When I went down to LA for the UCLA game a buddy and I went to some sort of Evil Dead II pop-up museum (Mystic Theater I think). Raimi lent a lot of the original stuff for it. Pretty fun for 20 minutes.
I have watched both movies back-to-back and it is an outstanding movie experience. It's really too bad Godfather III was so mediocre. Had Godfather III been simply good, that would have been a great trilogy.
I have seen the Man With No Name trilogy in one day decades ago at the UC when it was a repertory movie house. That was a very good movie experience. But you have to be comfortable with the Western genre to begin with for that to be true.
In response to the DBD poll, I didn't see an "all of the above" response. I have a hard time choosing my retirement destination. So much is circumstantial. Somewhere in Spain would be amazing though!
we are going to India as a family for the first time. our 16 and 19 yr old have never been. i have not been back in 25 yrs since a trip shortly after getting married.
we are also traveling w/ my sister-in-laws family, mostly regular tourist things like Delhi. Taj Mahal etc.
there is some discussion on doing a slum tour in Mumbai.
personally i am not interested. it is not like we go visit drugged up babies and gang shooting areas when we visit LA. i am not sure what there is to gain by seeing people living in filth unless you are truly there to help.
Took an epic trip to India with my pops when I was 11. He was a big Kipling fan, and had this trip in his mind since he read Kim. Wild trip. We visited a leper colony and I taught some of the kids there football with the nerf I brought. I got to meet Mother Teresa at her orphanage (really). We bumped into Omar Sharif in a hotel bar in Jaipur who was shooting a series there for HBO. Went to Tiger Tops, a tiger safari place, in the northern part of the country. I subsisted entirely on crackers and cokes the whole trip, so managed not to get sick.
Absolutely not to the slum visit. India's slums are vast and scenes of poverty are everywhere. There are the street beggars, the organized-crime stoplight child beggars, the guys who hit you up for baksheesh when you're trying to take a piss, and the dead people rolled up in rug at street corners, and... the list goes on. I get fatigue when I go to India and would never double down on seeing poverty there.
Klay and Wiggins got pulled with like 8 min left in the 4th. It was Steph, CP3, Podz, Kuminga, and Saric I think. Started the run with a few min left when the Suns were just kind of waiting for the time to run out. Steph took an ill advised 3 with 9 sec left. Probably thought he would get fouled since the Suns had a foul to give.
No org should ever get in bed with a Dunleavy. Like father, like son. Draymond's sabotage addiction notwithstanding, this team is just so poorly constructed. We were small and old last year, and yet we doubled down to get even smaller and older? What?
Hmm. I don't know. I mean the rub on the squad was it was too small and too old, and yet we doubled down by getting older and smaller. I don't get the sense there are any magic tricks coming.
Neither do I. Available evidence suggests not and also suggests a lack of imagination because of the doubling down on older and smaller. It's the suggested lack of imagination that concerns me most.
And I get that we're sorta tied to the big three. Klay, etc. earned the right to play it out here how ever long they choose to be here. I have no qualms with that even though it limits us. But the moves on the margins have not shown imagination like you say. Although you could say the Paul move showed a lot of imagination in that it was entirely counter intuitive. If Dario Saric has made an NBA basket in his long career, I've yet to witness it.
But CP3 is part of the older and smaller theme. Bill Walsh had a different approach in football. He was in favor of cutting players once their decline had begun. This may be why the 49ers won 3 Super Bowls while he was head coach and left the team in a position to repeat the year after he left.
Steph is defying age and expectations and has been for at least a year if not two years. Klay and Draymond, not so much. At some point each of those players will decline noticeably. How Dunleavy goes about managing that decline and transition will be important not only in handling fan expectations and emotions in the present but setting the table, as it were, for the franchise's future.
Just finished watching the press. conference announcing plans to build an arena and entertainment district in Alexandria and move the Wizards and Caps from DC. My take, it was a bunch of multi-millionaires patting each other on the back for scratching each others backs.
Gonna be in DC in late Feb, and I see the Dubs are in town to play the Wiz. I think I'll check it out. Should be one of the sadder regular season matchups of the year.
Fargo. I loved the first couple of seasons, but not the Chris Rock one. Current season is not my favorite so far, but just starting to heat up. The acting is either terrible or brilliant. I can't tell which.
Cal will apparently play against Grayson McCall - the sixth year senior who will turn 24 by the end of next season. He has over 10,000 yards passing and was 4x 1st team all Sun Belt
Spencer Brasch in the portal - but frankly, he's probably done. 1 year of eligibility left and he's a career 56% passer, mostly at an FCS level that lost almost all its games with about as many picks as TDs
GIVE THE DBD SOME STOCKING STUFFER IDEAS
quality phone charger cords
wool hat or gloves
leatherman if going for more than a few $.
Scratchers
Bath and beauty products (2/3 of my kids are teenage girls).
a) two non-stick silicon baking mats (Culinary Couture) $10
b) MeatSticks X set wireless meat thermometers - $75
c) an artificial plant or two. Roughly $30/each
- a deck of cards
- wireless earbud things -- good ones are not cheap
- a handy bottle opener - corkscrew thing - i seem to need these all the time. nice to have one when i travel
- tix to Cal's NYers day bowl game next year??!!
Can you bring a corkscrew on the plane?
i always check my bags even the carry on size.
but the bottle opener type should technically be ok.
a) a gift card for the best coffee shop near my kid's dorm
b) a bag that is specifically "personal item" size compliant for planes
c) expensive personal care stuff
d) Kilwins chocolate
Which movie had a sequel that was better than the original?
Empire Strikes Back. The Road Warrior. Terminator II
Evil Dead II
i have only seen Evil Dead II, so i am just going to agree because clearly the original was not compelling enough to go back and watch.
It's essentially the same film done in two different styles. The first was a straight horror film. The second was a pioneering horror/comedy.
When I went down to LA for the UCLA game a buddy and I went to some sort of Evil Dead II pop-up museum (Mystic Theater I think). Raimi lent a lot of the original stuff for it. Pretty fun for 20 minutes.
Aliens. Although that could be because I saw Aliens before Alien. My friends and I went opening night. Then the next day we rented Alien.
The Empire Strikes Back
while not critically the best movie of all time, certainly my favorite of all time.
The Dark Knight series.
The Godfather.
As good as Godfather was (Best Picture of 1972), Godfather II was better, and it was Best Picture of 1976, IIRC.
agreed. i have not seen either in years. maybe a 20 hour flight to India is a good time ..
I have watched both movies back-to-back and it is an outstanding movie experience. It's really too bad Godfather III was so mediocre. Had Godfather III been simply good, that would have been a great trilogy.
I have seen the Man With No Name trilogy in one day decades ago at the UC when it was a repertory movie house. That was a very good movie experience. But you have to be comfortable with the Western genre to begin with for that to be true.
Terrain
In response to the DBD poll, I didn't see an "all of the above" response. I have a hard time choosing my retirement destination. So much is circumstantial. Somewhere in Spain would be amazing though!
travel to India
Watch Godfather’s I and II
we are going to India as a family for the first time. our 16 and 19 yr old have never been. i have not been back in 25 yrs since a trip shortly after getting married.
we are also traveling w/ my sister-in-laws family, mostly regular tourist things like Delhi. Taj Mahal etc.
there is some discussion on doing a slum tour in Mumbai.
personally i am not interested. it is not like we go visit drugged up babies and gang shooting areas when we visit LA. i am not sure what there is to gain by seeing people living in filth unless you are truly there to help.
Took an epic trip to India with my pops when I was 11. He was a big Kipling fan, and had this trip in his mind since he read Kim. Wild trip. We visited a leper colony and I taught some of the kids there football with the nerf I brought. I got to meet Mother Teresa at her orphanage (really). We bumped into Omar Sharif in a hotel bar in Jaipur who was shooting a series there for HBO. Went to Tiger Tops, a tiger safari place, in the northern part of the country. I subsisted entirely on crackers and cokes the whole trip, so managed not to get sick.
I think your reasoning on why NOT to make a slum tour is dead on. That is all.
Absolutely not to the slum visit. India's slums are vast and scenes of poverty are everywhere. There are the street beggars, the organized-crime stoplight child beggars, the guys who hit you up for baksheesh when you're trying to take a piss, and the dead people rolled up in rug at street corners, and... the list goes on. I get fatigue when I go to India and would never double down on seeing poverty there.
OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY
PRO
He's no Ohtani, but still a pretty cool signing . . .
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/giants-finally-make-a-free-agent-splash-with-jung-hoo-lee-signing/
Giants Finally Make a Free Agent Splash with Jung Hoo Lee Signing
Good pickup for the Giants. Don't do it again.
Warriors lose again, Draymond gets tossed again.
i am not sure it is even worth watching anymore. i feel asleep in 3rd Q.
Dray is now indefinitely suspended...what a maroon!
Klay and Wiggins got pulled with like 8 min left in the 4th. It was Steph, CP3, Podz, Kuminga, and Saric I think. Started the run with a few min left when the Suns were just kind of waiting for the time to run out. Steph took an ill advised 3 with 9 sec left. Probably thought he would get fouled since the Suns had a foul to give.
No org should ever get in bed with a Dunleavy. Like father, like son. Draymond's sabotage addiction notwithstanding, this team is just so poorly constructed. We were small and old last year, and yet we doubled down to get even smaller and older? What?
I also didn't think much of Dunleavy, Jr's hiring. But then, again, anyone who followed Bob Myers was likely to suffer by comparison.
Hmm. I don't know. I mean the rub on the squad was it was too small and too old, and yet we doubled down by getting older and smaller. I don't get the sense there are any magic tricks coming.
Neither do I. Available evidence suggests not and also suggests a lack of imagination because of the doubling down on older and smaller. It's the suggested lack of imagination that concerns me most.
And I get that we're sorta tied to the big three. Klay, etc. earned the right to play it out here how ever long they choose to be here. I have no qualms with that even though it limits us. But the moves on the margins have not shown imagination like you say. Although you could say the Paul move showed a lot of imagination in that it was entirely counter intuitive. If Dario Saric has made an NBA basket in his long career, I've yet to witness it.
But CP3 is part of the older and smaller theme. Bill Walsh had a different approach in football. He was in favor of cutting players once their decline had begun. This may be why the 49ers won 3 Super Bowls while he was head coach and left the team in a position to repeat the year after he left.
Steph is defying age and expectations and has been for at least a year if not two years. Klay and Draymond, not so much. At some point each of those players will decline noticeably. How Dunleavy goes about managing that decline and transition will be important not only in handling fan expectations and emotions in the present but setting the table, as it were, for the franchise's future.
They thought Klay and Wiggins could recover some of their old form. It hasn't happened.
Thought or hoped? Wiggins I get, but expecting any more than infrequent Klay moments is irresponsible.
Unfortunately, the brief 4 week stretch in the ‘22 Playoffs was Wiggins’ outlier. THIS is more like the player he’s always been.
Just finished watching the press. conference announcing plans to build an arena and entertainment district in Alexandria and move the Wizards and Caps from DC. My take, it was a bunch of multi-millionaires patting each other on the back for scratching each others backs.
Gonna be in DC in late Feb, and I see the Dubs are in town to play the Wiz. I think I'll check it out. Should be one of the sadder regular season matchups of the year.
DBD AV CLUB
Fargo. I loved the first couple of seasons, but not the Chris Rock one. Current season is not my favorite so far, but just starting to heat up. The acting is either terrible or brilliant. I can't tell which.
Jury Duty was hilarious…James Marsden and the cast were great.
Lawmen: Bass Reeves: S1, E7 good, not great, though the show has been real solid.
I thought Jury Duty was so imaginative. The idea was great. And I don't ever remember seeing James Marsden in anything.
The writing was great…some real funny stuff.
super great show. every one I rec it to loves it also.
James Marsden is perfectly cast (as the actor who's been in everything, but nobody knows who he is)
As is "Ron": super-sweet/naive/etc. person. A cynic would have blown up the show (in a bad way)
ELSEWHERE IN COLLEGE
Cal will apparently play against Grayson McCall - the sixth year senior who will turn 24 by the end of next season. He has over 10,000 yards passing and was 4x 1st team all Sun Belt
https://twitter.com/On3sports/status/1734965290235048106
Stanfurd's Ben Yurosek in the portal
https://twitter.com/stanfballupdate/status/1735002181705814270
Stanfurd's 4-star WR pledge flips to Syracuse
https://twitter.com/On3Recruits/status/1734989361731490237
Spencer Brasch in the portal - but frankly, he's probably done. 1 year of eligibility left and he's a career 56% passer, mostly at an FCS level that lost almost all its games with about as many picks as TDs
https://twitter.com/RealBrasch13/status/1734742411686084878
Chip Kelly is not allowing players who entered the transfer portal to play in the bowl game or practice this week.
Kind of make sense, you want to give playing time to the players coming back.
I'm glad Wilcox is allowing them to play. I want the bowl game to be competitive.
Also maybe they'll want to stay? Although of the ones in the portal I think KEO is the one I want back. Maybe the DB? Maybe Mateen.
I project that all the folks in the portal will be gone except a 50/50 chance on SJV.
I agree. No reason to enter the portal unless either you know for sure you have options or you really don't want to come back.
Is it possible to enter the portal to leverage more NIL money? That seems like a possibility for some of the more talented players on a given roster.
KEO to tOSU rumored...
If a star fb player has a chance to play for the OSU... I wouldn't blame him.
He was there to visit so that makes sense.
CAL
Berkeley Dining Halls going more vegetarian
https://www.humanesociety.org/news/uc-berkeley-commits-50-plant-based-dining-2027
Go Bears!!! Beat Tech!
David Reese said he's coming back. Thank Oski because we could really really use the David Reese who terrorized Stanfurd and UCLA for a full season.
That guy was a beast down the stretch.
ICYMI: There were two verbal commitments to the class of '24:
Freshman OT: Aiden Newbill - a 6'8" tackle who is - as are most new freshmen offensive linemen - a bit of a project
Juco Safety: Isaiah Crosby - a smaller but ball-hawking safety/DB
Ball-hawks in the secondary are always welcome, as are big fellas in the trenches, provided they stick around.