X-Men Origins: Wolverine

X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE HD


This movie will be released on Friday, May 1, 2009. As far as I'm concerned, this day should be a federal holiday. Via Ezra Klein.

In the Interest of Full Disclosure...

So in my last post, I whined about Rafa Benitez's pessimistic take on Liverpool's chances of winning the Barclay's Premier League title. One of his statements that I highlighted was his insistence that Arsenal, Chelsea, and Man U would have to collapse in order for Liverpool to have any chance winning the Premiership. In order to demonstrate that Arsenal in fact was near collapse, I pointed out that they lost at the Emirates to Hull City. Well, on Saturday, freaking Liverpool only managed to hold Hull City to a draw. Unfortunately, the game wasn't televised on Fox Soccer Channel so I wasn't able to see it, but I was extremely disappointed. However, I feel that since my previous post consisted of me bragging about Liverpool's superiority over Arsenal, I thought it was only fair that I hold myself accountable. So there you have it...

A Post that Probably Only I Care About

What the fuck is this Rafa? As some of my thousand upon thousands of readers may know, over the summer I developed quite an affinity for European football, particularly the Barclay's Premier League. My favorite team is Liverpool, largely because my favorite player Fernando Torres is their striker, but also because as a Wisconsin native I love the Green Bay Packers, and Liverpool (as one of England's most historic football powerhouses) is a lot like the Packers of English football. Anyways, now that we have the background out of the way, Rafa Benitez, Liverpool's oft brilliant manager has stated that it will take a "miracle" for Liverpool to claim the Premier League title. What!?! Maybe I'm living in some kind of fantasy world, but wasn't it the Reds of Liverpool that ended Chelsea's 86 game unbeaten run at Stamford Bridge (their home stadium in West London)? Wasn't it the Reds of Liverpool that beat Manchester United at Anfield (Liverpool's home stadium) 2-1 without Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard? The answer to both questions is yes. I don't know what my boy Rafa is smoking, but this is very distressing news. I'm not 100% confident that Liverpool will win the Premier League title, they've got a long and difficult road ahead of them, but by no means do I think it would take a miracle for them to do so. Also he's talking about the need for the other 3 members of the big four (the Big Four refers to the 4 best teams in English football: Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, and Liverpool) to totally collapse in order for Liverpool to take the tile, has he seen Arsenal lately? They lost to Hull City at the Emirates (Arsenal's home stadium in North London), they lost to Aston Villa (admittedly a great squad) at the Emirates, and they lost to Stoke City! Seriously, you assholes lost to Stoke City? Granted Liverpool only managed to hold them to a draw at Anfield, but that's still better than a loss, and again Liverpool was decimated by injuries at that point. Don't get me wrong, I love Arsenal as well. Cesc Fabregas is an amazing player to watch, and Robin van Persie scores more goals than God. However, it looks to me that Arsenal is close to collapse, couple that with Liverpool's previous defeats of Chelsea and Manchester United, and I think their prospects for Premier glory are looking bright! So, Rafa, I love you buddy, but there's no need to dismiss your side's chances while you are sitting on top of the table. Go Reds!

Terminator - Salvation

Still a little nervous about this one, but the trailer is pretty awesome...

Oi, This is Bad

I think that I probably should do a post on the whole Blago thing. Ok, as I'm sure you are all aware of by now, Gov. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois was arrested by the FBI yesterday on charges of corruption related to his attempted sale of Barack Obama's now vacant seat in the U.S. Senate. No, that's not a misprint, the dude actually tried to sell a seat in the United States Senate. Obviously, this isn't a very classy move and even though it appears that Barack Obama was not involved, it's not exactly an ideal scenario for the president-elect. That being said, in the criminal complaint (pdf), Blagojevich calls Obama a "motherfucker" and bemoans the fact that Obama isn't offering him anything in exchange for his desired candidate, candidate 1 (believed to be Valerie Jarrett) to which he states, "fuck him!" If I were Obama, I'd be pretty stoked that this cat hates me. It was also reported initially, that the individual that tipped off the FBI about Blagojevich's wrong doing may have been none other than Barack Obama's new chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. Although his office is now denying that (however, it should be noted that a federal investigation is underway, so don't look too deep into his denial). If Emanuel did indeed tip off the Feds, that is great news for Obama, and he probably has little to worry about aside from some embarrassment. Another important thing to take away from this is that it is highly doubtful that this arrest is in any way politically motivated. The U.S. Attorney for Chicago is Patrick Fitzgerald. He's the prosecutor that handled the Plame-leak investigation that led to the indictment of Scooter Libby. In other words, this dude is as straight arrow as they come. The indispensable TPM has even pointed out that Obama wants Fitzgerald to stay on in Chicago for his administration.
Needless to say, this is a sad state of affairs that further blights the name of an already famously corrupt city and state. One can only hope that Blagojevich will face serious consequences for his actions and that the fallout from this disaster will have little bearing on Barack Obama's agenda at this crucial juncture.

P.S. One of the positive elements coming out of this whole affair is that The New Yorker is already tossing around ideas for "Blagojevich! The Musical"

P.P.S. According to some of her statements in the criminal complaint, it's not unreasonable for one to draw the conclusion that Patricia Blagojevich, Rod's wife, hates the Cubs. That's change that every Milwaukee Brewers fan can believe in!

Picture courtesy of Flickr user jburwen December 9, 2008

I Was Wrong...Dead Wrong

I meant to comment on this post by Andrew Sullivan last week, but it somehow got lost in the shuffle. Sullivan's post notes that Rick Warren is out in the public sphere advocating (along with Sean Hannity) that the US should "take out" Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. I'm certainly no fan of Ahmadinejad, but this is pure insanity. I wrote back in Auguast how it seemed like Warren was decent and sensible cat. I retract everything positive I said about this guy. Props to Andrew for pointing this out, and take those of us whom dubbed Warren a moderate to task!

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Urbana.org February 15, 2007

On Kanye

First things first, I believe that Kanye West is one of the most gifted artists of our generation. I must confess that I own all of his albums, and his latest 808s & Heartbreak is one of the best albums I've ever heard. Oftentimes on the subway going home from work at night, I listen to the songs "Heartless" and "See You in My Nightmares" over and over again. If you don't have the album yet, minimize this window, go to iTunes and download the damn thing, you won't regret it. While you're doing that, get College Dropout, Late Registration, and Graduation while you're at it. Also, the death of his mother last year following cosmetic surgery was unbelievably sad, so it can be understood that Kanye West has had a lot of shit to deal with.
However, Kanye West as you all probably know, is a complete toolbag. The absolute egomania that infects this guy is agonizing to witness. Whenever the guy doesn't win an award, he makes a public scene at the ceremony. Pretty much the only outburst of his, that I enjoyed, and for that matter agreed with, was during a televised fundraiser for Katrina victims in which he stated next to a befuddled Mike Myers that, "George Bush doesn't care about black people." That was brilliant, he should have won something for that, I think that brought to bear the utter incompetence and indifference of Bush's response to the catastrophe for a lot of people that may never have bothered otherwise. That, however, is pretty much where my sympathy for Mr. West ends. When he said earlier this year that he envisions himself "the voice of this generation, of this decade" I promptly puked all over myself. Being dubbed the "voice of a generation" is a label that another party bestows upon you, like 30 years later. Rolling Stone can do that, or TIME, hell even the Enquirer, but not Kanye West.
You might be asking yourself, why the hell is he writing about this? Well the answer is here, dear friends. Stephen Colbert's Christmas album has surpassed Kanye West's on the iTunes best-seller's chart. Apparently, Colbert (whom I haven't watched in ages, shame shame) asked his viewers to mass purchase his album at 5pm EST on Wednesday, and the ploy worked. After hearing of this plan, Kanye West Twittered (or Tweeted, whatever the fuck you Twitter people call it) "who the fuck is Stephen Colbert?" Seriously, grow up Kanye! Here's hoping that "Operation Humble Kanye" did, in fact, humble Kanye West. I want this, if for no other purpose than to spend my money on artists that I actually like and respect as individuals.
In closing, it's important to remember that whether you like his music or not, Kanye West is a gifted musician and probably a decent guy in private. However, he needs to tamper down on the Dangerfield-Ali "I get no respect, yet I'm the greatest" combo. Also, you should probably purchase Stephen Colbert's Christmas album, I will do so this weekend!