Ripped off

capt.1023063312lakers_kings_sca105.jpg
Am I the only one who finds the Tim Donaghy case a lot more compelling than either Spygate or the steroid scandal in baseball? For one thing, that Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals was perhaps the worst robbery I have ever seen in a sporting event as the referees were all but visibly rooting for the Lakers in the 4th quarter. At one point, a foul was called on Mike Bibby for being elbowed in the head by Kobe. I remember being furious after that game (and I’m not even a Kings fan), and so, to be honest, I am glad to see the NBA get its comeuppance. I have thought for years that the NBA was not on the up and up, and I am obviously not alone. A recent poll on ESPN.com showed that 76% of over 80,000 in the poll thought that two refs conspired to fix Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference Final. 1 in 4 people think that the NBA is on the up and up! I bet 1 in 4 people believe that Pro Wrestling is on the up and up!

RELATED: Nader’s back at it.
RELATED: News story about Game 6.

My Sequel to Bad Sequels

Teen+Wolf+Too.jpg
Last year I did a column on Bad Sequels. This week, I decided to do a sequel to that column. Of course, the column last year inspired a contest ultimately won by Steve-O‘s Lambada 2: The Dance That’s Been Legal Since 2006. And here is Entertainment Weekly’s list of the 25 worst actual sequels ever. So what do you think is the actual worst sequel ever? I gotta go with Big Top Pee-Wee. But of course, I had impossibly high expectations for the film.

Toughest questions from last week

Marky_Mark_9.jpg

  1. What game show host provided the voice of Gizmo in Gremlins?
  2. This author wrote the Death of Ivan Ilych and the Kreutzer Sonata in the 1880s.
  3. What actor played a teenage Indiana Jones in The Last Crusade?
  4. Only 3 players active in baseball today have career averages of .330 or higher. All 3 of them have spent their whole careers with the same team. Who are they?
  5. What three #1 albums did Madonna release in the 1980s?
  6. Journalistic legend H.L. Mencken was born in, died in, and did almost of all of his writing in what East Coast city?
  7. The colon is part of this canal, which is from the Latin for “To Nourish”.
  8. Yves. St. Laurent worked for this French fashion legend who gave us “The New Look”.
  9. You’ll find the Gates of Hell in Philadelphia. What artist gave us the Gates of Hell?
  10. Marky Mark’s first album had the word “Music” in it. What was it called?

Continue reading “Toughest questions from last week” →

Escape From Alcatraz

6646-70.jpg
It was on this date in 1962 that the only succesful escape from Alcatraz ever took place. By successful, of course, I mean that they actually got out of the prison. It is believed that they died while in the bay, though a few years ago MythBusters recreated the escape, and were able to do so. Each and every year, in honor of the escape, there is an Escape From Alcatraz triathlon in San Fran that includes a swim in the San Francisco Bay (which is currently a brisk 56 degrees.)

Spike Lee is Kind of a Moron

hiphop_wideweb__470x402,0.jpg
Spike Lee went after Clint Eastwood this past week for not having any black people in his two movies about Iwo Jima. Of course, the first film was about the 6 soldiers who raised the flag (none of whom were black) and the 2nd movie was about Japanese soldiers who fought at Iwo Jima (Spike might be surprised to discover that very few Japanese soldiers were black). Is Spike also upset at Steven Spielberg for not using enough black actors in Schindler’s List? While the lack of roles for black actors is troubling, it is kind of moronic of Lee to go after the guy who directed Bird, about Charlie Parker, and who is currently doing a movie about Nelson Mandela (as Eastwood himself said, “I’m not going to make Nelson Mandela a white guy”).

After Eastwood answered back to Lee’s salvos, and told Lee to shut his face, Lee said, “First of all, the man’s not my father and we’re not on a plantation either.” Needle scratches record. To go with Godwin’s Law, there should be a Spike Lee law, that every argument with Spike Lee will come to a screeching halt when Lee accuses his opponent of being a modern day slaveholder. And just to show what a classy guy he is, Spike ended his tirade with:“Even though he’s trying to have a Dirty Harry flashback, I’m going to take the Obama high road and end it right here. Peace and love.” Wow, comparing him to a modern day slaveholder and then ending the argument on his terms. What a creep.

Top 12 Songs About the Summer Heat

SeeqPod – Playable Search
A few weeks ago, I did my top songs about the rain. Well, now all anyone can think about is the heat. Qualifications for these songs were rather strict: They had to actually be about temperature, not about a hot girl (eliminating songs such as Hotter than Hell by Kiss and Hot Child in the City by whoever the hell did that song), about how hot a person finds themselves (This is Why I’m Hot), or about an indistinguishable “it” whose origins we are unsure of (Drop It Like It’s Hot). OK, so Hot Stuff about Donna Summer isn’t really about the temperature but she got a pass because she her name has the word “Summer” in it. And I guess Heat Wave is technically about love, but there was no way that song wasn’t making the list. Let me know if I missed anything: