Round-Tripper Reviews: iTunes Top 25

Playing fast and lose with Review this time, as I'm not going to review the Top 25 songs Jennifer and I have listened to for the past 6 months...just going to list them for your review.  

1.       Teenage Dream – Glee Cast (The Warblers)

2.       Billionaire – Glee Cast

3.       F**k You – Cee Lo Green

4.       Welcome to the Future – Brad Paisley

5.       Brown Chicken Brown Cow – Trace Adkins

6.       Girlfriend – Avril Lavigne

7.       Anything But Ordinary – Avril Lavigne

8.       Today is Gonna Be A Great Day – Bowling for Soup

9.       Worst of Me (Psycho Ex-Girlfriend) – Saving Jane

10.   Re: Your Brains – Jonathan Coulton

11.   The One That Got Away – Katy Perry

12.   I’m Not Setting the World on Fire – Brad Yoder

13.   American Friday Night – Bucky Covington

14.   Starstrukk – 3OH!3

15.   Hot As Ice – Britney Spears

16.   My Favorite Things – Me First and the Gimme Gimmes

17.   boom boom pow KUNG FU – K.Flay

18.   Happy – Saving Jane

19.   Hot Girl in the Comic Shop – Tripod

20.   Smile – Uncle Kracker

21.   The Burbs – V.P.

22.   I’m Not The One – 3OH!3

23.   American Friday Night – Brad Paisley

24.   Lucky – Glee Cast

25.   Fort Bragg – Beki Hemingway

Sermons from Second

This is the weirdest March in a long time for me.  I'm busy...but I'm happy busy.  I absolutely love what I'm doing.  I have never lied about that.  If I had the money, I would do what I do for free.  I love it.  So being busy doesn't bother me at all.

So...why is this blog worthy?? It shouldn't be...right?

Opening Day is six days away.  Actually, the first pitch is roughly 6 days and 30 minutes away as I write this.  And I think a lot about the Reds.  However....I'm not mentally there.  I know how the Reds and Opening Day and night consume me.  I normally can't wait and everything is baseball.  However, right now, my mind is elsewhere.  I'm thinking broomball and softball.  I'm thinking work stuff.  I'm thinking a lot...and the Reds are definitely part of that...but they are not the front of my thoughts like normal.

In no way does that say my love for the Reds has reduced at all, or my love of baseball.  Next week I'm going to be happier than most people could ever imagine when the season starts.

I think what I'm trying to say is overall there is MORE to be happier about and that I am enjoying than in previous years.  Things are great at home with Jennifer, Quinn, and Azrael.  Not that they weren't last year...but I am just so happy there.  Miami Entertainment is moving forward and MEGA...just wow.  It's great with them.  I really enjoy MEGA and have a great time with them.  They're coming over for WrestleMania.

So really...I just feel good.  Playing softball feels good.  Coaching broomball feels good.  Work and home life are great.  So while I am thrilled to have an important part of my life back...it doesn't get to consumer my life yet in April.  I'm actually missing two games in April to for things at work.  (I could miss another...but let's not go overboard...)

Come mid-May, I'm sure they will be a bigger part of things....but right now, I'm fine with the Reds sharing my time right now.  My students, Jennifer, Quinn, Azrael, friends, and work deserve some of my time also.  

Round Tripper Reviews: Batman (1989)

I'm going to try to blog more, and as part of that I'm going to try to do some more reviews.  I'm starting with the Batman movie from 1989 starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson and directed by Tim Burton.  I'm going to try to write comments as I watch them.

Batman (1989)

This was the first movie I was allowed to see without any adults with me in the theater.  My mom dropped my cousin Jeff and I off and we went to this movie.  And what a ride it was!  I've watched it a few times since then, and it still held up to me.  Let's see how it does now.

I love the opening credits, which is something I rarely think much about.  Elfman's music is perfect, and leads into The Batman stopping a crime that mirrors the crime that made him become The Bat.  This is followed by the always brilliant Robert Wuhl's introduction in the movie.  I absolutely loved him in the movie and think the Alexander Knox character is brilliant.  I wish Knox had been added to the comic book universe, as it is truly a fun character.  Either way, the character is one of the highlights of the movie for me.

Jack Nicholson...Jack is a tremendous actor...easily one of the best of my lifetime...and most people's.  He is amazing...and his role as The Joker is no different.  It is definitely a DIFFERENT take on The Joker than a lot of others, but I'm able to set apart the different universes....golden age comic, pre-Crisis comic, Burton movie, Batman Animated, etc.  They are all distinctly different and can have different takes on characters as long as you keep the basics of the character mostly the same.  One of the FEW characterizations I would fully criticize in this way in Bane in Batman and Robin which was NOTHING like the original Bane character...but I'm not sure we will get to a review of that anytime soon...

They do a good job of making the city feel like Gotham City, which is one of the most important "characters" in the Batman Universe!  The character of the city and it's people are correct in this movie.  The corrupt police.  The mayor that is blinded by making things better.

Harvey Dent as Billy Dee Williams...I always had issues with this.  He didn't have a Harvey Dent feel...even going past the racial changes.  He really wanted to be Two-Face in a sequel...I would have had to see that to judge him as Harvey Dent.

Commissioner Gordon (Pat Hingle) was amazing.

Kim Bassinger is easily one of the most beautiful women of the 1980s, and is amazing here.  Her as Vicki Vale was amazing, and her and Robert Wuhl/Alexander Knox was brilliant.  At points in the script BOTH characters were set to die.

Jack Palance...wow they did have huge name actors in this movie.  He was awesome!

Interesting fact-in the original script Dick Grayson was in it!  I think it was better without him...but it could have been interesting.

Originally considered for the role of Batman were Mel Gibson, Kevin Costner, Charlie Sheen, Pierce Brosnan, Tom Selleck, and Bill Murray.  The ONLY one from that group that I think would come close to Michael Keaton is Tom Selleck.  He would, at least, make an amazing Bruce Wayne.  Not sure about Batman.  Adam West also wanted to be Batman again...which was an obvious no.  This wasn't campy Batman.

Tim Curry, Willem Dafoe, David Bowie, and James Wood were considered for the Joker, and Robin Williams campaigned for the role.  Tim Curry could have been amazing, Robin Williams interesting, and the others I'm torn on.

There was way too much smoking in this movie.

How did Alexander Knox and Vicki Vale not know what Bruce Wayne looks like????

Michael Gough is Alfred to me.  He was spot on.

"Oh and...give Knox a grant."  Wonderful!!!

I love the scene where the Joker takes over the underworld by killing the guy with the joy buzzer.

The Joker kills someone on the steps of City Hall.  The police are there and do nothing to try to stop him.

And....something came up that I have to stop for now.  So.....more later.

Thoughts From Third: NL Central Rankings

I am so ready for baseball...and as such...I did a little experiment...I decided to use the Yahoo Fantasy Rankings to determine the NL Central Standings this year.  It falls closely in line to what many are picking, so my methodology may be sounds. :-)

Bad news for Reds Fans like myself and Anthony, Pirates Fans like Scott and Brian. I just used an EXTREMELLY scientific and mathmatic approach to figure out the NL Central Standings for this year. The lower the points the better.

1) Brewers 97

2) Cardinals 100

3) Reds 107

4) Cubs 109

5) Astros 130

6) Pirates 164

Pirates pitching KILLS them. If their starters were even equal to Houston's (next worst) they would be at 119; improve their closer and even better.

If you're at all wondering...I took the Yahoo Player rankings, and found where NL Central teams ranked position by position.  I used the official website (MLB website) for depth charts to decide where everyone landed except Reds catcher, because let's be real....Hanigan over Hernandez. 

For example:

2B: 

1-Reds/Phillips

2-Brewers/Weeks

3-Pirates/Walker

4-Cubs/DeWitt

5-Cardinals/Schumaker

6-Astros/Barmes

I totaled those to give the rankings...position by position.  

By position players it fell this way:

Brewers/Cardinals-25

Cubs-26

Pirates-28

Reds-29

Astros-35

Starters (higher numbers because 5 pitchers per staff)

Brewers-55

Cardinals-60

Reds-69

Cubs-74

Astros-76

Pirates-121 (REALLY bad)

Closers:

Cubs/Marmol

Reds/Cordero

Brewers/Axford

Cardinals/Franklin

Astros/Lyon

Pirates/Hanrahan (I think Meek should be the closer...but Hanrahan's listed first on the site)

Bullpen (top 2 relievers only)

Reds (Massett/Chapman)  

Cubs (Wood & Marshall)

Pirates (Meek & Resop)

Cardinals (McClellan & Motte)

Brewers (Hawkins & Saito) and Astros (Fulchino & Arias)

I think Hawkins and Saito are better than they have them....

So there you have my methodology.  With all of this work I think I'll blog this also...

Thoughts from Third: Baseball Predictions Edition!

So this time my thoughts aren't on current news stories.  Instead my thoughts are predictions for the Reds this season.  We'll see if I get any right in a few months through October.

• The Reds are going to be hit with 3 major injuries that take players out for a large portion of the season. 
• The first injury will be Scott Rolen.  He'll go down in May with a season ending injury.  The Reds will try Juan Francisco at third, but it won't work.  They'll give Todd Frazier the chance, and he'll have a good rookie campaign.  
• The second injury around the same time will be to Ramon Hernandez.  The Reds will bring Corky Miller up initially, but with Devin Mesoraco raking for the Bats they'll give him the chance...and he'll take the starting job.  He'll finish top 5 in Rookie of the Year balloting and be the Reds starting backstop for quite a while.
• The third will be to Bronson Arroyo.  He'll deny it at first (never having missed a start in his career) but will eventually have to go to the DL for the first time. 
• Francisco Cordero will have a VERY rough April, and be de-seated by Aroldis Chapman as closer by Mid-May.
• The Reds will limp into the All-Star break where they'll have three representatives-Aroldis Chapman, Brandon Phillips, and Joey Votto.
• Speaking of Brandon Phillips, he'll have a career year.  He'll be consistent and by mid-summer will have agreed to an extension to stay in the Queen City for 5 more years for a hometown discount...5 years, 40-42 million.
• Homer Bailey gets converted to a reliever.  He's not happy at first and it shows, but by mid-season has accepted and adapted to the new role.  Homer ends up leading the team in appearances out of the pen and allows barely any runners to score-inherited or of his own.
• Mike Leake starts the season in the minors, but comes back up when Arroyo goes down/Homer moves to the pen.  He ends up nearly un-hittable the rest of the year, going 14-3.
• Travis Wood again shows his brilliance and locks himself in as a fixture of the rotation.  Despite a rough stretch in July, he ends the season 14-8. 
• Johnny Cueto emerges as the ace of the staff.  By mid-season he has 14 wins, and ends the season with 22.  
• At the end of the season it's ALMOST enough for the Reds, but they have to go to a 1-game playoff for the Central division.  
• Anything can happen in one game, which Travis Wood gets to start....

So...predictions for 2011.  I'll actually be surprised if ANY of them come true, but...you never know...