Between Tim McCarver, the Chevrolet John Mellencamp "America Rocks!!" commercials, and Dane Cook's grating playoff ads, it's almost enough to put me off baseball.

Alternately, I love the Pepsi commercial with Johnny Damon trying to distract Joe Mauer while he slides into home.

1 out of 52 ain't bad, right?

I have a love-hate relationship with Entertainment Weekly. I've been a subscriber for... 6 or 7 years, more out of habit now, but there's usually only about 1 issue a year that I absolutely LOVE.

This year's one issue came today. On the cover? A cover story on The Office, an interview with Wes Anderson and Jason Schwartzman about The Darjeeling Limited, a profile of Jason Bateman, and a stellar* review of Bruce Springsteen's new album. Plus, no Stephen King column. Score.


*Although it does begin with a lyrical mistake, quoting Thunder Road as "Have a little faith/There's magic in the night" when it's actually "Show a little faith/There's magic in the night." Nitpicky, I know, but it is one of my all time favorite song lyrics.

It's kind of a big deal...

And with a 12-4 win over the Devil Rays, the Yankees clinch their 13th straight postseason appearance.

Fuck yeah.

I was originally looking for a nice, champagne-y picture to commemorate the achievement, but I decided on this one instead...


...in which the look on Roger Clemens' face seems to say, "Mike, I'm going to take you out behind the locker room and have my way with you." Ha.

So we can cross "Yankees Clinching a Playoff Spot" off my list of things that need to happen in the immediate future. Now if we can take care of the Springsteen tickets and the, uh... job (you can see where my priorites lie in that listing), I'll be all set.

Top Chef makes me so goddamn hungry...

Sound the Alarm

I woke up this morning to the alarm on my cell phone, which I've been doing for the past few days. But for some reason, my brain did not process that it was my cell phone and tried - quite unsuccessfully - to get the alarm to stop by turning off my alarm clock. If I had been watching me, I'd have laughed.

Rants and Nonrants

So, two weeks ago I ordered two shirts from Threadless and I finally found out today that there was a problem with my order, so no dice, it's been cancelled and my credit card refunded.  They offered me a $5 coupon to use on my next order, but now instead of getting two shirts for $24 and change (I ordered during their back to school sale), I'm getting one for $16.  :(

Oh well, not really the biggest of deals right now considering the Yankees won tonight and the Red Sox lost, putting the Yankees a mere 1.5 games back from the AL East lead.  Yes, the same division in which they were once 14 games behind.  I applaud the sound guy who played "Don't Stop Believin'" at the Stadium when they put the Boston/Toronto score up on the board.  Heh heh.

Holy F*#&@$g S^#t

The Yankees, thanks in part to a stellar pitching performance tonight on the part of Mike Mussina, are now 2.5 games back from the Red Sox.

If nothing else, we're gonna make 'em sweat.

The Perils of Creativity

While writer's block is in fact, quite painful, it doesn't hold a candle to resting your arm against a just-turned-off (aka still quite hot) iron.  However, said injury is not as bad as the one-inch square of skin near my elbow that I seared on the oven door in LA.

61 in 61

What is it about baseball movies that always makes me emotional? I just finished watching 61* and even though I've seen it many times before, as Roger Maris hit homer number 61, I couldn't help but tear up. Of course, it's kind of ruined with the cut back to steroid man Mark McGwire breaking Maris's record, but still.

Well played, Billy Crystal. Your Yankees love has been put to good use.

After today's unsuccessful attempt to get Bruce Springsteen tickets, I decided to watch the concert DVD that came with the 30th anniversary edition of Born to Run. After all, watching the concert on a big screen TV with our surround sound setup probably gave me a better view (and less hearing damage) than I would have had with the tickets I kept pulling for Madison Square Garden this morning. But more on that in a later installment...

Anyway, that concert is amaaaaaazing. Vintage Bruce and an amazing performance of my all-time favorite Springsteen song "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)." Sigh. The tickets will be mine. Oh yes, they will be mine.

I was trying to fire Todd but then he did a sad face at me.

I went to see Balls of Fury tonight with Olie.  I had read the script and seen lots of footage at my internship, so I pretty much knew what to expect - a mostly not-so-funny movie with a few touches of genius from Christopher Walken.  Dan Fogler tries to be Jack Black and isn't, and George Lopez just isn't funny.  Walken's over-the-top-ness saves the film from complete and total suckitude, but doesn't quite completely redeem it.

The disappointing thing about Balls of Fury is that it was written by Tom Lennon and Ben Garant, they of Reno: 911 and The State fame.  I think The State is absolutely brilliant, and its spawn Reno: 911 and Stella (the comedy troupe as well as the eponymous Comedy Central show) are about equally as brilliant.  But when these guys try to translate their culty weirdness into mainstream film, it just doesn't seem to work.  Just take a look at Lennon or Garant's IMDB writing resume (they work as a team) - from the wild subversiveness of The State to... The Pacifier, A Night at the Museum (confession: I thought A Night at the Museum was cute, mostly because of Owen Wilson), and the disaster that was Let's Go to Prison?  I'm not begrudging the guys a well-paying gig - god knows a semester in the heart of the industry changed this jaded indie film geek's perspective on what it is to be a working filmmaker/writer/actor - but it would at least be nice to see a little bit of the weirdness that made The State so awesome in the rather bland and not tremendously funny comedies that the guys are writing these days.

There has been, however, talk of a State reunion (outside the fact that all the State members appeared in Reno: 911! Miami and The Ten).  If this is true, I'll be content to believe that they've been saving up all their subversiveness for that.  And I hope it delivers in spades.

You're like a proper band now. You're like the Police... men.

I love The Replacements (the Paul Westerberg fronted band, not the Keanu Reeves movie), and I love Bruce Springsteen, so it would follow that I should also love The Hold Steady, a band that is very much the lovechild of those two.

And I do. 

That is all.

The internets are letting me down

(a) Bruce Springsteen tickets go on sale in 5 days.  Can someone please explain why there is no Ticketmaster page up for the show yet?  I would like to know how much money I'm going to be out sooner rather than later.

(b) I ordered two shirts from Threadless.  They sent me an email saying "Your order has shipped" and providing me with a UPS tracking number.  Except the UPS tracking number says no such order exists.

One Little Spark...

Is there nothing better than inspiration?  I don't even know if this will go anywhere, but from the memory of sitting on someone's basement couch, an idea has been born.  I hope that I can actually (a) finish it and (b) make it not suck.

P.S. In light of recent events, how funny is it to see Mel Gibson make his entrance in Lethal Weapon 2 clad in a straitjacket?  Good stuff.