Because you wondered about Wonder Woman

The new Wonder Woman series starring Adrianne Palicki was dead on arrival at the networks citing the usual litany of complaints about the show.

Here's a little clip that has leaked out that shows some of the action (not bad), some very stilted dialogue (pretty bad), and Ms. Palicki in the iconic WW costume at the end (totally hawt!!)

Pity they couldn't have made this work. The premise of a bad ass female crimefighter from "somewhere mysterious" could have been done right, especially with them re-doing Charlie's Angels now.

And just because, here's some sexy black & white pics of Ms. Palicki along with some topless stuff she did for some magazine . . . at some point . . . hey, what am I an investigative reporter? I just post the stuff. sheesh

Yeah, coaching is kind of important

So the Rays managed a split with the Jankees as Big Game James Shields pitched his ass off once again to overcome the . . . well, I was going to say anemic bats of his teammates. But by this point, I think the proper word is hapless.

Rumors have Shields going to the Reds possibly. I'd still like to see him in Boston, but no matter how much money Theo throws at them, I don't think the Rays would want to see another of their former stars playing in the division.

That said, one of the sofa-bound, arm-chair expert sportswriters for the St. Pete Times weighed in on the Rays offensive struggles.

Cue tape of Bucs coach John McKay -- "Coach, talk about the execution of your offense today." "I'm in favor of it."

But seriously, it might have been Marc Tompkin, but he was saying how frustrating the Rays batters were performing. Then threw out something about, "Don't talk to me about a hitting coach..." and went on to say that players at this level don't need to be coached on the basics of the game.

!?!

Really? So I guess quarterbacks don't need those qb coaches, huh? And defensive back coaches and pitching coaches and O-line and D-line coaches and . . . all useless, eh Marc?

The Rays have one player with an batting average over .300, the Sox have nearly a half dozen. Boston's 1 through 5 hitters have more home runs than the entire Rays team, in fact lead off hitter Jacoby Ellsbury's stats are better than anyone on the Rays. Are these guys really that much better players? Or just better coached?

We have been lulled into believing because someone writes for a newspaper or is on a television news show, that they are somehow more intelligent or more informed than we, the viewers. But in fact, the opposite is more likely true. They just have the soapbox, it doesn't mean they deserve it or are more worthy to express opinions as truth or fact.

The talking heads at MSNBC all ran with a snippet of an old Reagan speech trying to discredit the Republican efforts to right the economy. When if you look at the entirety of Reagan's speech he is saying exactly what current fiscal conservatives are saying -- to reduce the deficit and balance the budget you have to cut spending.

But because Rachel Maddow wears geeky glasses and smirks a lot, she has viewers who don't realize that she doesn't have a clue about what she's saying on the air. She just happens to have a show and we don't.

Contessa Brewer, who got her job at CNN by washing Ted Turner's car in a bikini (okay, I made that up, but how else did such a dunderhead get an anchor job at that network?) got pwned on live tv when she attempted to show up a Tea Party freshman over the budget talks. When she couldn't bully him to accept her DNC approved talking point, she blurted out the question, "Do you have a degree in Economics?" To which the Senator replied, "Yes, with the highest honors."

If Ms. Brewer had done the least little bit of actual journalistic investigation, she might have known that. But she just went on air and tried to push her liberal talking points down her guest's throat. Like I said, she isn't smarter than you or I, she doesn't deserve that job any more than you do, she just happens to have it. But that doesn't make her opinion more valid or accurate than yours or mine.

Betty White restores some sanity

As pretty much everyone has heard by now, a young Marine got the clever idea to make a YouTube video to ask Mila Kunis to be his date for the Marine Corps Ball. Mila accepted and it was one of those cutesy moments everyone loves.

A female Marine, hand-to-hand instructor(?), followed up with her own invite via video for Mila's co-star in their new movie, Justin Timberlake, and he accepted as well. Not sure if it was because she was cute (she was) or it looked like she could make him cry like a baby if she wanted to (she looked pretty tough). After all, Timberlake dated Jessica Biel for a while I think, and she looks tougher than most guys I know.

Anyway, it was all one of those great moments in clever thinking history. Then some smart-ass decided to send Betty White a similar invite.

*groan*

And I'm thinking -- here we go, now it's going to be invites for Kathy Griffin, Snooki, and every other D-list celeb jokers can think of to invite to this thing.

Fortunately, Betty had the smarts to gracefully decline, and hopefully that put an end to this nonsense. And if that didn't, I'm hoping the Commandant stepped in and put a stop to it. The Marines are pretty touchy about their image and this could have gotten ugly pretty quickly.

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Sometimes I think imitation is more the sign of a weak, lazy mind. There are times you just have to give it up to the guy/gal who beat you to the idea, you know?

Years ago, some college kid was looking for a way to come up with the money to help with his tuition. He got the idea to make a webpage where he could sell advertising space for one dollar a pixel. He called it The Million Dollar Webpage. It had a million pixels and you could buy a one pixel ad for a buck. Pretty neat. He got tons of publicity, did some tv, and I think in the end he made around a half-mil with the page. Very cool.

Naturally, pixel ads popped up everywhere after that. Everyone tried to jump on the idea and it simply didn't work. The original was clever and unique and the rip-offs seemed just like that -- rip-offs.

It's the same way with music. The rage over sampling for instance. Some musician (and I use the word loosely) samples another artist's music/lyrics because he/she can't come up with anything original on their own and tries to pass it off as artistic or an homage or some weak explanation other than the truth -- they don't have the talent to write their own stuff.

I remember back in the 90s perhaps, there was group called de la Soul that had their moment in the sun. And I'm watching this interview with them, and the guy's asking them about their name.

The one dude's name is M.A.S.E. And I'm thinking, maze, like corn? No, it's M.A.S.E., as in Making a Soul Effort. Uhh, yeah. Okay.

The other guy is Trugoy the Dove. Okay, some obscure language thing, right? No, the guy says he really likes yogurt, so he just spelled it backward for his name. Seriously?! That's the best you could come up with?! Why not just call yourself Jeff, you know? I mean, that's just stupid.

Look something like Will.I.am doesn't come along every day. He lucked into or had that spark of inspiration and it worked out right for history. If you have to force something about yogurt into your name, maybe you ought to just leave it alone.

Like I said, a mark of a weak/lazy mind.

But anyway, thanks Betty, for bringing the sanity.

Update:
And just like that it continues. Linda Hamilton responded to the Marine who issued the invite to Betty White, that she would be pleased to accompany him to the Ball.

*groan*

Someone please, stop the madness!

Of Sox and Rays -- part deux

The Red Sox came into town for a three game series after the All-Star break.

The Rays David Price faked an injury to avoid playing in the All-Star game, thus insuring he would be able to start game one of the series. This being the second time this season manager Joe Maddon tweaked his rotation to insure his top three starters were facing the Sox.

Meanwhile, the Sox rolled in with the bottom of their line-up: workhorse Andrew Miller, the struggling John Lackey and back to the top with recovering Josh Beckett.

The Rays won the first game 9-6, but lost game two 9-5 as Lackey recovered from a rough first inning to shut the door on the Rays often anemic bats.

Last night's game was the crown jewel as the teams went 16 innings, the Sox winning 1-0 as Dustin "Muddy Chicken" Pedroia knocked in the winning run. Beckett and Neimann had a storybook pitcher's duel throwing one shutout inning after another. It should have been a classic. But this is the Rays I'm talking about here.

Last time we had SpikeGate and this time it is BatGate.

As Marco Scutaro slams his bat to the ground in disgust after popping up again, the bat skitters towards Rays catcher Kelly Shoppach as he tries to make the catch. With Joe Maddon already ejected, bench coach Dave Martinez bursts out of the duggout to complain and gets run as well.

What he was complaining about, I cannot figure. Scutaro didn't throw the bat deliberately at Shoppach. At worst he should have gotten a warning from the ump, so what was Martinez after? My guess, he was hoping to get Scutaro run to bugger up the Sox line-up. Yet another bush league maneuver from a team that keeps doing more and more of this.

The papers couldn't get to press due to the late finish of the game, so I'm dying to see their spin on what happened. After trying to portray Kevin Youklis as a cheap shot player, I'm sure they'll be trying to pin the same label on Scutaro and probably the entire Red Sox team. And I would not be surprised to see Scutaro get drilled, probably by Price, next time they meet. That is beginning to look like the s.o.p. for this team these days.

It gets tiresome watching the papers try to gin up controversy where none exists. Instead of enjoying what was a thrilling series, though a losing one for the Rays, we get childish whining and threats of "wait til next time" from the papers and the fans who willingly get duped into the false narrative.

*sigh*

Race results

Ryan Newman started on the pole for today's Lenox Industrial Tools 301 with team owner Tony Stewart beside him qualifying second.

And that's how they finished, with Newman getting his first win of the year and Tony in second. It's the first time a team owner has started two cars on the front row and then had them finish that way since Rick Hendrick did it at Daytona over 20 years ago.

Big congrats to both guys as I've always been a huge Tony Stewart fan. He's a throwback racer, and I love his passion for the sport. Back when I was a kid, AJ Foyt used to run sprint cars the night before Indy to tune himself up for the race. And Tony's the same way. He ran at El Doro the night before this race and only got three hours sleep before turning in this strong performance.

And Ryan Newman . . . besides the obvious Seinfeld jokes, has always impressed me due to his background in avionic engineering. As a wannabe engineer, I'm always pulling for the geeky in him. Plus he's kind of a hot head out there and has the driving chops to back it up.

All in all, a great win for Tony's team and the guys. Plus it's kind of fun to see them beat the Hendrick juggernaut with their own equipment.

heh

Rule 5 Sunday -- Sara Jean Underwood

This week's Rule 5 submission is Sara Jean Underwood.

As far as I can tell, the 27 year old Ms. Underwood's two biggest claims to fame are (no, not those pervy) her selection as Playmate of the Year in 2007 and having the questionable taste to have dated Ryan Seacrest for a couple of years.

No word as to whether she was married to Hef, but he seems to marry all those chicks. *shudder*

Click on the thumbnail for full-sized images

Rule 5 Sunday suggested by this.

A Song of Fire and Ice

So, did you watch A Game of Thrones on HBO? I caught the series a few episodes in and got caught up in it. The casting, production values, the opening title sequence -- one of the coolest I've seen in a long time (imho), and of course the storyline were all wonderful.

At the end of the season, I see that it isn't a one off at all, but a series to be continued over a couple of seasons. And of course, in the opening credits, is says that it is based on George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Fire and Ice," so I figure I'll get the book and read up to see what's coming.

Back a few years, I had seen the movie Manhunter based on Thomas Harris' Red Dragon -- a movie far superior due to Michael Mann's excellenct moody direction to the lukewarm version put out later. And I had naturally seen Silence of the Lambs as well, so when I heard there would be a third movie, I zipped out and bought the book to see what was coming. As such, I both understood and was disappointed by Jody Foster's refusal to reprise her role. And also found the cowardly way they avoided the book's ending to make a more mainstream palatable ending diminished the movie, book, and series.

Anywho, I bop on over to Amazon, 'cause that's where everyone buys these days, to pick up the Fire & Ice book. Lo and behold, it isn't a book, it's a series of books. Four so far with a fifth coming. Game of Thrones was simply the first. Oh joy, this is going to be more work than I originally thought.

Now normally, I don't read the reviews on Amazon except to see what extras are in dvd's or get a synopsis of something I'm not familiar with. But I glance at the reviews of Martin's opus.

Oh my.

Review after review talking about how big the books are -- my favorite was the comment "700 page doorstop" -- how they're not for light reading, how they are oddly formatted chapter-wise. One reviewer complained about the medieval dialogue being hard to follow. And so on.

When I was in high school, I tried to read The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged because my mother, father and sister had and I wanted to be able to chat about them as well. Yeah, talk about ponderous. Those were heavy reads. I never got through them. Yet I read the Dune trilogy without problem. And years later, the follow up books by Frank Herbert and then the closing efforts by his son -- pale shadows of the original stuff, but a nice homage from son to father.

I like Harlan Ellison for my sci-fi reads. He is certainly no Dick & Jane writer. And my favorite horror writer is Clive Barker. So, I'm not completely helpless when it comes to complicated storylines and rich imagery.

And as I read the reviews I begin to wonder if there is some sort of Machiavellian reverse psychology thing going on here. Sort of a "Oh this is too much for you . . . stay away . . . get something easier to read . . ." business. Which is exactly the way to get me to do something -- tell me I can't do it.

So I order the four book set in paperback and pre-order the fifth in hardcover -- I love how mis-matched books look on a bookcase. Not pricey at all. And they finally show up.

Eeesh, they are big to be sure. In paperback, the books are over 900 pages. So I decide to start on the second novel -- A Clash of Kings because the series was based on the first book and I've seen the series . . . you get what I'm thinking here. And . . .

Not hard to read at all. Martin creates a richly detailed world, the characters are fleshed out bit by bit, the dialogue was easy to follow (don't know what that reviewer's problem was). The chapters are titled according to the character they focus on -- Robb, Arya, Catelyn, etc. Nothing unusual or bizarre there.

If I had to chuckle at one thing it was Martin's description of several of the feasts. As he's going dish by dish with his description, I couldn't help but get the feeling of a student trying to fill out a word count for a term paper. It was like -- I get it, it's a sumptuous feast, I don't need to know every ingredient in every dish, dude. heh

But aside from that, I liked it. It engrossed me. You may notice I haven't posted much this week. Yeah, that's because once I start a book, I don't do anything until I'm done with it. Come home from work -- read. That's it. I got up on my day off at 7:00am and read straight through until 1:00 in the morning. Finished the book, but whew, talk about stiff.

That said, if you're a fan of the series, next season should be pretty interesting. Lots of sorcery, big battles, stuff beyond the wall, and so on.

And if you're tempted to read the books yourself, I say go for it. Don't let anyone put you off.

I've got some vacation next week. I'm going to read the first book then. Then it's on to the third book -- A Storm of Swords. Who knows, maybe I'll review it here.