Random Thoughts: 08/23/10- 08/30/10

RANDOM THOUGHTS:

I hoped you enjoyed my Emmys live blog from last night. Now, let's begin with this week's installment of the RTs. As always, the following were on my mind between Monday, August 23rd and tarts the next Monday, August 30th:

- As a White Sox fan, I find the Manny Ramirez deal to be a very good one. It's only a one month rental, the team finally has that DH they have been missing since they traded Jim Thome last year, Ramirez can still hit the ball and they didn't have to give up any prospects to get him (all they have to do is just pay all $3.5 million of Ramirez's remaining contract money). Sure, the White Sox needed a reliever more but getting someone as good of a hitter as Ramirez is the next best thing.

- What the heck is Tune Up and why are they so successful that they have enough money to spend on showing that stupid commercial with Biz Markie and Andy Milonakis?

- The past fourteen months for "Modern Family" has to be regarded as one of the best time any comedy on TV has had in years. It all began in the summer before the series premiere when great reviews of their pilot came out and Disney promoted the hell out of it. Then the show's first episode being aired right after an episode of "Dancing with the Stars". Then, it received huge success in the ratings throughout their first season run, and now it got a bunch of Emmys that include Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series, Outstanding Cast and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for Eric Stonestreet. These days you hardly see such a success by a comedy. Sure, it may receive huge ratings or it may receive tons of awards but it's usually not both at the same time.

- With the college football season beginning this Thursday, high school football underway across the country and the NFL preseason in week 4 territory, I think it's safe to say that the best time of the year in all of sports is back.

- I find the "We don't need no education" line in Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" to be very ironic.

- To the person who decided to play the MNF football theme song everytime a person entered one of ESPN.com's Fantasy Football draft rooms: I hate you and your guts.

Because of Labor Day, I've decided on having the next edition of random thoughts sometime this weekend. Until then, enjoy this unofficial final week of summer, everyone!
Sincerely,
Your pal: mj15

If you have any opinions on today's post, or if you just have any suggestions or tips for my next blog entry, e-mail me
at: mj1599@aol.com. Your e-mails are greatly appreciated.

The mj15 Blog's 2010 Emmy Awards LIVE! Blog

The following post was a live blog of the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards held on August 29th, 2010. It was written between 6:10 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. central standard time.

Well, it appears that I may have embellished the amount of work I had to do today on last night's "End of the Week" post because with a full forty five minutes to go, I am all done and ready to go with live blogging the 2010 Emmys! So, here's how things are going to go: from now to the moment the final award will be given out (sometime before 10 p.m. CT), I will be here and giving you as many updates on the proceedings as possible while still giving you my opinions and even an update on how well I did with my predictions that I made back in July. As always, you are allowed to participate in the comments section. Let's begin:

6:10 p.m.- In the words of Brent Musberger, you are looking liiiive inside and outside of the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles, California where in about fifty minutes time all of the top stars in the television industry will meet in one place to watch the television industry's biggest event of the year: the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards. So many questions to ask heading into the final hour before the big show begins. Will the award winning streaks of "30 Rock" and "Mad Men" finally come to end? Which show will have the biggest night? Which new comedy from the 2009-2010 TV season will dominate more, "Glee" or "Modern Family"? Will Jimmy Fallon be half as funny as Conan O'Brien when he hosted the last two Emmys on NBC? How many times will he laugh while performing a bit?

Speaking of O'Brien, will we see his now finished stint as host of The Tonight Show win an Emmy for Best Music, Variety or Comedy Series? Probably not, but how great will that be? Will there be any Jon Cryer winning Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series type upsets this year? We should find out in the next four hours, but in the meantime we're just gonna have to wait by watching the red carpet specials on NBC, E! and the TV Guide network.

6:15 p.m.- Before I continue on, here's the links to my three posts back in July that were dedicated to predicting the Emmys (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3). Currently I am 6-4 due to the fact that ten of the awards that I predicted were announced at last Saturday's Creative Emmys. Hopefully a lot more should come true later on.

6:20 p.m.- You know, you can say whatever you want about Ryan Seacrest, but you can't deny that he's really good interviewing celebrities on the red carpet. Not only is he a good interviewer, but he's also quite prepared before his interviews. Speaking of red carpet interviewers, did Billy Bush over at the NBC telecast have some kind of facelift? For some reason I just can't stop thinking of that everytime I see Bush on screen.

6:28 p.m.- As most of you may have realized, this year's Emmys is taking place much earlier (nearly a full month) than it has the last few years when it took place the same week most of the fall TV shows were having their season and/or series premieres. Turns out NBC, who has this year's turn to host the awards show, would rather show Sunday Night Football than to take a week off in September and they bumped it up on the final week of August. Personally, I think it was a smart move. After all, the NFL is ratings gold and NBC would be crazy to stop broadcasting it for some dumb awards show.

6:31 p.m.- Watching Tina Fey being interviewed by Bush. I don't understand why "30 Rock" continues to try to portray her as an ugly woman. She just keeps looking lovely everytime she's on screen. Anyways, she just said that Alec Baldwin is not here, meaning that he will not make a speech if he wins an award. Damn. I really wanted to see if he will start thanking somebody besides Fey and the writers of the show for once.

6:43 p.m.- That sound of sadness and despair that you just heard were groans from the mouths of thousands of women across the country now that they found out that Jon Hamm has a girlfriend.

6:48 p.m.- Just a little bit over ten minutes to go. With that being said, I just want to remind everyone reading this to not be mad if their favorites end up not winning an award, no matter how much they deserve it. Remember, this is the Emmys we're talking about, an award show voted on by people working in television who do not watch a lot of television. More mistakes are made at the Emmys than during the entire George W.Bush presidency. Just wanted to let you know just in case.

6:54 p.m.- With NBC hosting the Emmys, FOX is taking advantage of it by broadcating the Steelers/Broncos preseason game. I wonder which one will get more ratings?
/serious question

6:55 p.m.- Five minutes left!

6:59 p.m.- One minute left!

7:00 p.m.- And we're off...with a taped opening with this year's host Jimmy Fallon, of NBC's "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon."

7:06 p.m.- A good opening if I do say so myself. To recap: Jimmy Fallon, Tina Fey, four members of "Glee," Hurley from "Lost" and Jon Hamm went on stage to perform Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run" with Randy Jackson on guitar. It had some funny moments, it was star studded and it was very enjoyable. It also featured nice cameos of Betty White, continuing her 2010 to remember while teaching Hamm some moves in the process, and Kate Gosslein. In other words, it's so far so good here in the 2010 Emmys.

7:07 p.m.- An actual Conan sighting! On an NBC telecast! In late 2010! Who would have thought of that happening?

7:08 p.m.- So now that the opening is finished, the awards part of the show has begun quickly with Fallon introducing the comedy portion of the award with a montage of the past year in comedy TV. In case you didn't know, this awards show will be just like last year where the awards are split into five parts: the comedy awards (though the Outstanding Comedy award could come at the end), the reality awards, the variety awards, the miniseries/movie awards and the drama awards

7:12 p.m.- And the first award goes to..."Modern Family"'s Eric Stonestreet for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series! Nothing negative to say about Stonestreet. Out of all the nominees, he was the one that deserved it the most.

7:15 p.m.- Good to see Jon Hodgman back as the voiceover/color commentator guy in this year's Emmys. He's the best.

7:18 p.m.- After our first commercial break of the evening, we saw Christopher Lloyd and Steve Levitan win their awards for Best Writing in a Comedy for the "Modern Family" pilot. A month ago the two decided to split from their four year partnership while still running the show, but more as single parents than a couple (not sure how that will work, though), and you got to see an example of that broken partnership Levitan gave his acceptance speech by himself.

7:25 p.m.- Jane Lynch wins Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in one of the biggest unshocking moments of the day. I mean, you could have pretty much seen that happen when Lynch won her Golden Globe for her role on "Glee" way back in January.

7:30 p.m.- Is "Nurse Jackie" really considered a comedy? That's pretty debatable.

7:39 p.m.- Some highlights from the past nine minutes:
- Ryan Murphy wins for Best Directing in a Comedy Series for the "Glee" pilot, the second award that "Glee" has won in a span of fifteen.
- The cast of "Modern Family" appeared in was it definitely the funniest sketch of the night in which they tried different ways to make their show better which included having Stewie Griffin and George Clooney as members of the show. I wonder if we will see the cast together again on the show later on.

7:40 p.m.- So now comes the big acting awards in the comedy category. First up,the award for Best Actor, which went to Jim Parsons for his role on the "Big Bang Theory." Not much to say here. I rarely watch "The Big Bang Theory" (and I probably can't watch it at all this season with "Community" going up against them at the Thursday 7 p.m. timeslot this season), but I know that a lot of people felt that he should have won it last year instead of the winner (Alec Baldwin), so I understand why he won it this year. By the way, I'm loving that we're forty minutes in and we have yet to see any of the previous winners from last year's Emmys win an award this year. That is something you often do not see in the Emmys, who usually give out people awards just for winning one the year before.

7:43 p.m.- Geez, I know it has only been forty five minutes, but I am really tired at this point. I wish there would be something that I could this year that would let me get a nice break, kind of like when I took thirty minutes off last year to watch "Curb Your Enthusiasm." Alas!

7:45 p.m.- Edie Falco wins Best Actress in a Comedy Series for her job in "Nurse Jackie," meaning that the Emmy voters seem to take the "acting" part of this award very seriously. I still don't think "Nurse Jackie" is a comedy. Even Falco thought so too when she said that she wasn't funny.

7:47 p.m.- All right, so it appears that the Outstanding Comedy award will be announced at the end of the program. Next up...the reality awards!

7:49 p.m.- I find it interesting that NBC has not taken the opportunity yet to have most of the speakers on the Emmys from their new shows. If it was FOX, they wouldn't have even thought of getting stars from some of their rival networks' new shows. Case in point, they just had Will Arnett and Kerri Russell for FOX's upcoming new show "Running Wilde," a show I'm hoping will be funny when it starts airing, to announce the award for Outstanding Reality Competition

7:51 p.m.- Holy S&%&! "The Amazing Race" did NOT win the award for Outstanding Reality Competition! That was the first time that has ever happened in the history of this category. Looks like the Emmy voters aren't that lazy after all. It also means that we have gone a full hour so far without a repeat winner! I don't know whether to feel good about this, or shocked.

7:57 p.m.- Okay, so it appears that the award "Top Chef" won was the only reality TV award given out as the show is set to begin announcing the remaining winners of every single drama related award except for Outstanding Drama, which I'm pretty sure will come at the very end. By the way, it always amazes me that the Emmys are the only major awards show that is so strict with keeping the telecast under three hours. I just wish the Oscars and the Grammys end up doing the same thing. That way, I don't have to wait until midnight to go to sleep.

7:59 p.m.- I never watched the show, but how could the Emmys leave out "Sons of Anarchy" in the montage yet have room for "Criminal Minds" and "NCIS." Considering how "Sons of Anarchy," which I've heard is a really good show, was not nominated for a single award, is it possible that the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences have something against this show, or was it just a mistake made by the people who worked on the montage?

8:07 p.m.- Quick recap of the last ten minutes:
- Aaron Paul finally wins Oustanding Supporting Actor in a Drama. This is Paul's first win in two tries after losing last year when he probably should have won to Michael Emerson of "Lost." It's a very deserving award, who you can make the case that he did a better job acting in this season's "Breaking Bad" than Bryan Cranston, whomight winning best leading actor in a drama any minute now. Speaking of Emerson, does the fact that he didn't win mean that there is no more hope of "Lost" winning a single award this evening? Will one of the biggest TV shows of the past decade finish their final season without a single award? If the director of the series finale doesn't win in a few minutes, it looks like that just might happen.
- Matthew Weiner and Erin Levy win for Best Writing in a Drama for the "Mad Men" season 3 finale. Congrats to both. That episode, as I have said many times in the last year, was a brilliant one.

8:10 p.m.- Archie Penjabi is already off to a great start in her TV acting career after winning the Emmy for Oustanding Supporting Actress in a Drama in her first try. 1 for 1 lifetime so far. With that award and the possibility of Julianna Marguiles winning best lead actress any minute, I'm starting to wonder if I should start watching "The Good Wife."

8:13 p.m.- All right, so now comes the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. So may deserving nominees. You have the two-time defending champion (Bryan Cranston), the guys who should have already won it by now (Jon Hamm and Hugh Laurie) and the Golden Globe winner (Michael C.Hall). It can go many ways in just a few seconds.

8:15 p.m.- It's now official: Bryan Cranston has completed his three peat. He's the first actor to win this award three years in a row since, wait for it...Bill Cosby! That's right, Bill Cosby! I bet you would have never known that unless you looked it up, am I right? Anyways, a big congratulations to Cranston. Anyone who can switch from the funny "Malcolm in the Middle" to the dramatic "Breaking Bad" and complete such a rare feat like that should be acknowledged. It's too bad that the 4th season of the show won't air until summer 2011. Because of this, we won't be able to find out if Cranston can complete the first ever four-peat in this category.

8:17 p.m.- I love how NBC is trying to do the best they can to promote the hell out of "Community" in this year's Emmys. From the two Infiniti commercials with the entire cast to Betty White announcing she will guest star on the season premiere, it's really great to see that as a fan of the show, especially considering how they are going up against ratings giant "The Big Bang Theory" this season at the Thursday- 7 p.m. timeslot.

8:29 p.m.- Another Emmy award for "Dexter," this time to Steve Shill for Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series for "The Getaway." After Shill's acceptance speech, Fallon just did a parody of the "In Memorian" speech in which he said goodbye to "24," "Law and Order," and "Lost." Kudos for the quick wardrobe change in that part of the show. And...that's pretty much all that happened in the past twelve minute. Commercial time.

8:30 p.m.- Halfway through the 2010 Emmy award. In about a few minutes, we will have the miniseries/movie awards and the variety awards followed by Outstanding Comedy and Outstanding Drama (in that order, I assume), with George Clooney getting an honorary award in between. You know, I gotta be honest in saying that I was a little worried with Fallon as host before the show, but he has really done a good job in proving me wrong. Then again, maybe that's just because he's been singing for most of his time on camera and not making his boring and unfunny jokes that he does on "Late Night." Did I mention that I'm not a fan of his late night show?

8:32 p.m.- Okay awards show so far, but if there's one thing I do think they should stop is the Twitter stuff. Sorry Fallon, but it's just not working out.

8:33 p.m.- And...we have our first surprise of the night! In a category where Glenn Close and Julianna Margulies are nominated, Kyra Sedgwick wins the Emmy for Oustanding Actress in a Drama Series. Then again, maybe I shouldn't be surprised. People have been talking about Sedgwick's great acting on "The Closer" for years, so the fact that it took her this long to win her first Emmy is a little bit confusing.

8:37 p.m.- Talkin' 'bout a montage! (Montage!)

8:40 p.m.- Wait, writing for an awards show wins an award on a different awards show? My brain hurts.

8:41 p.m.- Another funny Infiniti commerical with the cast of"Community"! Now, I really am pumped up for the season premiere.

8:47 p.m.- Some classic Ricky Gervais as the Emmys are back from commercial. He makes fun of Mel Gibson and gives the audience free beer in just a two minute span. He has now officially replaced Stephen Colbert as my favorite award presenter at Emmys. Now, if only he could do a better job HOSTING an awards show, that would make things even better.

8:49 p.m.- Bucky Gunts FTW!

8:52 p.m.- All right, this is it: Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series. Will "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" actually win the award and give the folks at NBC a panic attack?

8:53 p.m.- Nope. The award goes once again to "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart." So it appears the mini-crisis at NBC has been averted now that O'Brien didn't win the award. I still think it would have been quite a site seeing O'Brien accept the award. Quite a site for a television awards show, that is. But "The Daily Show" did deserve it, though. After all, I did have them as my #1 favorite TV in most of this year's TV top tens.

9:03 p.m.- Former "ER" star and one of the world's few super famous movie stars alive, George Clooney, receives the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award, whatever that is. Clooney is the 4th person to ever receive this award and the only person so far to get a standing ovation. By the way, when was the last time Clooney has ever been on the Emmys? This has to have been his first time since the "ER" days, right?

9:06 p.m.- One more hour to go and the Emmys have finally begun with the miniseries/TV movie awards. While it has been pretty much written in ink since the halfway point of their run that "The Pacific" will win best miniseries, it should be interesting to see who wins best TV movie. I'm just gonna go ahead and stick with my prediction that "You Don't Know Jack" will win it, but that could change any minute.

9:21 p.m.- After the miniseries/movie supporting acting awards were given out, Jewel came on stage to sing while the "In Memoriam" part of the program was taking place. Dennis Hopper seemed to receive the most applause while the Executive Producer of "Roots," David L.Wolper, was the surprising closer. Overall, it was a good fifteen minutes to take a nice, relaxing breather.

9:22 p.m.- Did Jimmy Deans sausage purposely buy a commercial spot on the Emmys right after the real Jimmy Dean was honored in the "In Memoriam" part of the show? I'm guessing that's a yes.

9:31 p.m.- More miniseries/movie awards! The quick recap:
- Claire Danes wins Outstanding Actress for her role in "Temple Grandin," and took the time in her acceptance speech to thank the actual Temple Grandin, who stood up and waved back at her.
- Adam Mazer, Neal Nicol and Harry Wylie for their writing in "You Dont' Know Jack." I'm guessing that since it beat two episodes of "The Pacific" for that award, it's going to win best TV movie for sure.

9:36 p.m.- Uh oh, Mick Jackson won the award for Outstanding Directing in a Miniseries/TV Movie for "Temple Grandin," giving us Temple Grandin's second moment on camera in the past fifteen minutes and has become the show's star of the evening. Maybe "You Don't Know Jack" isn't a shoe-in to win after all.

9:38 p.m.- The best TV movie award is getting a lot more interesting now that Al Pacino has won Best Actor for his acting in "You Don't Know Jack." To recap: "You Don't Know Jack" won best writing and best actor while "Temple Grandin" won best actress and best directing. I have no idea why I have become so interested in seeing who wins this now, but I have.

9:41 p.m.- Wow, Pacino is really going down in flames in his speech! Why isn't he being played out? Does the fact that he's a movie star mean that he's too big to being played out? And why am I asking so much questions all of a sudden?

9:42 p.m.- I have no idea why, but I am more energized with twenty minutes and about five more awards to go then I was an hour and a half ago. Just thought I should let you know.

9:45 p.m.- Laurence Fishburne is presenting the award for Outstanding Miniseries. I have a strong urge to make a joke about his porn actress daughter, but I just won't. I'm sure he has suffered enough with this at this point.

9:46 p.m.- In an absolutely predictable announcement, "The Pacific" wins for Outstanding Miniseries. Now, here comes the award for Outstanding Made for TV Movie. Who's it going it be: "Temple Grandin"? or "You Don't Know Jack"? I really am at the edge of my seat at this point.

9:48 p.m.- And the winner is..."Temple Grandin"! What a close finish! And what an emotional speech! Definitely one of the best moments of the night.

9:50 p.m.- All right, so Jimmy Fallon has announced that the winners of the last two awards, Outstanding Comedy and Outstanding Drama, will be told very shortly. I still think it's going to be "Mad Men" and "Modern Family," but then again you just never know for certain with these types of awards. For all we know the Emmy voters could have voted for "30 Rock" out of pure laziness.

9:52 p.m.- Fallon announces that the first of the two awards to be given out is Outstanding Drama. Tom Selleck is the presenter for the award and he announces that the winner is..."Mad Men"! For the third year in a row! A much deserving win for them, in my opinion. But then again, you already know that by my continuous praise of the show in the last twelve months.

By the way, while we're discussing dramas, I'm a little bit surprised that "Lost" didn't come out of this year's show without a single award. Usually shows of their caliber come out of their final season with at least one Primetime Emmy award. I'm guessing that that possibility came to an end once Emerson lost to Paul for Outstanding Supporting Actor.

9:54 p.m.- Last commercial break of the evening, which will lead up to the final award: Outstanding Comedy. So, who's it going to be? Will it be one of the new shows, like "Glee" or "Modern Family", some of the veteran shows like "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "The Office," or will "30 Rock" win yet again for the fourth year in a row? We shall soon find out. By the way, it is just me or did Jon Hodgman stop being the color commentator of the Emmys for the past fifteen minutes?

9:55 p.m.- I just found out that I am 16-12 in my Emmy predictions from July with only one more award to go. The good news: it was a much better record than I thought it would be after the Creative Emmys in which I went 6-4. The bad news: it's a big drop from last year when I went 18-5. Hopefully next year's picks will go much better.

9:56 p.m.- The final presenter of the show is Ted Danson. He tells everyone of the nominees. He opens the envelope. And the winner is...

9:58 p.m.- MODERN FAMILY! Sorry, "Glee." You may have had the hype machine going strong all year, but it just wasn't enough to take home the big prize. As for the winner...look, I'm not as big of a fan of the show as a lot of other people are and you can look back at the blog archives for reasons why. Sure their were some episodes that I thought were laugh out loud funny and I have watched all of their episodes this season, but I would still argue that the best comedies of the '09-'10 TV season were either "Parks and Recreations" or "Community." However, out of all of this year's nominees, it was the one that deserved it the most for bringing back the traditional family sitcom (minus the laughtrack), their terrific cast and for their stellar PG-rating writing. Also, "Glee" stinks, I'm tired of seeing "30 Rock" win all the time and "The Office" had one of its worst seasons in years.

By the way, how great must it feel to be an executive at ABC right now. Sure you may have placed third in the ratings this past year, all of your new dramas from last year were canceled and "Lost" wrapped up its six year run. But at least they can claim that they have an Emmy award winning comedy that's also ratings gold, which is one thing that none of the other broadcast networks can say.

9:59 p.m.- As Jimmy Fallon signs off for the 2010 Emmys and the closing credits start rolling with some of the night's highlights, it's time for me to sign off from this live blog. And I gotta say, it was a pretty darn...decent. Fallon hosted pretty well, there wasn't a lot of awkward moments (except for maybe the Pacino acceptance speech), there was suspense (especially when Outstanding Made For TV Movie and Outstanding Comedy was announced) ,"Mad Men" won Outstanding Drama for the third year in row (an possibly their last considering the fact that some supposedly good shows like "Boardwalk Empire" and "The Walking Dead" are set to premiere this year), "Breaking Bad" took the biggest acting awards, only two of winners announced were repeats of last year (Outstanding Drama for "Mad Men" and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama for Bryan Cranston) which proved that there has been a changing of the guard in the TV universe and that the Emmy voters aren't as lazy as we thought, a show not named "Glee" won Outstanding Comedy, there was a Conan O'Brien sighting on NBC (even if it was for just five seconds) and I finished over .500 in my picks. Simply put, it was a nice end to what was a fantastic 2009-2010 TV season.

Anyways, thanks to everyone who read this entire post. It takes skills to endure such terrible writing like this (though I think I did much better than last year) and I thank you for that. Now, if you will excuse me, I'm going to end this night the right way: by watching the now three time Emmy award winning "Mad Men." Thank God this is the Emmys with their strict three hour long time limit or else I would probably have to wait a full day to watch it the next time.

Sincerely,
Your pal: mj15

(UPDATE 09/20/11: Wanna read more Emmys live blog? Click here for my 2011 live blog!)

If you have any opinions on today's post, or if you want to suggest anything to mj15 for his next blog entry (tips, perhaps?), e-mail him at: mj1599@aol.com. Your e-mails are greatly appreciated.

End of the Week: 08/22/10- 08/28/10...and An Announcement

END OF THE WEEK:

I want to start things off with an announcement. Tomorrow night, there is a very good chance that I might be live blogging this year's Primetime Emmy awards on my MySpace site. I just figured that since I did it last year and spent three posts back in July giving my predictions on it, I might as well go ahead and give it the special live blog treatment that I have only done for two different events in this site's history. Like last year, I will start covering the show between 6:30 p.m-6:45 p.m. and will finish just as the final award (most likely Outstanding Drama) will be given out. While I give my updates and opinions on the things going on, be sure to stop by and join in the fun as well.
Now, I say "very good chance" because I am still not 100% sure if I will be doing the live blog in the first place. I got some stuff going on tomorrow and I'm not sure if I will be able to finish doing it all before the award show. In that is to be case, expect some kind of a running diary post similar to the ones Bill Simmons does after every NBA draft and like my White Sox game diary post I back in August of '09. So be sure to come back tomorrow evening and find out what happens.
With that said, it's time for another installment of "End of the Week." From Glenn Beck to Tiger Wood's divorce, here are my picks for some of the week's bests. Enjoy.

Video of the Week: IT'S A TIE! Looks like the comedy website College Humor.com gave the Internet this past week two videos that were both really good in their respective ways. They are:

"I Am Afraid (Eminem Parody)"
Good video, but the guy forgot about parrots. A bird that can mimick human sound and looks like the bastard child of an eagle and a peacock? It's just not right.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

AND
"Don Draper's College Orientation"
Give the guy a break! It's not his fault he was taken away from the 1950s and has to adjust to 21st century life so quickly!

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Rally of the Week: Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" Rally
I don't want to say that there was a lot of white people, but I haven't seen so many of them flock in big numbers to watch something was the last episode of "Friends."

Story of the Week:
-The Actual Story of the Week: The Trapped Chilean Miners Story
- The Tiger Woods Saga of '09 Memorial Story of the Week: Tiger Woods-Elin Nordegren Divorce Finalized
According to some reports, Nordergen should receive somewhere between $100 million to $750 million in the settlements. So, kids, let this be a lesson to you: instead of trying to become wealthy the right way through hard work and discipline, just marry a really rich person without signing a prenup and hope that person cheats on you.

Person of the Week: Glenn Beck
Love him or hate him, you gotta give this guy some credit where credit is due. After all, how many people can actually convince tens of thousands of (white) men and women across the country to come to Washington D.C. in a place where 47 years ago Dr. Martin Luther king held his famous "I Have a Dream" speech just to hold some rally about...something? Not many, that's for sure.

And that's the way it is! Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and I will see you again tomorrow night...I think.
Sincerely,
Your pal: mj15




If you have any opinions on today's post, or if you want to suggest anything to mj15 for his next blog entry (tips, perhaps?), e-mail him at: mj1599@aol.com. Your e-mails are greatly appreciated.

Random Thoughts: 08/16/10 - 08/23/10

RANDOM THOUGHTS:

The following mostly TV related thoughts were on my mind between Monday, August 16th and Monday, August 23rd:

- Well, it's been two and a half months and with the Emmys approaching and summer coming to an end, I think it's time for another edition of the TV top ten. Yessir, one of my favorite quarterly segments on this blog is back and this time, I'm ranking my ten favorite shows to air this past summer. So don't get too upset if some of the shows that went on hiatus in April or May are not on this list. Here we go:
10 (tie). "The Simpsons" (still #10)
10 (tie). "Tosh.O"
10 (tie). "The Office" (down from #8)
9. "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (position previously held by "Fringe")
8. "Rubicon" (position previously held by "The Office")
7. "The Soup" (position previously held by "American Dad")
6. "30 for 30" (position previously held by "Treme")
5. "Treme" (up from #6, position previously held by "Community")
4. "The Colbert Report" (position previously held by "Breaking Bad")
3. "Louie" (position previously held by "Parks and Recreations")
2. "Mad Men" (position previously held by "The Pacific")
1. "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" (still #1)

Up from Last List (June 2010): "Tosh. O," "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson," "Rubicon," "The Soup," "30 for 30," "Treme," "The Colbert Report," "Mad Men," "Louie."
Down from Last List (June 2010): "The Office," "The Pacific," "Parks and Recreations," "Breaking Bad," "Community," "American Dad," "Fringe"
New from Last List (June 2010): Eight out of the twelve shows listed are either first timers or back after a long time off of it. The few shows that were on the last list are "The Simpsons," "The Daily Show," "Treme" and "The Office."
Just Barely Missed List: "Royal Pains," "The Late Show with David Letterman," "Community," "Parks and Recreations," "Futurama"

Some notes:
a. Out of all the new shows that premiered this summer, my favorite out of all of them has been "Louie," the new comedy from the mind of the great comedian Louis C.K. It's kind of like "Curb Your Enthusiasm," but with more heartfelt moments and about a divorcee with children, and I loved every episode.
b. I just couldn't leave "The Office" off the list. It would be just wrong.
c. You know it's summer when shows like "The Soup" and "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" get in. No offense to the shows (in fact, I love them), but it's just that this would be the only time it would have gotten on the list.
d. The decision between whether "30 for 30" or "Treme" should get he #5 spot was the one that I had the most problems. I ended up choosing "Treme" because I loved all of their episodes in june while I only watched 2/3 of the "30 for 30" specials that aired this past summer ("The Birth of Big Air" and "June 17th, 1994") and only one of the two I liked (the latter).
e. Didn't watched "True Blood" or "Burn Notice" this summer, so of course I couldn't put them on the list or mention them on the list.
f. Shows to expect on the next list (sometime in November or December): at least 60% of the shows on the June 2010 list, "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," and a few new shows like "Boardwalk Empire" which I hear it pretty good.

- So let me get this straight, Sarah Palin: you wanted Rahm Emanuel fired because he allegedly said retard but when Dr. Laura said the n-word 11 times in a five minute span, you supported her? I swear, the more I hear her the more I want to punch McCain in the face for making her famous.

- Well, the annual Creative Emmys were held this past Saturday. For those of your unfamiliar with it, it's basically just like the Emmys but it's untelevised and more awards. But don't worry, it's just as silly and has as many frauds as the other, much bigger Emmys cermony (this Sunday, by the way). Ten winners of the twenty nine awards I gave my predictions on back in July were announced on that awards show. All I can say is, I wasn't the Nostradamus type I was after last year's creative Emmys. Here's the recap of those ten categories with a W and L symbolizing whether I picked that winner to win or not:
Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series: Betty White as "SNL" host (W)
Outstanding Animated Program: Disney's "Prep & Landing" (L)
Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series: John Lithgow as Arthur Mitchell in "Dexter" (W)
Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series: Neil Patrick Harris as Bryan Ryan in "Glee" (W)
Outstanding Nonfiction Series: "The National Parks: America's Best Ideas" (W)
Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Series: Barry Julien, Stephen Colbert, Allison Silverman, Tom Purcell, Rich Dahm, Michael Brumm, Rob Dubin, Opus Moreschi, Peter Gwinn, Jay Katsir, Frank Lesser, Peter Grosz, Glenn Eichler, Meredith Scardino, Max Werner and Eric Drysdale: "The Colbert Report"- "#5076 (in Iraq)" (L)
Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special: "The Kennedy Center Honors" (L) (Note: probably should stop overlooking it whenever I make a pick in this category)
Outstanding Reality Show Program: "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution" (L)
Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality Competition Program: Jeff Probst as host of "Survivor" (W)
Outstanding Commercial: Old Spice's "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" (W)

That's a 6-4 record if you weren't counting at home. Hopefully my percentage will improve when the big show airs this Sunday.

- My other YouTube comments section pet peeve: the people bashing Justin Bieber when commenting on a song. I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying that it's happening everywhere now and it's making me sick. Try to write something original in the comments next time.

- When a show like "Flash Forward" receives more Emmys in one season than "The Wire" had in their entire five season run (1>0), you know that the Emmys are a joke.

- I wonder how Lesli Linka Glatter directed the Sally Draper masturbation scene on this week's "Mad Men" episode. Did she just say to Kiernan Shipka, the eleven year old who plays Sally, directly "look, just pretend you're mastubating"? Or did she just say to pull up her skirt and make a funny face? Either way, I'm pretty sure it must have been uncomfortable for her to direct that scene.

More random thoughts to come next Monday! Enjoy your week, everyone!
Sincerely,
Your pal: mj15

If you have any opinions on today's post, or if you want to suggest anything to mj15 for his next blog entry (tips, perhaps?), e-mail him at: mj1599@aol.com. Your e-mails are greatly appreciated.

End of the Week: 08/15/10- 08/21/10

END OF THE WEEK:

Happy Sunday everybody and I apologize once again for the day late post. But don't worry, starting football season I promise to minimize the amount of Sunday post to as much as possible. Anyways, it's time for another installment of "End of the Week." As usual, these are my picks for some of the week's bests. As always, I hope you enjoy.

Song of the Week: Cee-Lo's "F*** You" (Note: NSFW language, though it should be obvious from the title)

Look, if you're not a fan of songs with a lot of bad language, then this song is not for you. Otherwise, it's a pretty catchy song that so good, it's been going around all over the Internet. At least it's better than some of the new songs you hear over the radio.

Stories of the Week:
-The Actual Story of the Week: Last US Combat Troops Leave Iraq; Operation Iraqi Freedom Is Over
So...did we win?
- The Tiger Woods Saga of '09 Memorial Story of the Week: Tila Tequila Attacked at the Gathering of the Juggalos Festival
I'm blaming this one on the death of ASS DAN (1981-2009). May he rest in peace
/gratuitous 'SNL' reference

Video of the Week: "BBC Weatherman Shows Middle Finger on Camera"
Not a very great week in viral videos, so this one will do just fine. If you watch the video closely, it looks like he's saying "f-you!" then having a stroke in less than a second. Also, with the Cee-Lo song and this, it looks like this was quite a week for the F-Word.




Person of the Week: Musician Nick Pittsinger

for turning one of Justin Bieber's boring, uninspiring songs it into an out of this world 30 minute epic. A few days ago, the 20 year old aspiring musician and producer Pittsinger posted on the hosting site SoundCloud his version of the new Bieber single titled "U Smile." But instead of simply remixing it, Pittsinger decided on slowing it down 800x, turning the song from four minute in length to 35 minutes in length. What comes out of it is some eerie beauty transported through your hearing waves. Take a listen:

J. BIEBZ - U SMILE 800% SLOWER by Shamantis

Pretty awesome, huh? It's like something out of the "2001: A Space Odyssey" soundtrack with it's weird yet beautiful flow, or like something angels would sing when you go up to the pearly gates of heaven. It can also move you, make you wonder or freak you out if you're stoned. Basically, it's the complete opposite of the forgettable 4 minute original and something that even non-Bieber fans can enjoy listening to. So I honor you, Mr. Pittsinger. Even if you don't become a famous and super rich producer later on in your life as you probably hope to be someday, you will always have the credit of giving the world such a brilliant thing such as this.

Another week, another seven days you can't ever get back. Enjoy the end of your Sunday, everybody! Hopefully, we have another classic episode of "Mad Men" in a few hours.

Sincerely,
Your pal: mj15




If you have any opinions on today's post, or if you want to suggest anything to mj15 for his next blog entry (tips, perhaps?), e-mail him at: mj1599@aol.com. Your e-mails are greatly appreciated.

Random Thoughts: 08/09/10 - 08/16/10

RANDOM THOUGHTS:

The following were on my mind between Monday, August 9th and Monday, August 16th:

-Last year at this time I decided to give you my ten most anticipated movies from August of 2009 to July of 2010. A pretty interesting list looking back since 1/3 of the movies I ended up not liking and 1/3 of them I didn't see at all. Anyways, it was fun making that list and I decided on doing again this year. The following are the movies expected to be released between August 2010 and July 2011 that I am anticipating for the most, now extended from ten to thirteen this time;

13. "Machete" (09/03/2010)
I've never been a big fan of the films of Robert Rodriguez. But the trailer does look epic and makes the film quite promising. It's also got quite a good cast with some good stars like Danny Trejo, Jessica Alba and Robert de Niro. This is also the first movie Quentin Tarantino has been involved in since "Inglourious Basterds." And if Quentin Tarantino's involved in something, you know that there's a 85% chance that it will be good.

12. "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" (05/20/2011)
Just when you thought we would never see Captain Jack Sparrow on the big screen ever again, he comes right back...along with the whole 'POTC' franchise. In this one, Johnny Depp's famous character gets aboard Captain Blackbeard's famous Queen Ann's Revenge on a quest to search for the legendary Fountain of Youth and dealing with an ex-lover named Angelica. There's going to be quite a few differences in this film compared to the last three, with both Orlando Bloom and Kiera Knightley both not in the movie. But it does have Penelope Cruz playing Sparrow's ex-lover and Ian McShane playing Blackbeard, so it should make things interesting and add some new spice to the franchise. Plus the first three were pretty good, so I'm expected another good one the next time around.

11. "Cowboys and Aliens" (07/29/2011)

A Steven Spielberg production of a Jon Favreau film is already making me interested. Add in the fact that Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford are the main actors and that it's about 1800s Arizona cowboys fighting aliens, then all you basically need is a good script and some good reviews and you got my butt in the movie theaters to watch
it.

10. "Green Lantern" (06/17/2011)

I don't understand why people rush to conclusions whether or not an actor is the right fit playing a superhero. When it was announced that Heath Ledger would be playing The Joker in "The Dark Knight," many
people thought that he just wasn't the right fit. But then when they sawhis Oscar winning performance as the Joker, people never doubted that move ever again. The same thing happened again when it was announed that
Seth Rogen will be playing The Green Hornet and that Ryan Reynolds would star as Green Lantern in this movie. Is it too much to just wait and see whether it was the right choice before jumping to conclusions? Anyways, I think this movie should be pretty good, what with the director of "Casino Royale" doing the movie. It has the chance to be pretty gritty.

9. "Sucker Punch" (03/25/2011)

In what is to be his fourth live action film after previously making great movies like the "Dawn of the Dead" remake and "300" as wellas the mix reviewed "Watchmen" (I thought it was okay, but would've
been better as an HBO miniseries), Zac Snyder is back with the film thatproducers of the film call "Alice in Wonderland" with machine guns, including dragons, B-52 bombers and brothels. That description alone is making my mouth drool. The plot is a little bit more complicated, however, with imaginary worlds, mental institutions, lobotomy and a hyper real world where the main character's fake world and real world begin to blur together. It's got a pretty good cast that includes Jon Hamm, Jena Malone and some of my generation's top actresses thus far like Vanessa Hudgens and Emily Browning. And, my God, does the trailer for the movie look awesome! In other words, I expect it to be at least a B- movie when I watch it.

8. "The Town" (09/17/2010)
Thanks to his performance on "Mad Men," Jon Hamm has become my Stephen Strasburg of acting. I want to see every project he's involved in these days, including this one which is his first major movie role in his career. Hamm plays an FBI agent who is trying to stop some of the top bank robbers in the town of Charlestown, Massachusetts. It's also got Blake Lively, Jeremy Renner from "The Hurt Locker," Rebecca Hall and Ben Affleck as the star, the writer and the director of the film. It's about a month away from releasing, and it's already got some Oscar buzz going around. Should be an interesting one.

7. "Due Date" (11/05/2010)
Judging from the trailer, this movie has the potential as being one really awesome comedy. Some of the parts in the trailer are simply hilarious, it's got Zach Galifinakis who's been on a roll in terms of the funny since "The Hangover" and Robert Downey Jr. who's a great actor in almost every movie he's in, especially comedies. To add chocolate syrup on that delicious sundae, Todd Phillips is directing it in his first movie since "The Hangover." This has the potential to be the funniest movie of the year, and I wanna see it.

6. "Captain America: The First Avenger" (07/22/2011)
I can't believe it's taken this long to make a movie of one of the most popular comic book characters of all time. In fact, I still can't believe how Fantastic Four and Daredevil movies came out before a Captain America one. Still, I'm glad that the wait will come to an end very soon and I feel that this could be a good one. Hopefully, Chris Evans was the right pick for Captain America.

5. "Kung Fu Panda 2: The Kaboom of Doom" (05/26/2011)
I loved the first Kung Fu Panda movie. It was funny, it was quirky and it had some good heartfelt moments. If it weren't for "Wall-E," I'm still convinced it would have won an Oscar. Hopefully the second movie hasn't lost any of that charm from the first one as another Dreamworks' sequel, "Madagascar 2," did.

4. "Thor" (05/06/2011)
2011 promises to be quite the year for the superhero film genre. It all starts in January with "The Green Hornet" staring Seth Rogen. Then in the summer comes a whole mob of superhero movies from another "X-Men" movie to "Green Lantern" to even "Captain America" at last. And yet, none of these movies are as anticipated by comic book nerds and movie fans alike then this movie, based on the comic books of the Greek God of thunder. It's set to be the first major blockbuster of the 2011 summer movie season and it has Kenneth Branagh as director. Branagh is famous for being the director of some notable Shakespeare movies from Henry V to Hamlet, so this could be more than just an action movie and more of a thinking man's superhero movie like "The Dark Knight." The one question mark lies in Australian actor Chris Hensworth playing Thor, but with a year of so many new actor playing superheroes next time, that will be a question that will be asked many times.

3. "True Grit" (12/25/2010)
It's an adaptation of the 1969 film starring John Wayne. Only this time's it's directed by the Coen Brothers with reigning Academy Award winning actor Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon staring, so it already promises to be as good or better than the original. It's also got Josh Brolin in it, who's been quite the lucky charm for films trying to get nominated for an Academy Award. However, the fact that the Coen Brothers are directing is already giving this movie Oscar buzz and is making me think that just maybe the two will create another great classic. So, yeah, I'm pretty much hyped up for this. A lot.

2. "The Hangover 2" (05/26/2011)
The thing I'm going to be most interesting in seeing this is how funny the movie will be compared to the awesome first movie, which was the funniest movie of 2009, earned over $200 million domestically and won the Golden Glove for Best Comedy. I expect the box office money to be much bigger, but I'm not sure if the quality will be the same. It's been seen over the years that sequels to great comedies have not done well. Take "Caddyshack 2" for example, or the second "Airplane" movie. Will this movie be another example of history repeating itself, or will it be another huge success? We shall find out very soon.

1. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I and II" (11/19/2010 and 07/15/2011 respectively)
Well, this is it. After nine years, and billions of dollars in the box office, the final adaptation of a Harry Potter book will finally hit theaters in two parts ,with part one premiering this winter and part two premiering this summer. Now, since the book hit the stands three years ago, there's no point in guessing what will happen except if you're too lazy to read the book. Let's just hope that David Yates can do a good job putting the final book into the big screen to his best abilities. And with the movie being two parts, he has no excuses not getting the details right. With that said, it's gonna be real sad seeing part II in theaters next summer knowing that this will be the last time we get to see Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint among others on the big screens performing the stories of one of the most popular book characters of the past fifteen years. It really will.

-How is it that for the last two seasons, whenever Justin Morneau has been on the disabled list, the Twins played better when he was gone than in the weeks before his injury? Last year when Morneau was out at the end of the season they came back from a large deficit to win the division over the Tigers in a one game playoff. This year, after Morneau was out before the All Star Game, they have had the best record during that span and now are leading the AL Central by three games over the White Sox. It's crazy.

- Brett Favre is now becoming the mid 2000s version of Roger Clemens. I'm afraid that the only thing these days that could get him out of football for good is if he is accused of using steroids.

- I'm starting to hate the YouTube comments sections these days. The worst part about it is the reading the comments from people who are pissed out that a miniscule number of people voted "dislike" on a certain video they like. Oh, what's this? 27 people don't like Metallica's "Orion"?!?! Let me just write down how I want all those 27 people dead and maybe get a few +1s from other commenters! Look, it may shock you, but there are some people who have different opinions on clip and videos than you. Some people who rather do stuff like listening to Lady Gaga than Pink Floyd. So please, respect those people...no matter how wrong they are or how much of a bad taste they may be. (Counterpoint: it does give you a better chance of you getting a "highest rated comment" honor. At least that's what happened to me)

- It's nice to see that Bill Simmons can still write some good columns. This may have been the first non-mailbag column I liked since the Wrestlemania 26 game diary (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/100813)

- Seven men within a shot of the lead for most of the final round, a major choke by the third round leader, a three hole playoff to decide the whole thing and a controversial call/major gaffe in the final hole that cost a guy a shot at joining the three hole playoff...who said that this year's PGA championship wouldn't be exciting if Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson weren't in contention?

More random thoughts to come next Monday same time, same place. Enjoy the start of your week, everyone!
Sincerely,
Your pal: mj15

If you have any opinions on today's post, or if you want to suggest anything to mj15 for his next blog entry (tips, perhaps?), e-mail him at: mj1599@aol.com. Your e-mails are greatly appreciated.

End of the Week: 08/08/10- 08/14/10

END OF THE WEEK:

Let's get straight into this. The following are my picks for some of the best moments the past seven days. Enjoy.

Video of the Week: "10 Year Old Opera Singer Jackie Evancho Sings on 'America's Got Talent'"
This past Tuesday, the hit NBC summer show "America's Got Talent" decided to do something differently. Instead of continuing with this season's competition, they had some of the best never-before seen talents that submitted videos to them through YouTube perform on the show. After the show, it turned out that the one performance that stood out was by none other than Jackie Evancho, a 10 year old from Pittsburgh with her brilliant Susan Boyle-esque singing. Well done Jackie, and hope to see you with a nice singing career ahead. She's already off to a great start!







Stories of the Week:
-The Actual Story of the Week: The Possible Google-Verizon Deal
Some people are calling this the end of the Internet as we know it. And you know what, they're probably right. A few days back, the New York Times reported a possible deal between Google and Verizon, which previously worked together to create the Google Android Phone, which would all allow Verizon customers to speed up some online content from Google to their Internet users much quicker if they are willing to pay for that privilege. Why is this apocalyptic you ask? Well, because it could end a once-sacred Internet policy called net neutrality.

Net neutrality, for those that are unfamiliar, basically means that no form of the Internet is favored over another and that all Internet content is allowed to run at the same speed as others. It has been that way since the beginning of the Internet, but with this deal it could all change. With this deal, it could be the start of an Internet similar to cable and satellite TV where Internet service providers like Verizon, AT&T and Comcast among others can pick and choose websites to be on different packages or run on different speeds than others. This is a big problem since it could raise cost to use the Internet and with pretty much all TV, radio, phone and other service about to all be run through an Internet connection, it could mean a complete takeover of the Internet from corporations where it is currently free and open to everyone. So this will basically impact everyone in the future.

So far, there are hopes of it not happening, thankfully. Currently, the deal hasn't been official yet from both sides. There are also some big supporters of Net Neutrality in Wahington from Nancy Pelosi to Al Franken to even the President himself, though the court decision a while back with stated that the F.C.C. can't refrain Internet providers from blocking and slowing down some content and the fact that Congress is slowly being controlled by corps. could cause some problems. But for now, it does look like this deal will come into effect. And if it does, then I feel that the era f the Wild West Internet that we all know and love will come to an end very soon.

- The Tiger Woods Saga of '09 Memorial Story of the Week: JetBlue Flight Attendant Slides Down Plane With Beer After Fight With Passenger
There was a great quote this past season on "Mad Men" with Roger Sterling saying: "My father used to say to me that this is the greatest job in the world except for one thing. The client." Apparently this Steven Slater guy was tired of that old saying. Really tired! Pretty cool story, though.

Hoax Story of the Week: Woman Quits Job Via Dry Erase Board
This week was about to become the week of creative job quits. First came the Steven Slater. The second one came from a website called The Chive who reported a story of this girl named Jenny who quit her job by sending 33 e-mails to her workers with 33 messages written on a dry erase marker saying that she's quitting her job and how bad her boss was. The story immediately took off across the country with publication across the country from Yahoo to the the NY Post and received over 105,000 "likes" on Facebook. But that was before one man, Peter Kafka, a writer for The Wall Street Journal's All Things D grew suspicious, saying:

"The story showed up this morning on theChive.com, a dude-centric site
run by brothers John and Leo Resig, who own a series of photo/humor
sites [...] Before that, the Resigs ran a site called Derober, which
features doctored photos of celebrities in their underwear.

And Derober's moment in the spotlight came back in December 2007,
when it made up a story about Donald Trump leaving a $10,000 tip on a
$82.27 bill. The story was convincing enough to fool Fox News and the
New York Post (both of which are owned by News Corp., which also owns
this site).

So Jenny is a fake, too. Right, Leo Resig?

No, Resig says over the phone. "Jenny's very real."

However, over the past few days it soon surfaced that Mr. Resig was indeed lying. On Wednesday, the Jenny from the story returned to The Chive, saying that the past 24 hours have been surreal, saying that her actual name is Elyse Porterfield, not Jenny, and that this story was indeed a hoax by the website, confirming the day long suspicions of the story. Still, you gotta give credit to The Chive.com for creating such a good quitting story. After all, it was reported in such a perfect time, nearly hours after the story of Steven Slater first came out.

Person of the Week: Steven Slater
for actually being so mad with a passenger that he went and cussed that person out in front of the rest of the plane's passengers, announce that he was quitting his job as flight attendant on Jet Blue, grab some beers, open up the plane's emergency slide, slide down and away from the plane only to get arrested an hour later after police found him having sex with his boyfriend and having no regrets doing so. Not only did that took great guts but it was an inspirational moment to anyone working in a job that was tired of all of their jobs clients, customers and the work itself. It was also something that many people who traveled on a plane with an annoying passenger can relate and, though the videotapes later proved that the escape from the plane wasn't as epic as most thought it would be, it was still pretty original. Now, he's an American hero who is adored by millions and might also get a reality show out of it where the day before he was just a nobody. Not bad for someone who spent twenty years working in the flight industry if I might add.

And that's the way it was! Hope you enjoyed your week, but now it's time to start a new one.
Sincerely,
Your pal: mj15




If you have any opinions on today's post, or if you want to suggest anything to mj15 for his next blog entry (tips, perhaps?), e-mail him at: mj1599@aol.com. Your e-mails are greatly appreciated.

NFL Offseason Check-up: The 2010 Preseason

The preseason finally began this past Sunday as it has been for years now with the annual Hall of Fame game in Canton, Ohio. It finished with the Dallas Cowboys beating the Cincinnati Bengals 16-7. As usual, it was nothing short of a bore fest. Only the first thirty minutes were at least somewhat entertaining with Al Michaels announcing this year's Pro Football Hall of Fame class and the projected starters for both teams playing two or three possessions. The next two and a half hours or so were just filled with second stringers, third stringers, rookies, scrubs, rookie scrubs and guys who won't make the team by month's end while NBC distracted the remaining viewers from this bore fest by interviewing the new Hall of Famers.

In a way, you can use this to describe EVERY preseason game. And yet, the Hall of Fame game is still one of my favorite times of the year as a fan of the NFL and football itself. Why you ask? Simple, because actual NFL football is back. To me, it makes up for every negative side of the preseason (like the fact that it's a worthless game for everyone except for the coaches trying to make up the 53 man roster this upcoming September, played mostly by people who won't start this season and that it does more harm to the teams with the injuries it causes than it helps them)

It's the reason why nearly ten million people tuned in to watch the Hall of Fame game. It's the reason hundreds flock to training camps of their favorite team. For nearly six months since Commissioner Roger Goodell handed the Vince Lombardi trophy to Sean Payton and the New Orleans Saints after Super Bowl XLIV, there hasn't been a single NFL game with the Arena Football League and the Canadian Football League as boring distractions (though I do give thanks to the CFL for their great TD celebrations to come out of their the last five seasons, like this one and this one). But this Sunday was different. This Sunday the NFL was back with a game. Yes, it was a preseason game, but it was an NFL game nonetheless, with the team logos and everything.

The other glass half-full thing about the NFL preseason is that this is the first time you get to things things like old faces in new places and a preview of some of the biggest storylines to come when the real show starts on September 9th. So to wrap this pretty pointless post , here are ten things that I will be most looking forward to when watching highlights and the occasional live games during the next four weeks (in no particular order):

1. Brett Favre

August, such a simple time. It's the hottest month of the whole year in the Northern Hemisphere, the dogdays of the baseball season, the beginning of the school years for most students and, for the third year in a row, the third year in a row in which an NFC North team is held hostage by good ole' #4 Brett Favre. For the second year in a row now, it's none other than the Minnesota Vikings, a team desperate to have Favre on their team that they would actually make him the highest player in the league in order to not have Tavaris Jackson start for them. A week ago, it was reported that Favre texted his teammates that he was done, only to have Favre himself shut that rumor up the next day.

So now we are basically in the same position we were the same time last season and ever since the Vikings lost in last season's epic NFC Championship Game: Is Favre gonna come back or not? Will his ankle be healthy enough for him to play? Most of America thinks that he will announce his return to the league by week 3 of the preseason (just like last year), but you really never know at this point.

2. HBO's "Hard Knocks" with the New York Jets

I saw last night's episode, and boy was it great! It was entertaining, the language was crude (no wonder it was rated TV-MA L) and coach Rex Ryan was as awesome as I thought he would be. He was foul mouthed, he was honest, he was great giving speeches to his team...basically he was just like the epic Rex Ryan character created by Drew Magary of Kissing Suzy Kolber. I know it's too early to make this kind of hyperbole, but if the rest of the series will be as good as this one episode, HBO and NFL Films will have no choice but to either put the Jets back on the show next season or stop the show altogether since this season cannot possibly be topped.

3. Ben Roethlisberger's Suspension

Ah, the Ben Roethlisberger rape allegation story. Good times...good times. But now that it's all over, the one remaining thing to ask is whether Roger Goodell will reduce Roethlisberger's suspension which he received for it, or will it stay the same. The Steelers certainly want it reduced, but the rest of the NFL don't want to. We should find out the answer in the next few weeks.

4. Rookies

Always the most intriguing story of any preseason. This preseason is no exception. Almost all of the year's top rookies will be introducing themselves to the NFL audience from #1 overall pick Sam Bradford to college starts like Tim Tebow, Colt McCoy, C.J. Spiller and Ndamukong Suh to top picks that are giving their team high hopes like Dex Bryant, Eric Berry and Jimmy Clausen. Although most of them will not start for their teams when the season starts, it should be intersting to see how they adapt to the NFL early on.

5. QB Battles

Like watching the rookies play in the NFL for the first time, watching starting quarterback controversies unravel themselves in the preseason is another one that never gets old. Here are some that I will be interested in seeing:

- The Denver Broncos (probably the most fascinating) with last year's starter Kyle Orton, Brady Quinn and the Quarterback Jesus (a.k.a Tim Tebow).

- The Carolina Panthers with Matt Moore (the starter at the end of last season) and Jimmy Clausen.

- The St. Louis Rams with Sam Bradford and A.J. Feeley

- The Cleveland Browns with Jake Delholmme, Colt McCoy and Seneca Wallace

- The Arizona Cardinals with Kurt Warner and Derek Anderson

- The awful Buffalo Bills with Trent Edwards, Ryan Fitzpatrick and Brian Brohm

6. The New Look Washington Redskins

This past offseason, the Redskins made the most moves to try to become favorites of the 2007 Super Bowl with the acquisitions of Donovan McNabb, Brian Westbrook, Larry Johnson and Wilie Parker. Should be interesting to watch, at least that running back tandem. Ah, the washed up feeling is flowing through the airwaves too fast! Make it stop!

Then, there's the whole Albert Haynesworth situation. Oh, Albert Haynesworth! You just had to complain, didn't you? It all began when Haynesworth didn't want to play in the team's 3-4 defense and wanted to be traded despite signing a record deal last season worth up to 7 yrs./ $100 million dollars ($41 million guaranteed) with the team the previous season. Then, when the Redskins refused it was then that he gave up wanting to be traded, lost some weight and expressed his desire to play on the team this season. Of course, it only led to Shanahan making him pass a conditioning test in order to practice with the team in which he failed multiple times before finally passing. I mention this because I can't wait to laugh my ass off when Haynesworth proclaims how awesome this team is and how it could win a Super Bowl next season a few months after not wanting to be on the team at all. I always love it when stuff like that happens.

7. Darrelle Revis

Besides Brett Favre, Revis is the biggest active player not being seen in an NFL training camp. The reason, obviously, is because Revis is holding out of Jets practice to become one of the highest paid cornerbacks in the league (somewhere around $160 million). The problem is that the Jets don't want to pay him $40 million less than that despite this being an uncapped year. Now, it's just gone ugly, with Revis giving up a year of free agency and a bunch of money in fines by not being in trading camp and Revis's agent arguing with the Jets on "Hard Knocks." Now, there's rumors of a possible trade happening and the Jets owner saying that Revis won't play the entire season. Though I do think this will all be settled within a month, don't be surprised if this will be one of the few preseason storylines I just mentioned to not be resolved until October or later.

8. Terrell Owens in Cincinnati

Although the real drama with Owens doesn't start until at least early October, I'm still gonna be interested in seeing how he will match up with Carson Palmer and the Bengals offense. That, or if he will change his name to Terrell Ochouno. Either or at this point. Speaking of wide receivers in new teams, here are some other good receivers that I will be interested in seeing play in their new teams this upcoming preseason:

-Anquan Boldin in Baltimore

- Brandon Marshall in Miami

- Santonio Holmes in New York (Jets)

9. The New Chicago Bears Free Agent Signings

One of the most shocking news to come out of the free agency period in the offseason was the free agent spending spree by the Chicago Bears. That's right, the Chicago Bears! After eons of being quiet in the free agent market, the team had the best free agent week in their history, signing the year's top free agent (DE Julius Peppers), excellent third down back Chester Taylor and TE Brandom Manumaleuna. Hey, if you couldn't get a first and second round draft pick, might as well get some proven players instead, am I right? Now that the deals have been inked and they are all wearing that Bears helmet in training camp, it's time to actually see how well they are playing in the team. Will Chester Taylor be as good as he was pre-Adrian Peterson? Will Manumaleuna become the team's starting TE? Will Julius Peppers at least avoid getting injured? Why am I writing like Jay Marrioti on "Around the Horn" all of a sudden? Hopefully, all these questions (and more) can be solved.

10. The Arizona Cardinals after Kurt Warner

For the Arizona Cardinals, the biggest move in the offseason came not from a free agency signing (though signing Alan Faneca was a pretty good one) or a trade or a draft picks...but from a departure. That departure came on January 29th when two time MVP QB Kurt Warner announced that he will retire from football and not play for the Cardinals, which he led to Super Bowl XLIII two seasons back. That, and Anquan Boldin traded, were two days many Cardinals fans weren't hoping for, but it did. And now, it's time for the team to enter a new era in the franchise history. The only question is who will be the quarterback in this new era. Will it be Matt Leinart, the Heisman trophy winner from the USC who the team took as their first round pick in '06 who lost the team's starting gig before the '08 season to Warner after having it in '06 and '07? Or will it be Derek Anderson, who had that good season for the Browns in '07 only to stink in '08 and '09? The preseason play of the two should help coach Ken Whisenhunt make the decision. Still, I find it unfathomable that whoever he chooses will be able to do a good job replacing Warner. He could've won three Super Bowls, dammit!

Only five more Thursdays to go before Opening Night! Can you feel it? I can barely contain myself! Football season is back, my friends!

Sincerely,

Your pal: mj15

If you have any opinions on today's post, or if you want to suggest anything to mj15 for his next blog entry (tips, perhaps?), e-mail him at: mj1599@aol.com. Your e-mails are greatly appreciated.