estimated that about half of all adult American -- probably the male half -- will be gambling today's game between the New England Patriots and New York Giants. And like Randy, most of those bettors will be gambling not on the game's outcome, but on its details.

Proposition bets are wildly popular, Randy assures me. These "prop" bets are for the outcome of curiously specific events. Randy's personal favorite prop is to gamble on whether the first turnover of the game will be a fumble or interception. (Randy prefers fumble, but interception is the big favorite. [Actual outcome: interception]) Other examples of props for Super Bowl XLVI:

  • Will Tom Brady's first pass of the game be complete, incomplete, or intercepted?
    (Favorite: incomplete)[Actual: incomplete]
  • Will Eli Manning throw a touchdown pass in the first quarter of the game?
    (Favorite: no) [Actual: yes]
  • Which quarterback will throw an interception first?
    (Favorite: Manning) [Actual: Brady]
  • Will more or fewer than 2.5 players attempt a pass during the game?
    (Favorite: fewer) [Actual: fewer]
  • Which team will cross the 50 yard line on offense first?
    (Favorite: Giants) [Actual: Giants]
  • Will any player draw a penalty for excessive celebration after a touchdown?
    (Favorite: no) [Actual: no]
  • Will the jersey number be of the first player to score a touchdown be higher or lower than 80.5?
    (Favorite: lower) [Actual: lower (80)]
  • Will the Patriots convert a 4th down?
    (Favorite: no) [Actual: yes]
  • Will the first missed field goal of the game miss left, miss right, or be blocked?
    (Favorite: miss left) [Actual: none missed]
  • Will the color of the Gatorade dumped on the winning coach be yellow, orange, clear, red, green, or blue?
    (Favorite: yellow) [Actual: purple!]
  • If Tom Brady's son is shown on TV during the game, will he be wearing a Tom Brady Jersey?
    (Favorite: yes) [Actual: not shown]
  • Will Kelly Clarkson's bare belly be showing when she sings the National Anthem?
    (Favorite: no) [Actual: no]
  • Will Madonna wear an NFL jersey or shirt at any point during the Super Bowl halftime show?
    (Favorite: no) [Actual: no]
  • Which number will be higher: the gross passing yards accrued by Tom Brady plus 63.5 yards or the number of points accrued by the college basketball teams of Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Illinois, and Northwestern on February 5 minus 63.5 points?
    (Favorite: even) [Actual: Brady]

I think Randy was going to tell me that the last bet is a sure thing for Brady, but he barely got through reading it when he excused himself to make a phone call. Don't worry, though. I made sure that he paid me in cash as soon as he came back.

Comments (1) | Leave a Comment | Tags: friends gambling nfl randy super bowl

I woke up on April Fool's Day to find the following text message:

From: Fike -- Breaking news and i wanted to be the 1st to tell you. Pennington tore his acl playing basketball. You may be free of him for good now

Of course I immediately assumed that Fike was pulling an April Fool's Day prank on me. As you no doubt know, loyal reader, I am no fan of professional quarterback (recently employed by the Miami Dolphins) Chad "Noodle-Arm" Pennington. As I said on August 11, 2008:

It's not that I hate Pennington, I just don't see him as the answer to any of our many questions. He's old, his naturally weak arm is practically nonexistent after several operations, and he was unable to provide enough leadership in New York last year.

Replace "New York" with "Miami" and everything about that above statement is still completely true almost three years later! A joke about the health of Pennington is tailor made to get my goat, and that scumbag Fike knows it. It'd be just like him to ruin my day by getting my hopes up that Pennington was truly finished as a pro quarterback.

However, it seems that maybe I should have given my good friend Fike the benefit of the doubt. Both the Associated Press and the Miami Sun-Sentinel are reporting that Pennington really did injure his ACL in a pickup basketball game on Thursday. Hooray!

Seriously, I do wish Pennington the best possible recovery, but I really, really hope he takes the hints his body is trying to send him and hangs up his cleats for good. The Miami Dolphins don't need his help; they are already bad enough without him on their roster.

Comments (1) | Leave a Comment | Tags: april fools chad pennington dolphins football friends holidays nfl randy

To be continued...

 

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