meeting people in strange places (from last week's DBD)
the Red Iguana dinner reminded me that one time on a ski trip i walked into the Red Iguana with my daughter and saw one of my dorm friends from Clark Kerr having dinner before leaving for the airport.
SLC is a near perfect weekend ski trip from the east coast albeit a bit tiring
you can
- take 600a flight JFK > SLC on Thu or Fri
- land by 1000a and be on the slopes by noon
- ski Sat/Sun
- dinner at Red Iguana
- red eye flight home and back to work Mon morning
some of the places even let you ski for free in the afternoon if you showed a boarding pass from that day. not sure they do that anymore ...
Finally getting new glasses today for the first time in more than 8 years... and I'm excited. Put off getting my eyes tested for far too long, prescription didn't change all that much, but my glasses are pretty beat up.
Luckily my prescription hasn't changed in about 20 years. It is harder for me to read so sometimes I do have to remove my glasses to read. Doctor said I could keep doing that in lieu of bifocals if I want. And usually when I have my contacts in it's doing something outside or playing sports so I am not going to get readers just to be able to read when I have them in.
I've got 2 pairs of glasses that are about 8-10 years old but they're more or less in good condition so I'm not going to get any new ones. Maybe next year I'll get new lenses for the ones that are scratched up the most.
My best friend from college works down on the water in Emeryville, and every year I would come back to the Bay and have lunch with her, either at the Emeryville Public Market or Los Moles.
They redid the Emeryville Public Market at some point in the last 5-10 years. Now it's more upscale places instead of the regular family run places. It's a shame because there is no longer the variety of foods they used to have.
As for 4th and 1s, defense attacks the LOS to stop one yard so if you somehow pass through it, it often leads to long TD runs. We've probably given up many.
Professor David H. Romer (UC Berkeley) is an economics professor. He was the one who wrote the 2002 paper who quantitatively showed that going for it on 4th down would win more games. https://eml.berkeley.edu//~dromer/papers/JPE_April06.pdf Bill Bellicek summoned him, listened to him, and then ignored the advice. The only guy who really took it to heart was Kevin Kelley, a high school coach who won multiple Arkansas state championships by never punting and always does an onside kick. Kelley has been hired to be the head coach for Presbyterian College, a D1 FCS football program and the team that Cal held to 48 yards in 2011. Go BlueHose!
To set the stage, Cal's offense has been bad all game. Cal needs to run the clock out and gets stonewalled on three straight downs, but Iman Marhall runs his mouth and gets an unsportsman like conduct to extend the drive. Cal gets stonewalled another 2 straight plays, then Chase Garbers bootlegs right but is called short of the first down because he started his slide before the 1st down marker. Then this happened.
Are there still that many? I think some of them like Illinois retained the name but just claim that Illini is the people from the state rather than the tribe.
Also, does San Diego State Aztecs count for this since the Aztecs no longer exist?
hag - I made a killer gumbo for my soup group back in Feb after playing with a few recipes but like an a$$hole I forgot to write down specifically what I did. I'll play with it again and try and iron it out...maybe I'll stew some up Sunday at the AirBnb in Ft Worth...stay tuned. Shoot me an email and I can send you what I got if you like. James C
Made Trenette ala Pesto - @scootie you were right, it was delicious! The mortar & pestle made pesto is even better than blender made. I was surprised by how much I liked the potatoes in the pasta too.
The "Kraken" team is now in a sanctions hearing by a Federal judge based on the evidence they submitted in their case of Michigan election fraud. It is going very, very poorly for Sydney Powell, Lin Wood, and others. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWXcGBOJemU
Wow. I only saw a small portion of the event and it was a jaw-dropping shit-show. On one side was a clown car of Trump lawyers trying to push their snake oil "evidence" and on the other was the judge who unwrapped their claims as obvious falsehoods. Lin Wood tried to act as if he knew nothing about the whole thing. Lin Wood's lawyer tried to pick a verbal fight with the judge and Wood essentially tried to disavow his lawyer mid-session. Another Trump lawyer started crying and they had to take a break. Another time, the court stenographer freaked out because the Trump lawyers wouldn't stop cross-talking. And then Sydney Powell tried to take responsibility of the whole thing in an attempt to limit the damage. I predict that in two weeks Sydney Powell, Lin Wood, and up to seven other lawyers will be disbarred.
France is not fucking around (finally). Putting restrictions on unvaccinated people, and healthcare workers who refuse vaccination will stop being paid on September 15th, Macron announced today.
Interesting. My aunt was going to travel to Boston in August to visit her aunt. My mom is going as well. The aunt has liver cancer and was sent home on hospice but she has gotten somewhat better (both her kids are doctors). She lives in Paris. I asked my mom if she had to quarantine and she said she didn't know.
Iceland lifted its travel restrictions to vaccinated people as the country hits 90% vaccinated. What has two thumbs and is going to Iceland again because there is still some flight/hotel availability because a lot of Europeans are not yet vaccinated and because there will be a huge Pride parade?
They finally got enough vaccine doses in Taiwan for my mom (who is over 65 but under 70) to get an appointment for tomorrow for her first shot. Apparently, the second dose of Moderna may or may not be available, so there could be a longer wait than what's typical for the US.
Few weeks ago when vaccines finally rolled out for the general public in Japan, my friend's parents couldn't get them because the first roll out was for anyone over age 90. I'm sure they got it now but that was such an Asian thing.
Leverage, the cheesetastic heist show that used to be on TNT, is back and on this thing called IMDB TV (it's free with Ads on the Amazon platform). They got rid of the Timothy Hutton character since the Oscar-Winning actor has some #metoo issues. I only got through 6 of 8 episodes thus far and I think the highlight was clearly the first two with the full team before the Aldis Hodge (who is on a Showtime show and will be DC Superhero Hawkman opposite The Rock's Black Adam), the actor who played hacker Hardison is too busy. I believe Cal Football alum Nnamdi Asomugha's first acting role was on an episode of Leverage. Anyhow since I did like the original series, I thought Leverage: Redemption was fun.
I just remembered that Nnamdi's first acting role might be as the cop who brought Vince (Michael B. Jordan) to Coach Taylor in season 4 of Friday Night Lights, but maybe he wasn't credited for that. Leverage might have been his first credited guest star role (as a bouncer who got into a fight scene with Elliot).
I loved Leverage. It was such a great show. I didn't know there is a Leverage: Redemption. I may have to watch this. Also there is a British version called Hustle. The episodes are on youtube.
The "issue" with shows like this is that the heroes are so good that they really had to introduce a couple of new characters making mistakes or have guys inconveniently away on some other job/task to build tensions (particularly within episodes before the commercial breaks).
Just watched the first 2 episodes. Thoroughly enjoyed them. I remember discovering Leverage maybe around 2011 or 2012 during Christmas break. One of the TV stations (for the youngins this is how we used to watch TV) was showing a Leverage marathon. I think I watched about 4 episodes in a row that day. Then over Christmas I think I caught up to the next season they were going to broadcast.
Now that I think about it, I had forgotten that at the end of the last episode of the original series Timothy Hutton's character told Beth that he had been grooming her to take over the team and he went off with the grifter. I guess at that point they had written his character out so I'm guessing Beth takes over the team in Redemption.
1. Black Widow - Solid but not outstanding MCU fare. Florence Pugh was great. the family dynamic between the "Romanov" family was greeat. But also suffered from MCU final act CGI bloat and also kind of a weak villain and they did the Taskmaster dirty.
Also wish they had stuck with the Bourne/Bond/MI feels for the entire movie - didn't really need the giant set-piece finale. The smaller, ground level fights and intrigue would have been really cool and set-up XXXXX for phase 4 movies.
The real problem with Black Widow is that it should have actually come out when it takes place: right after Civil War. But there's nothing they can do about that now.
Otherwise, it's a decent middle-tier Marvel effort.
I enjoyed it but agree with the final act being a bit too CGI-heavy. The Taskmaster "twist" was kind of telegraphed and it was also a letdown if one was particularly invested in the backstory of Black Widow and Hawkeye of their Budapest past.
Still, the biggest long-term thing out of this movie is probably Florence Pugh stepping into a larger role in Phase 4 and beyond of MCU and she was great.
2. Summer of Soul - Amir "Questlove" Thompson's documentary about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival with interviews and performances from Stevie Wonder, The Fifth Dimension, Nina Simone, Gladys Knight, Mavis Staples and lots of lots of others. This was fantastic - recommend anyone go see this when you can. The interviews really help contextualize the era and state of Harlem and the black experience in 1969 - post JFk, RFK, Malcolm X, MLK assassinations, and also the transition from early era suit-and-tie Motown to the coming funk and afro-centric 1970s. But but but . . . I really want to now see the full music sets instead of just 1 or 2 songs from each performer. There's 47 hours of footage. I will pay to watch Stevie and Nina SImone and a bunch of other sets.
As I understand it, a lot of countries are sending the B squad to this Gold Cup, given that the Nations League just happened and the major European leagues are still playing. Sloppiness is to be expected.
They are out there for so long everyday. I saw the beginning of the coverage, went on a little over two hour run, and got back in time to see the end of the coverage. Just over five hours for the stage Kuss won.
I thought his strategy made sense on paper...although it was a bit dicey that Rushford and Santo came in on an Italian corner kick play. People blame him for using inexperienced players, but those young guys could have easily made the pressure PKs too.
Just seemed weird to bring those guys in for just a minute or two of game action and then put the PK pressure right on them immediately. Maybe that's their specialty? I dunno, just felt strange in the moment. I would think you'd want to sub them in earlier so they can work themselves into the game.
While they obviously missed the PKs, they are offensive players who possibly had too many tricks to score penalties. With the extra subs this year, I really think this particular move was defendable. For all the complaints about how PK is a different beast than the regular game and how that's somehow the decider, it makes sense that some of these guys would make better PK takers than some defenders.
Eh, you mean the players substituted for the PKs? I can only assume they were the best in training. Even though I'm a England fan, towards the end of the game, I was rooting for someone to win on a goal.
I think England's problem was more they too fancy trying to score, looking for one more pass, instead of acting and striking more quickly.
Seemed like England's offense was running on fumes for most of the extra time periods. I'm thinking they could have used some fresh legs earlier than they got them.
Super bummed about this. Incidentally, my left eye got a bit of an eye infection so it's all red and looks like I have been crying my (left) eye (only) out because of the Acuna injury and the now grim season outlook for the Braves in an NL East with a lot of parity.
Braves are around .500 which I guess means they weren't underperforming based on some of the preseason W/L estimates. I was shocked when I saw some publication estimate a .500 record but I guess they knew what they were talking about.
Judge mocks Altuve for the jersey thing after a HR. Then Gary Sanchez does the same thing. Then Altuve gets a walk-off HR and his teammates rip his jersey off.
Chapman was basically benched this week after a series of ineffective outings (the Angels disaster, Mets blown save on the 4th)...with the ASG, he'll get like 10 days off. Aroldis goes through a stretch like this every year where he loses the strike zone.
This first week after the break will make it or break it for Boone in NY, maybe even Cashman. Yet another devastating L in the final game of the 1st half...just delightful to see.
The Oakland A’s have two players heading to the All-Star Game next week, and they both showed why Sunday in the team’s final game before the break.
The A’s got seven brilliant innings from starter Chris Bassitt, and their lineup hit four solo homers including two by Matt Olson, in a 4-1 victory over the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field. Oakland finally earns a series win against the last-place Rangers, in their third try this year, and they head into the midseason intermission on a positive note after slumping for the past few weeks.
This was the game you want to see out of your contending team. Their ace starter dominated and never let up. Their lineup put some runs on the board early and then kept adding. And their bullpen locked down the final two frames. No weird stuff went wrong, and the good players did the kinds of good things you expect. It was refreshingly undramatic.
They were born exactly 12 years apart. Max Muncy 1.0 was born on Aug 25, 1990 and Max Muncy 2.0 was born on August 25, 2002. So in about 5 years the universe will align and the Dodgers will get Max muncy 2.0 and Joe Davis can say, "A ground ball to Max Muncy and he throws to Max Muncy at first."
I hate the creamsicle unis so much. Not a stitch of black (!) in the entire uniform. For a team that is known as the Orange & Black (among other monikers), this is unacceptable.
Double D says that the unis look better in person than they do on TV. Go figure.
They're definitely not good. I'm less bothered by the color than the fact that the numbers and names disappear halfway down the jersey. I just don't understand the point. It doesn't even look like fog, which is what the design is supposed to invoke.
Sooooo. To circle back round to your question from last week...I'm not as big a fan of those unis if they're gonna wear them often. Then the Gatorade G looks kinda silly....
It took a little while, but the Dodgers found their offense late on Sunday, tying the game in a wild eighth inning, then winning 7-4 on a three-run walk-off home run by Max Muncy in the ninth to take two out of three against the Diamondbacks at Dodger Stadium.
Albert Pujols opened the ninth with a leadoff single off J.B. Bukauskas, then was pinch-run for by Zach Reks, who was just called up Saturday. Zach McKinstry sacrificed Reks into scoring position, then Mookie Betts ran a 3-1 count before Arizona decided to intentionally walked him.
“It was a logical move to do,” Muncy said of the intentional walk to Betts.
That set the stage for Muncy, who will start at designated hitter for the National League All-Stars on Tuesday night. He designated this pitch well into the right field pavilion for the Dodgers’ second straight three-run inning, and their second straight win.
1. Whittingham, 2. Shaw, 3. Dorrell, 4. Smith, 5. Wilcox, 6. Lake, 7. Cristobal, 8. Kelly, 9. Rolovich, 10. Fisch, 11. Helton, 12. Edwards. The top 5 do more with less (good coaches). Next 5 do what you'd expect with what they have. Helton does much less with more. Edwards gets DQ'd.
Giving recognition for doing more with less is fine, but discounting those who do quite a bit with quite a bit to work with that they procured (Cristobal only 7th) incorrectly misses the point that recruiting is a big and important part of coaching. And then there is Herb-hate. At some point, results matter. Unless you are looking for click-bait.
doesn't this mean that your rankings are strictly results based? I think the question of who does what given the resources they have is an important consideration. Thus Cristobal, who is an abysmal in game coach and cheats like crazy on the recruiting front and Helton, who is just insipid given the SC brand, are ranked fairly decently.
I missed this when it first came out. It's Cal's long-term development plan that includes the development of properties it owns in Berkeley, on-campus development, and then redeveloping the area around the Greek Theater, Tightwad Hill, and that immediate area, then later an expansion up Strawberry Canyon and the area surround Lawrence Lab. I mean, I'll be dead by then, but I thought it was neat to think about the future.
I don't know the background to this, but I can't imagine anyone making any jokes about it whatsoever https://twitter.com/lara_korte/status/1414735575232385028?s=20
We've never made a joke, ever.
The tortoise and the hare https://twitter.com/Sirferrell1/status/1414588056779304963?s=20
meeting people in strange places (from last week's DBD)
the Red Iguana dinner reminded me that one time on a ski trip i walked into the Red Iguana with my daughter and saw one of my dorm friends from Clark Kerr having dinner before leaving for the airport.
SLC is a near perfect weekend ski trip from the east coast albeit a bit tiring
you can
- take 600a flight JFK > SLC on Thu or Fri
- land by 1000a and be on the slopes by noon
- ski Sat/Sun
- dinner at Red Iguana
- red eye flight home and back to work Mon morning
some of the places even let you ski for free in the afternoon if you showed a boarding pass from that day. not sure they do that anymore ...
Finally getting new glasses today for the first time in more than 8 years... and I'm excited. Put off getting my eyes tested for far too long, prescription didn't change all that much, but my glasses are pretty beat up.
Luckily my prescription hasn't changed in about 20 years. It is harder for me to read so sometimes I do have to remove my glasses to read. Doctor said I could keep doing that in lieu of bifocals if I want. And usually when I have my contacts in it's doing something outside or playing sports so I am not going to get readers just to be able to read when I have them in.
I've got 2 pairs of glasses that are about 8-10 years old but they're more or less in good condition so I'm not going to get any new ones. Maybe next year I'll get new lenses for the ones that are scratched up the most.
Dining out ...
Red Iguana in SLC
we have a 3 hr stopover in SLC on the way to Reno, so we took an Uber and back to the Red Iguana for a nice dinner.
i know it is not the "best" Mexican food on the planet, but they have a great selection of classic and interesting mole sauces.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CRNfEKGF4uT/
Its a really solid choice, with a variety of good things on the menu.
Speaking of mole, we should have an Emeryville meetup at Wondrous Brewing and order from Los Moles next door.
My best friend from college works down on the water in Emeryville, and every year I would come back to the Bay and have lunch with her, either at the Emeryville Public Market or Los Moles.
They redid the Emeryville Public Market at some point in the last 5-10 years. Now it's more upscale places instead of the regular family run places. It's a shame because there is no longer the variety of foods they used to have.
Oh we ate there through the evolution of the market. Last time I saw Rob, Twist and a few other W4C people there.
Virgin Galactic
I watched the replay on youtube yesterday. Looked interesting. The whole feathering thing their aircraft does is really cool.
Hit 2000 miles an hour during the return
Going for it on 4th down
I remember a Will Kapp long TD run on 4th and 1. Or Enwere's long run against WSU? I think it was.
I think Enwere's long run was on 3rd and long. Like 3rd and 30 or something like that.
Oh was it? You are probably right.
As for 4th and 1s, defense attacks the LOS to stop one yard so if you somehow pass through it, it often leads to long TD runs. We've probably given up many.
Professor David H. Romer (UC Berkeley) is an economics professor. He was the one who wrote the 2002 paper who quantitatively showed that going for it on 4th down would win more games. https://eml.berkeley.edu//~dromer/papers/JPE_April06.pdf Bill Bellicek summoned him, listened to him, and then ignored the advice. The only guy who really took it to heart was Kevin Kelley, a high school coach who won multiple Arkansas state championships by never punting and always does an onside kick. Kelley has been hired to be the head coach for Presbyterian College, a D1 FCS football program and the team that Cal held to 48 yards in 2011. Go BlueHose!
I have a photo with my son & their highlander mascot.
I remember being at UDub in 2015 watching Goff run the keeper on 4th down to end and win the game.
This
Laird's run on 4th and 1 against SC in 2018.
To set the stage, Cal's offense has been bad all game. Cal needs to run the clock out and gets stonewalled on three straight downs, but Iman Marhall runs his mouth and gets an unsportsman like conduct to extend the drive. Cal gets stonewalled another 2 straight plays, then Chase Garbers bootlegs right but is called short of the first down because he started his slide before the 1st down marker. Then this happened.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG-R12B-qhw#t=7m16s
That unsportsmanlike conduct saved the Bears asses.
would've been better off with this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
Cowboys
Here come cowboys
Here to save us all
Here come cowboys
They're so well inside the law
Here come cowboys
They're no fun at all
-Psychedelic Furs
Oklahoma State, Wyoming .. . .
McNeese State!
Easy enough. What about the eight (or so) D1 schools who have Native American mascots. "Warriors" does not count.
Florida State, Bradley, South Dakota (they're D1 for hockey),
Are there still that many? I think some of them like Illinois retained the name but just claim that Illini is the people from the state rather than the tribe.
Also, does San Diego State Aztecs count for this since the Aztecs no longer exist?
Yes and yes.
I totally always just ignorantly thought the Illini referred to a regional indigenous peoples they were "cool" with.
Apparently, the imagery coincided the name but it's unclear if the name was ever meant to refer to Native Americans..
https://archives.library.illinois.edu/features/illini.php#7
I like this one: Name the six Power Five football conference teams whose mascot does not end with the letter "s".
*Bonus, name the (also) six teams from the Group of 5 whose mascot does not end with the letter "s". ..So 12 total D-1 (I think).
Harvard
North Texas, Tulane, Nevada... uh, Navy? ... I'm drawing a blank thereafter. Also, I think there are a lot of G5 schools that are the Owls.
Tulsa "Golden Hurricane" is the one I didnt know.
Stanfuck, Illinois, Syracuse, NC State, Alabama, Notre Dame*?
dat be dem, from the p5
Florida St, Utah, North Dakota are easy
I always thought Utah Utes and Illinois Illini are funny names until I realized they were tribe names
North Dakota? But add to the easy list the one we played in the prestigious Redbox Bowl.
The mighty Sioux of North Dakota... Illinois is a good one
McNeese State was the tough one
DBD Test Kitchen
Tyler Florence just posted this and it's going into my 'to make' pile https://irp.cdn-website.com/d496b86d/files/uploaded/Enchilada%20Lasagna.pdf
You know, that's not that different than Santa Fe style enchiladas, maybe a bit more saucy.
Ooo... Imma go downstairs and make the salsa roja. Time to get the Cuisinart and 2 shots of tequila out.
Shit. I don't have the tomatoes. I gotta do this tomorrow. Meanwhile, this tequila isn't going to waste
haha, does it ever? Have you ever thrown out tequila because it's gone bad?
YES, this! Looks delicious.
Making jambalaya this week
I need a good Gumbo recipe. If anyone has one I'd appreciate a copy.
Issac Toups has a good one on youtube.
https://youtu.be/76JXtB7JFQY
oh that looks really good. I always thought Gumbo was supposed to have Okra. Maybve that's an optional ingredient. I might try it.
hag - I made a killer gumbo for my soup group back in Feb after playing with a few recipes but like an a$$hole I forgot to write down specifically what I did. I'll play with it again and try and iron it out...maybe I'll stew some up Sunday at the AirBnb in Ft Worth...stay tuned. Shoot me an email and I can send you what I got if you like. James C
Not sure how I can email you. Maybe I'll send Newellbany a text asking for your email address. Or have him give you my phone number.
Perfect, and vice versa. I just gave him a head's up...
Made Trenette ala Pesto - @scootie you were right, it was delicious! The mortar & pestle made pesto is even better than blender made. I was surprised by how much I liked the potatoes in the pasta too.
Our Crumbling Democracy
The "Kraken" team is now in a sanctions hearing by a Federal judge based on the evidence they submitted in their case of Michigan election fraud. It is going very, very poorly for Sydney Powell, Lin Wood, and others. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWXcGBOJemU
Wow. Sydney Powell just threw herself under the bus in closing remarks.
Wow. I only saw a small portion of the event and it was a jaw-dropping shit-show. On one side was a clown car of Trump lawyers trying to push their snake oil "evidence" and on the other was the judge who unwrapped their claims as obvious falsehoods. Lin Wood tried to act as if he knew nothing about the whole thing. Lin Wood's lawyer tried to pick a verbal fight with the judge and Wood essentially tried to disavow his lawyer mid-session. Another Trump lawyer started crying and they had to take a break. Another time, the court stenographer freaked out because the Trump lawyers wouldn't stop cross-talking. And then Sydney Powell tried to take responsibility of the whole thing in an attempt to limit the damage. I predict that in two weeks Sydney Powell, Lin Wood, and up to seven other lawyers will be disbarred.
only if we're lucky.
CNN's Daniel Dale fact-checks CPAC. It goes as you'd expect.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/12/politics/fact-check-trump-cpac-election-lies/index.html
Trumpworld wants distance from QAnon even as the ex-president winks at it
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/12/trump-world-distance-qanon-499242
Today in Covid 19
France is not fucking around (finally). Putting restrictions on unvaccinated people, and healthcare workers who refuse vaccination will stop being paid on September 15th, Macron announced today.
Interesting. My aunt was going to travel to Boston in August to visit her aunt. My mom is going as well. The aunt has liver cancer and was sent home on hospice but she has gotten somewhat better (both her kids are doctors). She lives in Paris. I asked my mom if she had to quarantine and she said she didn't know.
Iceland lifted its travel restrictions to vaccinated people as the country hits 90% vaccinated. What has two thumbs and is going to Iceland again because there is still some flight/hotel availability because a lot of Europeans are not yet vaccinated and because there will be a huge Pride parade?
You and the fam?
Yup.
They finally got enough vaccine doses in Taiwan for my mom (who is over 65 but under 70) to get an appointment for tomorrow for her first shot. Apparently, the second dose of Moderna may or may not be available, so there could be a longer wait than what's typical for the US.
Few weeks ago when vaccines finally rolled out for the general public in Japan, my friend's parents couldn't get them because the first roll out was for anyone over age 90. I'm sure they got it now but that was such an Asian thing.
The nephew finally got vaccinated over the weekend.
DBD AV Club
Leverage, the cheesetastic heist show that used to be on TNT, is back and on this thing called IMDB TV (it's free with Ads on the Amazon platform). They got rid of the Timothy Hutton character since the Oscar-Winning actor has some #metoo issues. I only got through 6 of 8 episodes thus far and I think the highlight was clearly the first two with the full team before the Aldis Hodge (who is on a Showtime show and will be DC Superhero Hawkman opposite The Rock's Black Adam), the actor who played hacker Hardison is too busy. I believe Cal Football alum Nnamdi Asomugha's first acting role was on an episode of Leverage. Anyhow since I did like the original series, I thought Leverage: Redemption was fun.
I loved leverage . . . but it kind of fell apart at the end?
I just remembered that Nnamdi's first acting role might be as the cop who brought Vince (Michael B. Jordan) to Coach Taylor in season 4 of Friday Night Lights, but maybe he wasn't credited for that. Leverage might have been his first credited guest star role (as a bouncer who got into a fight scene with Elliot).
I also remember the FNL scene. I miss FNL. That was such a great show.
It would be interesting to do a 2 hour movie on where everyone is 10 years later.
I loved Leverage. It was such a great show. I didn't know there is a Leverage: Redemption. I may have to watch this. Also there is a British version called Hustle. The episodes are on youtube.
The "issue" with shows like this is that the heroes are so good that they really had to introduce a couple of new characters making mistakes or have guys inconveniently away on some other job/task to build tensions (particularly within episodes before the commercial breaks).
Just watched the first 2 episodes. Thoroughly enjoyed them. I remember discovering Leverage maybe around 2011 or 2012 during Christmas break. One of the TV stations (for the youngins this is how we used to watch TV) was showing a Leverage marathon. I think I watched about 4 episodes in a row that day. Then over Christmas I think I caught up to the next season they were going to broadcast.
Now that I think about it, I had forgotten that at the end of the last episode of the original series Timothy Hutton's character told Beth that he had been grooming her to take over the team and he went off with the grifter. I guess at that point they had written his character out so I'm guessing Beth takes over the team in Redemption.
Saw 2 movies this weekend.
1. Black Widow - Solid but not outstanding MCU fare. Florence Pugh was great. the family dynamic between the "Romanov" family was greeat. But also suffered from MCU final act CGI bloat and also kind of a weak villain and they did the Taskmaster dirty.
Also wish they had stuck with the Bourne/Bond/MI feels for the entire movie - didn't really need the giant set-piece finale. The smaller, ground level fights and intrigue would have been really cool and set-up XXXXX for phase 4 movies.
Agreed, also really enjoyed David Harbour role/character.
Harbour is a fantastic actor.
The real problem with Black Widow is that it should have actually come out when it takes place: right after Civil War. But there's nothing they can do about that now.
Otherwise, it's a decent middle-tier Marvel effort.
I enjoyed it but agree with the final act being a bit too CGI-heavy. The Taskmaster "twist" was kind of telegraphed and it was also a letdown if one was particularly invested in the backstory of Black Widow and Hawkeye of their Budapest past.
Still, the biggest long-term thing out of this movie is probably Florence Pugh stepping into a larger role in Phase 4 and beyond of MCU and she was great.
2. Summer of Soul - Amir "Questlove" Thompson's documentary about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival with interviews and performances from Stevie Wonder, The Fifth Dimension, Nina Simone, Gladys Knight, Mavis Staples and lots of lots of others. This was fantastic - recommend anyone go see this when you can. The interviews really help contextualize the era and state of Harlem and the black experience in 1969 - post JFk, RFK, Malcolm X, MLK assassinations, and also the transition from early era suit-and-tie Motown to the coming funk and afro-centric 1970s. But but but . . . I really want to now see the full music sets instead of just 1 or 2 songs from each performer. There's 47 hours of footage. I will pay to watch Stevie and Nina SImone and a bunch of other sets.
Pro
US men's basketball loses exhibition to Nigeria
https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/31797509/team-usa-stunned-nigeria-rare-exhibition-loss-ahead-tokyo-olympics
And then to Australia!
US Men over Haiti 1-0; sloppy game.
As I understand it, a lot of countries are sending the B squad to this Gold Cup, given that the Nations League just happened and the major European leagues are still playing. Sloppiness is to be expected.
This is quite true, but even grading on a curve, it was a poor showing.
Sepp Kuss wins the 15th stage of the Tour de France and becomes the first American to win a stage in 10 years
https://twitter.com/LeTour/status/1414284603678806019
They are out there for so long everyday. I saw the beginning of the coverage, went on a little over two hour run, and got back in time to see the end of the coverage. Just over five hours for the stage Kuss won.
that was fun to watch. although i must admit i was rooting for Valverde to pass him
It's coming <strike>home</strike> Rome
https://twitter.com/EURO2020/status/1414354357227773957
Italy wins the Euro Cup finale on penalty kicks
Losing on PKs sucks.
Not a soccer expert, but it seems to me that England's manager blew it with the extremely late substitutions. What was he doing?
I thought his strategy made sense on paper...although it was a bit dicey that Rushford and Santo came in on an Italian corner kick play. People blame him for using inexperienced players, but those young guys could have easily made the pressure PKs too.
Just seemed weird to bring those guys in for just a minute or two of game action and then put the PK pressure right on them immediately. Maybe that's their specialty? I dunno, just felt strange in the moment. I would think you'd want to sub them in earlier so they can work themselves into the game.
While they obviously missed the PKs, they are offensive players who possibly had too many tricks to score penalties. With the extra subs this year, I really think this particular move was defendable. For all the complaints about how PK is a different beast than the regular game and how that's somehow the decider, it makes sense that some of these guys would make better PK takers than some defenders.
Eh, you mean the players substituted for the PKs? I can only assume they were the best in training. Even though I'm a England fan, towards the end of the game, I was rooting for someone to win on a goal.
I think England's problem was more they too fancy trying to score, looking for one more pass, instead of acting and striking more quickly.
Seemed like England's offense was running on fumes for most of the extra time periods. I'm thinking they could have used some fresh legs earlier than they got them.
On the first PK miss, it seemed like the guy got too fancy.
Yes, you're supposed to know what you're going to go for beforehand.
That was insane. I told No 3 that there will be a lot of racism against the 3 British players that missed their PKs. Unfortunately I was right.
Sadly....just awful.
Ronald Acuña Jr. out for year after tearing ACL.
https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/1413985741227511808
Super bummed about this. Incidentally, my left eye got a bit of an eye infection so it's all red and looks like I have been crying my (left) eye (only) out because of the Acuna injury and the now grim season outlook for the Braves in an NL East with a lot of parity.
Braves are around .500 which I guess means they weren't underperforming based on some of the preseason W/L estimates. I was shocked when I saw some publication estimate a .500 record but I guess they knew what they were talking about.
Judge mocks Altuve for the jersey thing after a HR. Then Gary Sanchez does the same thing. Then Altuve gets a walk-off HR and his teammates rip his jersey off.
https://twitter.com/Jared_Carrabis/status/1414342022950006787
I can't believe the Yankees blew that game. I assume Chapman didn't pitch since he blew the last game he pitched in.
Chapman was basically benched this week after a series of ineffective outings (the Angels disaster, Mets blown save on the 4th)...with the ASG, he'll get like 10 days off. Aroldis goes through a stretch like this every year where he loses the strike zone.
This first week after the break will make it or break it for Boone in NY, maybe even Cashman. Yet another devastating L in the final game of the 1st half...just delightful to see.
Game #92: A’s All-Stars lead way to victory in final game before break
https://www.athleticsnation.com/2021/7/11/22572909/oakland-as-game-92-texas-rangers-score-result
The Oakland A’s have two players heading to the All-Star Game next week, and they both showed why Sunday in the team’s final game before the break.
The A’s got seven brilliant innings from starter Chris Bassitt, and their lineup hit four solo homers including two by Matt Olson, in a 4-1 victory over the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field. Oakland finally earns a series win against the last-place Rangers, in their third try this year, and they head into the midseason intermission on a positive note after slumping for the past few weeks.
This was the game you want to see out of your contending team. Their ace starter dominated and never let up. Their lineup put some runs on the board early and then kept adding. And their bullpen locked down the final two frames. No weird stuff went wrong, and the good players did the kinds of good things you expect. It was refreshingly undramatic.
A's draft Max Muncy. @How long before he ends up on the Dodgers?@
I thought that was a joke. But it's not. Will version 2.0 end up like 1.0?
@only after he's released by the A's and retools his swing.@
The weirdest coincidence may be that the two Max Muncy's (Muncies?) share the same birthday.
Has anyone ever seen them in the same room together?
They could be the same guy....
wut
They were born exactly 12 years apart. Max Muncy 1.0 was born on Aug 25, 1990 and Max Muncy 2.0 was born on August 25, 2002. So in about 5 years the universe will align and the Dodgers will get Max muncy 2.0 and Joe Davis can say, "A ground ball to Max Muncy and he throws to Max Muncy at first."
Giants sweep their way into the break
https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2021/7/11/22573039/san-francisco-giants-nationals-recap-kevin-gausman-curt-casali
There are two things that I imagine every MLB team wants out of their final series before the All-Star break.
The first is in their control, and very obvious: some wins and some momentum.
The second is out of their control: home games, so they can limit travel at the break, and get started on their R&R early.
Check and check.
Undefeated in the ugly gradient uniforms. Keep them forever?
I hate the creamsicle unis so much. Not a stitch of black (!) in the entire uniform. For a team that is known as the Orange & Black (among other monikers), this is unacceptable.
Double D says that the unis look better in person than they do on TV. Go figure.
They're definitely not good. I'm less bothered by the color than the fact that the numbers and names disappear halfway down the jersey. I just don't understand the point. It doesn't even look like fog, which is what the design is supposed to invoke.
Exactly....it looks more like foam from the bay, but it's supposed to be fog...still better than Fanta orange, but not much.
Sooooo. To circle back round to your question from last week...I'm not as big a fan of those unis if they're gonna wear them often. Then the Gatorade G looks kinda silly....
I hate them but am willing to accept them if we're gonna be 1.000 wearing them.
Bucks claw one game back. Cam Johnson has a monster dunk. Giannnis with his second 40/10 game in the Finals.
Dodgers go into the MLB All Star Break on a walk-off
Max Muncy’s walk-off, 3-run home run sends Dodgers into All-Star break on a high note
https://www.truebluela.com/2021/7/11/22572806/max-muncy-walk-off-home-run-dodgers-late-offense-diamondbacks-recap
It took a little while, but the Dodgers found their offense late on Sunday, tying the game in a wild eighth inning, then winning 7-4 on a three-run walk-off home run by Max Muncy in the ninth to take two out of three against the Diamondbacks at Dodger Stadium.
Albert Pujols opened the ninth with a leadoff single off J.B. Bukauskas, then was pinch-run for by Zach Reks, who was just called up Saturday. Zach McKinstry sacrificed Reks into scoring position, then Mookie Betts ran a 3-1 count before Arizona decided to intentionally walked him.
“It was a logical move to do,” Muncy said of the intentional walk to Betts.
That set the stage for Muncy, who will start at designated hitter for the National League All-Stars on Tuesday night. He designated this pitch well into the right field pavilion for the Dodgers’ second straight three-run inning, and their second straight win.
GBBR
GBBR
Other College
Pac-12 coach rankings 2021: Utah's Kyle Whittingham stays on top, Stanford's David Shaw drops
https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/pac-12-coach-rankings-2021-utahs-kyle-whittingham-stays-on-top-stanfords-david-shaw-drops/
1. Whittingham, 2. Shaw, 3. Dorrell, 4. Smith, 5. Wilcox, 6. Lake, 7. Cristobal, 8. Kelly, 9. Rolovich, 10. Fisch, 11. Helton, 12. Edwards. The top 5 do more with less (good coaches). Next 5 do what you'd expect with what they have. Helton does much less with more. Edwards gets DQ'd.
Giving recognition for doing more with less is fine, but discounting those who do quite a bit with quite a bit to work with that they procured (Cristobal only 7th) incorrectly misses the point that recruiting is a big and important part of coaching. And then there is Herb-hate. At some point, results matter. Unless you are looking for click-bait.
doesn't this mean that your rankings are strictly results based? I think the question of who does what given the resources they have is an important consideration. Thus Cristobal, who is an abysmal in game coach and cheats like crazy on the recruiting front and Helton, who is just insipid given the SC brand, are ranked fairly decently.
Cal
I missed this when it first came out. It's Cal's long-term development plan that includes the development of properties it owns in Berkeley, on-campus development, and then redeveloping the area around the Greek Theater, Tightwad Hill, and that immediate area, then later an expansion up Strawberry Canyon and the area surround Lawrence Lab. I mean, I'll be dead by then, but I thought it was neat to think about the future.
https://www.berkeleyside.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Draft-UC-Berkeley-LRDP_February-2021_web-sm-2.pdf
Go Bears!!!