Brain Droppings from SPTO
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Houston Oilers
Buffalo Bills
Of course the Redskins
Even the Dolphins had one!
but my absolute favorite
THE SAN DIEGO SUPER CHARGERS! (original and '94 versions)
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
I FINALLY got to see Trouble Man last night. This movie has to be one of the most slept on blaxploitation pics i've seen. I thought Robert Hooks was pretty bad arse as Mr. T. I also saw a couple TV faces too! Gordon Jump (Mr Carlson from WKRP) was a spineless criminal on the streets and William Smithers (Jeremy Wendell on DALLAS) was the police captain who was on T's case throughout the movie. The movie could've used a little more in the babe quotient but it had enough swearing and violence to tide the viewer over.
The story is nothing too special and kind of formula but Hooks as T was a strong enough prescence that it worked. The story essentially has two gang leaders named Chalky (Paul Winfield) and Pete (Ralph Waite)enlisting the services of one Mr. T as there seems to be masked men breaking up their floating crap games and stealing all their money. T goes to one of these games where the masked men appear again, well one of the masked men ends up getting killed but it's all a set up as the guy that's killed is a henchman of the rival gang lord Mr. Big. (Julius Harris) It's up to T to keep the peace and get the cops off his back as well.
I especially liked the last 15-20 minutes of the movie a lot of course Marvin Gaye's score sure helped out a lot. I can confirm that indeed, Marvin redid almost everything for the studio cut of the soundtrack which was a lot darker and was avant garde jazz. The movie soundtrack had traces of it but Marvin veered more towards a blaxploitation sound and i'm glad he went with his artistic sensibility for the album. Only one cut sounds as good in movie form as it did on the album and that's "T Stands for Trouble" which played throughout the last 6-10 minutes of time before all the bad guys were killed.
Overall, if you like blaxploitation and never heard of this movie then you should see it. Some movies get a bad rap for whatever reason and can't shake it off and unfortunately this is one of those movies. I recommend it for fans of the genre and I give it about 2 1/2 stars.
THE GOOD: Strong lead character, great soundtrack and some better then average acting for a movie of the genre.
THE BAD: Not enough heart, a bit formulaic
RENT OR BUY?: rent if you're not a fan of the genre but a definite buy if you are.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Anyways first here is the blurb from TSN.ca and here's the text:
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I think it's safe to say the Winter Classic has become such a huge event that you've got various venues lining up or at least expressing interest in having the game played. The idea of playing the game at the Rose Bowl would be intriguing as hell but not feasible as I don't think the NHL should muck around with what's working and move the game away from the Jan. 1st date. Before you say that the ice would melt and such technology has come a long way from that hot night in 1991 when the Kings played an outdoor exhibition game in Vegas. There's now synthetic ice and other such things.
The other venue that most interests me is New Yankee Stadium. The NHL was very close to getting this year's Winter Classic at the old stadium but the lukewarm to somewhat hostile reaction to that forced them to go in another direction.
The Las Vegas strip idea is a great one and i'd go outside the box with this if they were to play a game there. Instead of having a regular season game there i'd have the All Star Game there. No ice, no actual rink per se (there would be boundaries of course) and make it a street hockey format. I know this would appeal a lot to Canadian fans (well at least the ones willing to think outside the box) as street hockey is a part of every Canadian and a lot of northern US people's lives. It would be a neat one-off event IMO.
Last but not least as you see from the blurb there the Winter Classic will be treated in much the same was as the Super Bowl and various cities/venues would have to bid to host the game. I don't necessarily like that idea as it would probably push the game away from the hockey fan and turn it into a big corporate schmoozefest. The league will have to carefully balance out bilking venues out of their money and keeping it accessible to the average fan. I also think that the NHL needs to stop ignoring the Canadian cities. If the game is played in Boston next year (Fenway) then they better schedule the Habs as their opponent. I'd also like to see some Canadian venues getting some recognition after all, the concept WAS started here.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Here's a totally obscure song to me at least. This is Sammy Davis' version of the Shaft theme. I tell you I don't know whether to laugh or cry over this but it's well, unique to say the least.
Tim Tebow may be the greatest QB in college football history, certainly i've never seen or heard of any QB that has dominated the college ranks the way Tebow has. This can be a very good thing but it's a double edged sword especially in this heavily concentrated media age. Tebow has generated such a following that it's almost like a cult. You have teammates, announcers, coaches, and fans heaping so much praise on the kid that any kind of criticism of him is met with an almost whiny "I can be a pro QB. Give me a reason I can't be? wah wah wah". This is why I thought Mel Kiper Jr. should've been more forthright when he was talking to Tebow on the radio a while ago. Sometimes you need to add a dose of reality amidst the hype. Unfortunately, Mr. Kiper played it safe.
When someone has all the success in the world that Tebow is having it becomes awfully hard to face adversity. Other then a loss or two in the regular season Tebow hasn't had any real challenges/setbacks. Everything he's done has been with a Midas touch. The thing that really clinched my feeling that Tebow will be a bust was the Sunday Conversation on ESPN a couple days ago. Tebow is asked a question about the upcoming BCS Championship game and he's going on about how the Gators are representing a team, a state, the whole college football universe and how important the game is etc etc. I swear when he was going on and on with his answer I thought he was gonna say something like "We're representing truth, honor and the American Way. God is on our side!" and lapse into some crazy spiritualist mumbo jumbo.
I said to myself, "self, this is just a football game. If he thinks this is so important and meaningful I hate to see how he'll take to losing". That's what it is with Tebow. The guy has not lost a truly meaningful game. He goes into the huge games with so much on the line that if he loses it's not going to be pretty. It's similar to Leinart when he lost to Vince Young's Texas Longhorns in the I think Fiesta Bowl. (someone correct me here) Ever since then his career has spiraled downward and he just doesn't have the confidence to be a good NFL QB. I can see this happening to Tebow on a much larger scale if Florida loses OU. If Florida doesn't lose then it's holding off the inevitable where Tebow's spirit is gonna get absolutely crushed when he's getting sacked and having to make quick snap decisions in the NFL.
One last thing, it was said that Tebow inspires his coach Urban Meyer....When I heard that I cringed. Tebow is NOT going to get the kid gloves treatment in the NFL. He's going to have a very hard time adjusting to the pressure and expectations that he will be faced with. I'm telling you I just feel Tebow is going to flame out BADLY if he's given the opportunity to be a QB in the NFL.
If he does flourish well, i'll make a post 3 years from now and admit I was wrong.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Posted on December 31, 2008 at 07:47 PM.
....Because CN is doing a Looney Tunes marathon on New Year's Day as a test run to see if there's enough interest in putting the WB cartoons back in rotation on CN or Boomerang. Now I realize most of you will either be hung over or watching the Bowl games but if any of you have Nielsen boxes have that TV tuned into CN.I mean, most other countries in the world has the classic WB shorts showing somewhere yet in the US it's not being shown AT ALL. That has to be some kind of crime or something.
Oh, and happy new year
Friday, December 26, 2008
So Christmas Eve I experienced full blown kidney stones. Let me tell you it was the worst thing ever. Now to please Mr. The C i'm not going to go into TOO much detail
Let's just say I had chills, fever, so much pain that I felt like death was an option and crawling to my toilet bowl to puke and then laying on the washroom floor for 20 minutes crying my eyes out.
Yep, not exactly the best X-Mas Eve ever.
On top of that my X360 decided to die exactly one year to the day I got it. I came home last night from a family party to play the Lost video game. I put the game in and everything is working fine then BAM! as soon as I was going to click the start button to play the game everything froze up. I power up the console again to see the 3 red lights. (Thank God it wasn't the full blown RROD) So today I sent for my coffin from MS. Hopefully things will go relatively quickly and I don't have to wait 2 months or something crazy like that.
Other then that I had a great Christmas with family. The young cousins in my family love me to death. They just love getting me involved in their activities and one of them decided to use me as his personal monkey bars so to speak LOL!
I came home with a bit of an irritated back but it was worth it. I love to see family, especially the younger ones being happy. That's one of the great things about having a large extended family IMO.
I hope everyone had a great Christmas.
Monday, December 22, 2008
On the homefront my father has been out of a job for a few months now and it's affecting him a lot. He keeps a brave face but as each week passes he has become more resigned to the fact that he probably won't find anything. This isn't a very good thing because once his package from his old employer runs out in March we may have to move out of the house. I hope we don't get into that situation.
Then there's my aunt who I just saw last night. She's been suffering through depression ever since her husband died a couple months ago and last night she looked like a ghost of her former self. She has lost a lot of weight and she was very withdrawn. She was nowhere close to her old self as she's always very talkative and such. I'm a very empathetic guy and this really shook me.
Overall, i'm having a tough time being all merry and happy this Christmas season. Hopefully you guys are having a better X-Mas season then I am.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Posted on December 16, 2008 at 12:18 PM.
So I know i'm way late on this but the point I want to make brings up race and that's taboo in the forums so I'll make my point here. This is about the Auburn hiring of Gene Chizek. Chizek's record as a head coach is, well mediocre to put it best yet he was chosen ahead of Turner Gill. There were reports before the Chizek hiring that Gill was one of the favorites for the job but apparently those in charge of the Auburn Athletic department didn't interview him or even made serious overtures. This seems to be a recurring pattern for Auburn as just recently Charles Barkley has blasted his alma mater for this same kind of discriminatory behavior. During the '90s Barkley agreed to be part of a search committee for a new basketball coach on the condition that Auburn interview three black coaches who would be interested and able to take on the job. Auburn did this but eventually hired a white coach who had a poor record as a head coach before taking the job.
This kind of behavior is pretty sad and disturbing especially after the recent affirmation of the American public's willingness to hire on the basis of qualification rather then race as we saw in the recent presidential election. Obviously this is not just a problem with Auburn but with the schools in Division 1 Football. (i'm not too familiar with the situation in the basketball ranks but i have a feeling it's not as bad) Out of the 119 schools in big time college football this past season only FOUR are black and we're now basically down to two since Ty Willingham's firing and Sylvester Croom leaving Miss. State.
I truly believe that the Powers That Be in the NCAA need to seriously take a look at this. Now I know the Rooney Rule in the NFL is not perfect but I strongly encourage the NCAA to look into adopting some kind of rule to that effect. I also heard something pretty shocking and sad last night on the radio. Jim Kelley (the sports writer) related how he's had off the record conversations with those involved in college football. One of the main reasons why black coaches don't get hired, much less interviewed is because the ADs are scared. Why? They're scared that if they hire a black coach that they can't fire said black coach at all.
What kind of *** backwards cockaminie line of thinking is this?! Are there people running the athletic departments of major colleges and universities that truly believe this pap they're spewing? Now I know there's the issue of boosters especially down south where the racial attitudes are less tolerant but damnit schools shouldn't be beholden to a bunch of old guys who are living in the 1950s!
This has been an issue in college football for years now but I gotta think that the Turner Gill situation HAS to be the tipping point. This kind of nonsense has to end.
"Sigh"
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Well let's get to something a little more lighthearted. I present to you a song that this soul singer is most known for. Here's mr. Joe Tex with "Aint Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman)"!
If you don't find this to be funky then you have no soul.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
JP Losman is one of the worst QBs i've ever seen play at the NFL level. He makes David Woodley look like Joe Montana. That's how bad he is.
As for Dick Jauron? I don't know how a coach can go from getting a nice extension in the middle of the season to likely being on the way out. The man has completely bungled everything and is way too passive. Don't get me started on some of the playcalling by offensive coordinator Turk Schonert, when he's not being super conservative he pulls out crazy "unconventional" plays that almost always backfires. The best example was the pass call near the end of the game today. Calling a passing play isn't so bad but it looked like a roll out play. Who the hell calls that kind of pass play when the defense will be gunning for the ball the way the Jets were there?
"sigh"
I say the Bills bring in Marty Schottenhemer. Anyone else like this idea?
Saturday, December 13, 2008
I've watched one complete game (The Bears game) and bits and pieces of a couple others and have come away very impressed at Matt Ryan. Let me say that I was one of the few defenders of Ryan when he was drafted and it's nice to see him having such a good rookie year. There's something about his cool demeanor and poise at the pivot that impresses the hell out of me.
The offense in Atlanta reminds me a lot of the K-Gun offense of Jim Kelly's Buffalo Bills. They're obviously not as explosive but the style of play is very similar. Michael Turner can pound opposing defenses but he also has the ability to get up to the second level and just zip by defenders with his speed much the same way Thurman Thomas did. Roddy White doesn't quite have the blatant disregard for his health the way Andre Reed seemed to have but White is just as explosive in terms of getting huge yards and getting big TDs. Matt Ryan is young but he seems to have the team's attention and I really love it when the Falcons allow him to run the no huddle.
When the Falcons are in the no huddle you can really see Ryan's poise and how he can direct the team in an organized fashion. The guy is just very mature. I wish the Falcons would let Ryan run the no huddle more often because that's when the Falcons offense reminds me the most of those old Bills with the formations and the routes that the receivers run. In many ways the Falcons when they go uptempo seem to run a hybrid of the run n' shoot and it's worked effectively for them.
Maybe i'm just crazy but if it's not similar to the Bills' glory days it's at the very least a variation on the old Run n' Shoot.
Friday, December 12, 2008
secondly, this is for people that keep saying the Raptors and the Toronto market isn't very good blah blah blah. Forbes recently did their annual NBA franchise valuations and the Raptors are ranked 11th with a value of 400 million dollars. If the Toronto market isn't a good basketball market then how the hell is the team worth so much money huh huh? The Raptors also have one of the highest ticket revenues in the league as well so I don't know how so many of my fellow OS'ers have this jaundiced view of the franchise.
Last but not least, the Blue Jays are pissing me off royally. They've reportedly signed Matt Clement to a minor league deal with an invite to spring training and are now looking at signing Carl Freakin' Pavano! What next? Are we gonna take Mike Sirotka out of mothballs and sign him too?
"sigh"
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Posted on December 11, 2008 at 01:58 AM.
Seems like every team out there are making moves to improve their teams while JP Ricciardi and the Jays are staying put. I've heard Rafael Furcal is on their radar but I doubt it happens. Now i'm hearing Texiera may go to the O's or even the BoSox! The Yankees have made ANOTHER offer to Burnett. It really looks like it's going to be a very long year for the Jays. "sigh"Hopefully JP can do something he hasn't done before and actually get valuable bargains in free agency or this team is going to be awfully thin especially in the rotation. I guess this'll prove just how good of a manager Cito is if the Jays don't make any big moves this offseason to improve the club.
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