Saturday, May 30, 2009

Chelsea 2 Everton 1: Dream Start, NIghtmare Ending For The Toffees

A rousing start for Everton ended in frustration in today's FA Cup final as Chelsea overcame allowing a quick goal (from Louis Saha in the 26th second) to claim the title in convincing fashion.


Didier Drogba got Chelsea back on level terms in the 21st minute with a well-placed header from a Florent Malouda cross that caught the Everton defense flat-footed. Frank Lampard won the game for Chelsea late in the second half with a stunning left-footed volleyy as once again the Everton defense failed to react quickly enough in front of their own goal.


Malouda should have been awarded a goal later, but the referee had ruled that the ball had crossed the plane of the goal, even though replays had shown that it clearly had. Still, by that time, the Chelsea defense had been so firm for the majority of the game that it was unlikely that Everton would ever mount a serious challenge to score again.



SOCCERNET REPORT

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Mets 3 Red Sox 2: A Game Of Inches

Nice to see the Mets get the breaks against a team with the worst fans in baseball, it's definitely a nice gift after all of the boneheaded team play of the last week.


A two-out, two-run home run from catcher Omir Santos off of reliever Jonathan Papelbon that bounced off of a barrier just behind the top of the Green Monster and back onto the field of play was the difference as the Mets rallied in the top of the ninth inning for the victory. The Mets defense, so suspect in the last few games, managed to keep itself together in the bottom of the inning for the win. (YES, IT WAS ONLY ONE GAME, BUT A WIN IS STILL A WIN, ESPECIALLY AGAINST THE RED SUX ). BTW, it was also lovely to here so many cheers for the Mets in Fenway, yeah die-hard Sux fans would never sell their tickets to anybody but their own kind, right?


Just lovely to see Papelbon try to lead the remonstration of the call in a key play in the bottom of the ninth (a rocket to David Wright at third, who managed to get the ball in the vicinity of second base, where Luis Castillo snagged the ball just in time to get Kevin Youklis for the first out, all in an effort to try to let himself off of the hook for letting a substitute catcher win the game with his second career home run.



The drama of the ninth inning book-ended a good pitching matchup between Mike Pelfrey and Josh Beckett, a slightly rough first inning for the both of them accounting for the lone scores of the game.



One more game to finish the bastards off, their idiotic fans may still crow about the 2004 comeback against the Yankees, but until the Mets and Sux meet again in the post seasons, there will always be the spectre of Game Six in 1986 to hold over those ass-clowns. Fcuk 'em all.





ESPN RECAP

Monday, May 18, 2009

Don't Be Afraid Of The Remake (For The Most Part)

Maybe it was because my aunt did double duty on a date once by babysitting my brother and I at the drive-in for a double feature of The Conqueror Worm and The Masque of the Red Death with no discernible harm to our young psyches. Certainly watching Night Of The Hunter whilst my age was still in single digits didn't deter me from trusting adults either. However, the one movie/television event that left me shaken and scared was the 1973 program Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark; the tension created by the noises from the demonic creatures that lived under the house was truly terrifying; the fact that our baby-sitters let us watch the program and were then not malicious enough to try and scare the wits out of us kids afterward is still something I marvel at to this day.



In today's Los Angeles Times I came across a story debating the FUTURE OF MIRAMAX FILMS WITH DISNEY there was a paragraph about the upcoming remake of that classic show, starring Katie Holmes and produced by Guillermo del Toro. That second factor is enough to assure me that this will be a worthwhile project, though I am certainly proud of the fact that I have not directly paid one cent to see a movie with Mrs. Cruise, something that will probably change with this one.



Thanks once again to Youtube for allowing people like SciFiPilots to post sections of the original online, where people all across the country can watch it again and make comments such as "This movie scared the CRAP outta me when I was a kid!. In this clip, the heroine begins to tamper with things that she was warned against doing in her dream house.





Sunday, May 17, 2009

Tumbling Cottonwood Flowers In Albany

Enjoyed a lovely Sunday morning down by the river, taking in the warming rays of the sun as well as being encircled in drifts of cottonwood flowers that certainly made their presence known. I was going to title this post Surprising Where You Find God and post a pic of The Birthday Party posing in an abandoned church around that banner, but could not find said image (just yet), so that will be the caption for the four daisies amongst the weeds.


Thursday, May 14, 2009

I Don't Wanna Be Buried......


...in the pet cemetery..............or to be left out to decay in the rain in a northwest Portland lot.







Apparently, it's the end of the line for a parade float.