Week eight NFL winners and losers and the state of the NFC East
The NFC East may be the premiere conference in football in terms of competition and notoriety. All four teams are in major media markets and have a national following, and three of the four have distinguished Superbowl histories. Unfortunately there seems to be something amiss in the NFC East this year with all of its teams [...]
NBA preview Part II–How the West is won
I’m not sure it’s by trading away James Harden, but the Thunder probably did the right thing. Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant alone are likely going to keep them in the mix for the rest of this decade, anyway. Now with the acquisition of Jeremy Lamb, Kevin Martin and two first-round draft picks, the Thunder [...]
NBA preview Part I–The East and the league’s lack of parity
The thing about the NBA is that most years there’s not a lot of teams actually capable of winning it all. This has been true for a while–only nine different teams have won the NBA title in the last 30-plus years since Bird and Magic met in 1980 Finals. This year things aren’t really different. Maybe [...]
Buster Posey: the heart and soul of the two-time champions
For the second time in three seasons the San Francisco Giants celebrated a World Series title in near utter silence. In 2010 it was a shocked Texas Rangers crowd watching the Giants dog-pile on the Rangers field. Sunday night it was the Tigers’ faithful enduring a title celebration at the expense of their home town [...]
‘Chasing Mavericks’ should have been a little more fun
Two very noteworthy directors, Curtis Hanson (8 Mile, LA Confidential) and Michael Apted (Nell, Coal Miner’s Daughter) bring us Chasing Mavericks, the story of California surfing legend Jay Moriarity as a 15-year-old back in 1994. It’s a nice movie with some heart that follows Moriarity’s overwhelming desire to surf some legendary waves (Mavericks) near his home of Santa Cruz. [...]
‘Cloud Atlas’ is an epic failure and Roger Ebert now borders on pointless
It was commonly accepted at one point around Hollywood that Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell’s 2004 acclaimed 500-plus page novel, could not be effectively adapted into a movie. I wish Hollywood had listened to its initial thoughts on the matter. The movie version will leave people unfulfilled if not outright angry when the almost three hour film finally concludes. [...]
Week eight NFL picks and fantasy corner
So last week was a little more interesting as the new implementation of the over/under selections in this column kept me right at .500 last week. I finished 5-6-1 in the games that I picked with the late Eli Manning TD causing the push on the over. I would have had a winning record had [...]
You can’t do Halloween without a good horror movie (well I can’t)
I love this time of year for many reasons–football, changing leaves, moderate temperatures, apple cider, and Oktoberfest to name a few–but Halloween and watching horror movies on TV is one of the biggest. I love horror movies. The good ones. The bad ones that are so bad they’re good. Most of them, in fact. Look, I’m not [...]
Week seven NFL recap: Is the Madden Curse to blame in Detroit?
Since this is a Tuesday column, the Monday night game always provides plenty of fodder for my rants. This week is no exception as we look into the underachieving Detroit Lions. The Lions’ offense, which was record-setting last year and enabled Matthew Stafford to become a member of the 5000-yard club, has become totally anemic this year [...]
What the SF Giants and Mitt Romney have in common
First, let me apologize to the great city of San Francisco. There is a rumor going around here on the east coast that they’re not always, shall we say, all that receptive to Republican policies. Or anyone that disagrees with them, for that matter. So the residents of Frisco might bristle when I make the [...]