weekly recap – indy, STP, big brown

Guess what movie I saw yesterday. Yep, the new Indiana Jones flick. You must understand, though, my near-obsession with the first three movies. I’d say that I’ve probably seen Raiders of the Lost Ark over 25 times, and the other two about 15 times each. Growing up, all I watched were those movies, Karate Kid, and the Back to the Future flicks (oh yea, and Flight of the Navigator and Neverending Story). But Raiders is an absolute classic in every sense of the word just might be my favorite movie of all time.

I went into the newest Indy movie without really high expectations — all I wanted was it to be nearly on par with the 2nd and 3rd installments. And the verdict? Pretty darn good. Harrison Ford still has his trademark Indy “growl” voice and he still looks pretty good as an action star. There are also plenty of allusions to the past movies, which is cool for big fans like me, and plenty of references to Indy’s age (including Shai LaBeouf asking Indy, “what, are you like 80?”). Although, its storyline is by far the most unbelievable of the series (even moreso than the glowing, magical rocks from Temple of Doom), which I think detracts from the movie a bit. But, the whole movie is action-packed and definitely recommended for both casual and die hards. I’d rank it third on my Indy movie list, behind Raiders and Last Crusade. Not sure if I’ll be able to watch it 20+ times, but this is probably because my whole day doesn’t consist of either playing outside, eating, or watching TV anymore.

…also yesterday…

I went to the Stone Temple Pilots concert last night. Talk about a blast from the 90s past. The show was at Northerly Island, which is probably my favorite venue in Chicago: relatively small, outdoors, the Chicago skyline as a backdrop. The general hope among my friends was for Scott Weiland to merely finish the show. If you needed to go to jail after the show, fine, but just don’t walk off the stage in the middle of the show like you did to Velvet Revolver, mmmkay?

Weiland, shockingly, finished the show, which overall I thought was mediocre at best. “STP”, as they’re more affectionately known, hadn’t played together in five years…and it showed. Some of the songs were good to hear again, but I thought that listening to the show was like putting on a 90s flashback on Q101. Hey Scott, trying varying your songs a bit! Oh yea, and it didn’t help that it was 40 degrees on this late-February May night.

Some other random thoughts from the week:

(CCTV)

- I happened to catch the Champions League final the other day (a huge soccer tournament among all of Europe’s major club teams), which, along with the 2006 World Cup, I thoroughly enjoyed watching. If you haven’t seen him play yet, Cristiano Ronaldo of Manchester United is ridiculous. I don’t know much about soccer, but from what I’ve seen, he’s nearly Bonds-esque with his level of domination and the way that he can make something happen any time he gets the ball.

Now I kinda wish I had a soccer team to root for. The Chicago Fire, eh, maybe, but here’s the problem with U.S. soccer: the talent is so diluted. In America, the really good athletes choose football, baseball, basketball and probably hockey over soccer. In Europe: if you’re big you play rugby, and if you’re not, you play soccer. And that’s it. If you went back 50 years and took away all of America’s big sports and left us with only soccer, we would absolutely dominate every international competition. I can’t root for a Europe club team because I have no way of seeing the games. I suppose I could just follow a team, but I would lose interest too fast. So, barring a move to London, I likely won’t be hooliganing-it-up anytime soon.

…One team that I do follow, though…

(Havana Journal)

My weekly White Sox post (the above picture is 63-year-old Jose Contreras). Now, if you gave me 1 million-to-one odds at the beginning of the season that 4 of the Sox starters would have an ERA below 3.50 and one of those starters is not named Mark Buehrle, I would not have taken the bet. Hell, if you gave me 1,000-to-one odds that Jose Contreras would have under a 3.20 ERA on May 23, I wouldn’t have taken it, and I probably would have punched you for insulting my knowledge. I don’t know where it came from, but it’s a good sign, Sox fans. As long as Carlos Quentin keeps carrying this team offensively and the pitchers keep doing what they’re doing, the Sox will have a shot at the AL Central.

(Reuters)

- Big Brown easily handled the field on Saturday to win the second leg of the Triple Crown. I really enjoy the Triple Crown races, especially if a horse has a shot to win all three, which Big Brown certainly does. The one thing that I don’t like about him (er, his owners, rather), though, is that he’s named for UPS, which is apparently a big client of the horse’s owners. I think this is lame. I mean, should I expect next year’s Derby field to be a showdown among “Google”, “AT&T” and “MB Financial Bank”? Really?

Regardless, I’ll be watching the Belmont Stakes on June 7, probably cheering for Big Brown because I just want to see a Triple Crown winner. I thought we had one with Smarty Jones (side note: this is my favorite name for a well-known horse ever) four years ago, but he ended up in second place. Let’s go, UPS! Er, Big Brown!

- Finally, why does this story just seem so appropriate: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080521/ap_en_mu/people_lou_pearlman;_ylt=AlX3XtW0mY_QohcTn.FPgioDW7oF

~ by mcarey99 on May 23, 2008.