Today’s the Team Time Trial in Le Tour 2009. You and your mates against the clock. Which team’s the fastest around town? Astana with their multi-headed captains seems to be the favorite. They’ve got Armstrong, Contador, and Leipheimer. They are the NY Yankees of the sport.
I’m hoping they lose today. Not gonna happen.
Weird to be rooting against Armstrong, but it happens. Allez other teams! Allez!
The Proposal stars Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock in a romantic comedy neither romantic or comedic. He’s assistant to her hard charging NYC book editor. She’s a ballbuster. He’s doing it for the chance to break into the literary world. She’s doing it because she has no family. They need to marry, so that she isn’t deported. Ha. Ha. Ha.
That’s a tired cliche of a gag if I ever saw one.
And the movie is tired. I didn’t really laugh. The romance was a given and hard to believe. Ryan Reynolds is not given enough to do as a “Ryan Reynolds” roll. No smart mouthing or glib commenting. Just stand there and let Sandra Bullock be the movie’s driving force. She couldn’t be, or at least I couldn’t accept her as it. Come on, it’s Ryan Reynolds you want to see not Sandra Bullock. And I’m a guy. I wonder what the girls who’ve seen it think.
I’m all for tsundere goodness, but Sandra Bullock could not capture it. She’s mean, but you couldn’t have told me she had a caring side. Only the writers could do that, and they shoe horned it in to fit the happy ending.
Blech.
2 of 5 stars.
It’s a Sunday. It’s a day game. It’s the finale of a series. It’s a loss. With the home team, Orioles, continuing their less than mediocre ways, it’s time to look in to the game around as its played in Japan.
Here’s the NY Times writing about the
atmosphere in the stadiums of Japan. Very much different than the quiet of Camden Yards. If we could only get as rowdy, we wouldn’t have to worry too much about the awful Red Sox fans who visit our lovely park.
Then there is the adopted team of BrowserMetrics, the Hiroshima Toyou Carp. They’re playing better than the O’s but not much better. They too are below .500 in winning, but the distance to respectability is shorter for them than for the hapless O’s. Plus they’ve got a new stadium, Mazda Zoom-Zoom Park.
Finally, about some manga and anime. Mitsura Adachi’s Cross Game is an amazing manga. The anime only slightly less. We’re going to the Koshien! Taishou Yakyuu Musume is just starting up. I’m not sure I like it, but it’s got baseball, anime girls, sailor uniforms, and kimonos. It’s got the game.
I’m sitting on my couch catching the prologue stage to this year’s Tour de France nursing my sore body. I lamed out because of all this soreness.
Currently, it’s a time trial stage with Team Astana ruling the standings Levi Leipheimer in the lead with the old man, seven time winner, Lance Armstrong sitting in third. I can’t believe that Astana is running with three leaders, Armstrong, Leipheimer, and Contador. A fourth, Andreas Klöden, is dangerous himself. That team is stacked. They are dangerous, but with too many cooks, will they spoil the broth and not get the win.
Everyone’s darling team from last year, Garmin-Chipotle, seems to have disappeared from the radar. Hopefully, they can come back and remind the world that the sport doesn’t need the drugs. Dave Zabriskie is their most renowned rider along with Christian Van de velde. Maybe they can do something special this tour. Perhaps fight off the Astana juggernaut.
Then there is the story of the two japanese riders. They hope to be the first finishers from the land of the rising sun. Banzaii! to these guys as three weeks is a long time on the bike. (I can’t even do two straight days.)
Here’s to a good tour.
My dad used to have season tickets pretty close to section 34, perhaps section 35? And when we’d go we’d cheer along. “O! R! I! O! L! E! S! ORIOLES!” Just dig it. Baseball, beer and cheering ain’t that the fun. Funny thing, they lost to the Red Sux that day as well.
The Sox were who we thought they were.
Was it really two years ago today? And what becomes of my contract?
I’m just about ready to upgrade to the 3GS, but I am laming out on that because OS 3.0 suffices my needs. I just like the newer camera, but I’m planning to upgrade my own Panasonic digital camera, so it is not imperative that I get the 3GS.
A few weeks back, me and Marge from the FishTank went to catch Seattle at Baltimore down at the yard. We got very good seats. The best ever.
I went, because I wanted to see two future Hall of Famers, Ken Griffey, Jr. and Ichiro. Although, Griffey is no longer the kid, and he did not have a good outing, going 0 for 3 with a walk (I think), it’s still good to see the last of the great Mariners play. Then there is Ichiro. Ichiro! He’s awesome. He hit a double that looked to be a homer into deep right center. There’s no one who’s a better hitting machine than him. And he’s got a cannon for an arm. He threw a frozen rope from the corner in right field to home plate. Wow! Ichiro!
The home team lost that night, but it was a fun time.
I wore my Ichiro jersey and cheered for him whenever he was up. On the way home, Seattle fans were cheering. One of them saw my jersey. He looked at me and began to cheer again, “Mari-?” He saw my Orioles cap. “Hunh?” The look of confusion on his face was priceless. “WTF?!”
Anyway, watching Ichiro play is just about the best thing in baseball.
The Hangover is rather dark for a summer movie. It’s no light-hearted romp through a bunch of friends bachelor weekend in Vegas, but a delving in the disturbance in men’s souls as they are freed from the nagging and the loving of women. It was almost too dark to enjoy on a lazy Sunday, but with some easy jokes, it doesn’t bum your day out.
3 of 5 stars.
