Random THoughts II

I keep procrastinating.  I know this.  You know who the top 5 teams are.  I know them.  YOu know what I will say about them.  Did you hear about this guy Tebow?   BUt because of this, Im a little more apt to procrastinating.  Its like, I feel like I may be telling you something you dont know when I talk about Kansas or Michigan State, but not if I talk about Texas or Alabama.  So, guess what

RANDOM THOUGHTS PART II:

In no particular order.

1) Who do you think drinks the Miller High LIfe that is in the garbage can of the McFlys in the end of Back to the Future.  THe first obvious answer would be the mom.  She originally is drinking cheap vodka in the original 1985.  Now, it would be that she moved up to the high life (this is definitely intended by Zemeckis).  BUt, I would argue that if she has moved up, is now fit, thin, playing tennis, etc....that she wouldnt be drinking at all.   SO scratch her off the list.   George?  Prob not.   Dave?  I dont get Dave.  Originally, he works at a burger joint or something.  Do you really think hes 22+ in age?  It seems like originally that he would be in community college/not in college and working at this burger place.  But then in the new 1985, hes wearing a suit and is successful.  Why would he be living at home if he is employed at a good place?  That, and he must be 22+.  He must have a degree if he is going to the office every day.  I cant really see him kicking back and enjoying some High Lifes.   They could have had a party since they are all popular now, but there would probably be more beer than just one.   Weird.

2)  I have been watching a lot of Family Ties.  It is honestly one of the funniest shows I have ever seen.  I know that online, its hard to discern between sarcasm and honesty, well, know I am being honest.  It is funny.  I have a teenage crush on Mallory.  If I ever date a girl that is 7.1428% (1/14th) as hot as Meredith Baxter-Birney.  I started watching this in that I have to psyche myself up to watch MadMen because it is a little slow.  The Wire was not slow.

Season 3 of The Wire was the closest thing to perfection, tv or movie, that I have ever seen.  

SPOILERS AHEAD

It is.  YOu have the Avon vs Stringer dichotomy.   STringer was my favorite character.  You get Avon's talk to him "maybe your too dumb for that outside world, and too weak for this right here" or something along those lines.  Then String tells him that he killed D'Angelo and slams Avon and yells in his face.  BEyond intense.  The second best scene in the whole series.  The first best is also in season III wehn Bunk meets Omar on the bench and talks about how it once was.  Its kinda out of place, theres no doubt, but its too poetic to be ignored.  Great acting, great everything.  On top of this, String gets killed, Bunny Colvin emerges, and you have your Hamsterdam situation.

Would hamsterdam really cut down on crime?  I dont know.   I understand it was Bunny's "paper bag" equivalent to the beer bottle that they can do this to drugs.  Well, I think it would work, but also make things bad too.  It seems plausible that this happened.  Season 5 I didnt really like because the McNulty being a fake serial killer was kinda too far fetched for me.  Season 3 was just right.  And then, you get Bubbles walking with his new protege, collecting aluminum, when they run into Bunny.  Bubbles tells Bunny about how the area used to be (dramatic irony, because we know that Bunny knows, but Bubbles doesnt know that), and all Bunny can say, after hes stripped of his job, forced to retire, forced to retire at a lower pension level, says "how did you feel about that?"  

Part of you wants to say, say it was a good thing Bubbles.  BUt that would be way too weak.  He says exactly what you know hes gonna say:  "it was what it was".

How perfect of an ending was that?   I get chills just thinking about it.  Normally I dont like ambiguous/open ended films/tv shows.  I think its a cop out.  I want the writer/director to make a stand, but this wire was perfect.  For example, I dont like the series finale of The Sopranos where we see Tony eating onion rings while listening to Journey.  I mean, yeah, I can imagine what happens (probably gets whacked), but that was kinda upsetting.    Is The Wire the greatest show of all time?  Maybe.  But season 3 is definitely the top 3 seasons of all time.

3)  I was thinking about what teams' winning pct of games that I attended was, and I think that Notre Dame has the highest pct.   ND is 4-1 in games I attended.  Not only that, but big games.  The last time they beat USC, I was there.  I was there in 02 when they beat Michigan.  I saw them lose to MSU in 05 (prob best game of theirs I was at), 05 they beat Syracuse, and 06 beating Penn State.  That is obviously an .800 winning pct.

The Cubs I think I am .0000.  Its the Bluto GPA equivalent, only instead of "zero point zero", I am "point zero."  The White Sox; I have seen too many games to count.  Illinois football is below .500.  But what about Illinois Basketball?

It would be close.   I know they went undefeated at home my freshman year.  On top of that, they won in the sweet 16 vs UW Milwaukee, and Elite8 vs Zona which I was at.  So thats nice.  Then,  I know sophomore year, they lost their streak to Penn State.   BUT, I wasnt at that game.  CanMan and some of his roomates were at school, and I sold my tickets.  So they have a 1.000 win pct through 2 years.  

Junior year they lost to Maryland.  I was there.  I can still see Rich McBride turning it over in a crucial spot.  After that, they lost twice more at home, but I dont think I was at either.  I know I was not at Jan 6 game vs Ohio State (the year they made it to the finals), because that was winter break and you dont get those tickets.  They lost to #3 Wisconsin on Jan. 20, and I dont think that was included either.  So I am X-1 in the whole 3 years.  

Senior year, I couldn't tell you what I was at and what I wasnt.  I honestly only went to maybe half the games.  They lsot a ton of games at home, but again, I wasnt at MANY of them.  The worst home loss in all 4 years came to Indiana in double OT.  It was the worst game ever.  Illinois sucked, Indy sucked, they kept playing, it was horrible.  Pruitt missed 4 FTs when one make would have won the game.  Homo Eric Gordon banks in an NBA 3 to tie the game.  They lose.  Crushing.  Worst overall game was the title game in 05 of course.  This was worst game I saw in person.  Only good that came out of it was that my friend Brad and I, who went ot the game, then saw Kenny Battle in the bar.  So good even came out of that.

So if I had to guess, Id say Illinois Basketball wins, but ND football is a close 2nd.

4)  Edward Norton might be the best actor of my lifetime in which the qualifications are that all of your work must be during my life (1985 - ).  Therefore, DeNiro, while he has made good films since 85, is disqualified since he was in stuff pre-1985.  Without too much research, Ill take Norton.  He is unbelievable in Fight Club.   GReat in The People vs Larry Flynt.  Awesome in Rounders.  And perfect in American History X.  The fact that he didnt win best actor for AH-X befuddles me.  

How do you act this well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hEtN0-vF90

How do you act this well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_vYxupqL2s&feature=related

The answer is, you dont, unless you are the best.

Not taking anything away from DeNiro, but his character gets repetitive.  That, and is he cool cause the movies are cool, or are the movies cool cause of him?  LIke, I would think that Godfather II is awesome if someone else plays Vito.  But, he wins best actor for that role.  Does that mean him learning Sicilian and dominating the role is diminished?  No, but its like, it wasnt entirely unique.

In Taxi Driver and The Deer Hunter hes either a vietnam war guy, a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder veteran, or both.  He plays them well (he wins best actor for Deer Hunter).  But then you get Raging BUll, King of Comedy, GoodFellas, Untouchables, Casino, Cape Fear.  What is he in all of them?  Italian.  All with Scorsese sans Untouchables.  It turns into a kind of a one trick pony.

Look at Norton though.  Hes a lawyer in Larry Flynt.  Hes a degenerate gambler in Rounders.  Hes a nazi in AH-X.  He is some sort of a mid life crisis-existentialist crisis, split personality disorder fuck up in Fight Club.  Hes great.

The best actor of all time in my opinion is Dustin Hoffman.   Look at his roles.  If he isn't in Kramer vs Kramer, it doesnt win best picture, and I probably never watch it.  Hes a single father raising a 5?  year old kid.  Hes awesome in it.  Totally believable.  Merryl Streep is great too (probably best actress of last 30 years), and the two of them just kill it.  Replace them with actor and actress X and Y, and its just some movie.  Replace Deniro as Mickey in Goodfellas and I bet the movie is still awesome.

But the best performance in any movie ever is Hoffman as Rain Man / Raymond Babbit in Rain Man.  Do I need to describe this any further?

5)  Danny Larusso is actually a really cool character.  I mean, hes an ass to his mom, which I dont like.  Hes a cry-baby to Myagai.  I dont like that.  But put yourself in his position.  YOu move from (I believe Minnesota) to Cali.  This theme would be copied in Beverly Hills 90210 if you look at Brenda and Brandon Walsh.  But he moves, meets a cool kid in the complex, and goes out right away.  He gets beat up by a senior, Johnny, but meets Elizabeth Shue immediately.  She wants him right away.  He is in Cali for 24 hours, and is already macking on the hottest babe at the High School.  Thats smooth.  

Then, nobody likes him but Shue.  He trains with Myagi, keeps his head up, gets a cool classic car, and then wins the karate tournament.  Thats quite an eventful few months.  He is the new big man on campus.

Why didn't Shue's career take off.  Shes hot.  Shes hot in this movie.  Shes hot in her  limited roles in Back to the Future II/III.  Then, she disappears, only to come back and win best actress for Leaving Las Vegas (where shes also hot).  She could have been big.

Its weird who wins best actor/actress though.  Its like, you kinda have to be lucky.  Marino is top 5 QB of all time and has no Super Bowls, but Dilfer has one.  But for actor/actress, you still need to be really talented.  Its still about some luck though.  I dont know why Norton didnt win for AH-X.  There are some other screw jobs too.

I dont think that if you watched Fast Times at Ridgemont High in 1981, or now, youd see that there are 3 future best actor winners.   Penn, multiple times, Whitaker, and Cage in a non speaking role.  I doubt you sat there in 1981 and said, "That fucking Whitaker is gonna be big."  Or "Hell be great as the Last King of Scotland".  You cant predict some shit that happens.

More to come, maybe?

Ill try to get back to the college football