A little sports for ya...Dodger blue for kicks

If any of you are sports fans, you may have noticed a lot of big sports stories happening right now. There's the Brett Favre saga, and the Packers have offered to pay him NOT to play. There's football training camp and preseason coming up (I have high hopes for my Cowboys this year). There's Rafael Nadal's impending rise to the top spot in the world tennis rankings, an honor held by Roger Federer for quite a long time now (a record 235 weeks to be exact, since February 2, 2004). And for the baseball fans, there is plenty of news surrounding the trade deadline. CC Sabathia went from the Indians to the Brewers and has been stellar; Ivan Rodriguez was traded from Detroit to the Yankees; Mark Teixeira was traded from the Braves to the Angels; Ken Griffey Jr. (one of my all-time favorite players) was traded from the Reds to the White Sox; most exciting of all to me, there was a three team deal between the Pirates, Red Sox, and Dodgers that sent Jason Bay to Boston, four prospects to Pittsburgh and landed one of the most feared hitters in the game, Manny Ramirez, in Los Angeles. As ESPN.com's Jayson Stark said, "That should be a Hall of Fame ballot, not a shopping list of guys you could line up and trade for." Griffey accepted the trade on the basis that he has a much better chance to win the first World Series of his illustrious career with Chicago. If anybody deserves to win a Series, it's Ken Griffey Jr., who, in my opinion, is one of the classiest guys in baseball, and maybe even in all of sports (right up there with Brett Favre, even though most people agree his legacy has been diminished by the recent ongoings between him in the Packers). It's hard to find an athlete like him in the sporting world. Sure, there are plenty of athletes who are just as good as, if not better than, Griffey, but not many of them share the character that he has. He lives in a world where he is constantly scrutinized, yet I cannot recall a single time where I heard his name involved in any kind of scandal. I'm particularly stoked on Manny being in LA. I'm a Dodger fan, and a big bat like Manny was just what the team was missing. In my opinion, this move puts them in prime position to win the NL West, and hopefully to make a nice playoff run. He helped Boston win two World Series titles, and hopefully he can do the same for LA. At least now we can sit Andruw Jones, and his ridiculously low batting average, on the bench. We should see Manny in the lineup tonight versus the Diamondbacks, and hopefully we see him, and the Dodgers, playing in October.

The Machinist

I know I'm a bit behind on this one, but I just saw The Machinist last night. Any one that has seen or even heard about this movie knows about Christian Bale's extreme crash dieting to drop his wait down to a very unhealthy 120 lbs. I must admit, the first time I saw Bale in the movie, I was a bit creeped out by his sickly appearance. However, he turns in another amazing performance (did anybody expect anything less?) as haunted insomniac Trevor Reznik, easily reinforcing his title as one my favorite actors of our time. Most of the film simply kept raising more and more questions, and I found myself getting more and more enthralled, just waiting for the climax, where all the film's mysteries would be revealed to me. I really liked the whole deal with the Post-Its and the hangman game, especially when it was all made clear at the end of the film. The best part of this movie is that a day later, I am still thinking about it. I'm not sure I'll ever know what exactly happens in the film, since it is definitely left open to interpretation. However, I did read one interesting theory that had to do with Trevor (Bale) actually being dead, and his soul finally being able to rest at the end of the film.

10/11

The Machinist
Director: Brad Anderson
Writer: Scott Kosar
Starring: Christian Bale, Jennifer Jason Leigh, John Sharian, Michael Ironside

Step Brothers

Let's be honest, nobody goes to watch a movie like this to be blown away with quality filmmaking; we just want to laugh. Step Brothers definitely delivers on that front. The movie earned an "R" rating for the tons of crude and sexual content throughout the movie. The on screen chemistry between John C. Reilly and Will Ferrell is great, but one would expect so since they play similar characters, just with different quirks. The plot is really not that good, but the funny moments and one-liners come one after another, which keeps the movie interesting and very funny. I actually really enjoyed that they threw Brennan's (Ferrell) older brother (played by Adam Scott, formerly of short-lived Boy Meets World fame) into the mix, it really made for some funny moments. It also didn't hurt that Mary Steenburgen, who plays Brennan's mother Nancy, looks quite good for a woman her age. The only character I can say I honestly did not like was Dale's (Reilly) father, who just got on my nerves for most of what was otherwise a very enjoyable movie. Oh, and sorry for the spoiler, but I really did not need to see Will Ferrell tea bag a drum set with a fake scrotum.

9/11

Step Brothers
Director: Adam McKay
Writers: McKay and Ferrell
Starring: Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Mary Steenburgen

Partie Traumatic

For the inaugural post I decided to write about an album I've recently fallen in love with, Jacksonville quintet Black Kids' Partie Traumatic. Some of you might have heard their EP Wizard of Ahhhs containing four tracks that ended up on this album, including the track "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You," which created a lot of buzz around the time of the release of the EP last fall, causing Rolling Stone to name them an "Artist to Watch." Since then, this band has generated a lot of buzz, and they definitely live up to the hype. They have crafted an album full of catchy tunes that you can't help but sing along to. People have gone so far as to compare Reggie Youngblood's vocals to Robert Smith of the Cure, and Youngblood helps the comparisons by seemingly putting on a faux British accent (and it doesn't sound half bad). The only thing that slightly bothered me was Youngblood's tendency to refer to himself as a girl, evident in "I'm Not Gonna Teach..." and "Hurricane Jane." The lyrics are pretty straightforward, but that's not to say they aren't good. Some of the subjects have been covered before, but Youngblood brings a new voice to them and I honestly enjoy it. I personally hate it when a band does not live up to its hype, but thankfully Black Kids follow in the steps of Vampire Weekend and not Angels and Airwaves (quite possibly one of the most over-hyped bands ever), and produce an album that's a pleasant dose of indie pop.

9.5/11

Black Kids
Partie Traumatic
Columbia Records
22 July 2008
Reggie Youngblood - Vocals/Guitar
Owen Holmes - Bass
Kevin Snow - Drums
Dawn Watley - Keyboards/Vocals
Ali Youngblood - Keyboards/Vocals