Of Monsters And Ghosts; Steroids And Cheating; Bar And Hotness; And Facebook

So this is going to sound ridiculous and I'm having a lot of trouble expressing my opinion clearly, but the use of steroids in baseball is NOT cheating. Cheating is the wrong word. I'm not sure what the right word is, but here's my logic: The using of anabolic steroids- yes, I understand they are an illegal drug- was not OUTLAWED by major league baseball while it was happening. In fact, baseball may have loved it. The Sosa/McGwire home run chase saved baseball post strike and fans were turning out in record numbers during the "steroid era" (such a stupid name by the way), so clearly, these same fans that are crying now about "cheating" were NOT crying then. Maybe we were all naive and convinced ourselves it wasn't happening, but it was. And it probably happens in every sport. Yeah, we can be outraged and hurt, but millions of dollars are at stake for these players and any edge they can gain, they WILL gain. Particularly when their sport says that steroids are NOT illegal. Again, I understand the outrage, given the historical pedestal we put baseball on (and I like that by the way- it's the only sport where you can talk about players from different eras and NOT have it be a ridiculously stupid conversation), but it's not cheating. I guess I think of cheating as something that is deliberately and knowingly done by a person who KNOWS that they are cheating (dealing off the bottom of the deck, lying about your golf score, pretending you hid a five hundred under the board in Monopoly as a "savings"). While these guys KNEW they were taking an illegal drug, the sport they played said it was okay, so why not do it....?

Down year for movies was 2008. There were a lot of solid films and nothing I loathed like Juno and Little Miss Sunshine, but in comparison to recent best picture nominees like Sideways, Million Dollar Baby, Michael Clayton, No Country For Old Men and should have been nominee United 93, 2008 just didn't make the grade. I have been happy to see that some critics agree. That said, Slumdog is awesome. So is The Wrestler. They take genres I usually loathe (feel good flicks, sports movies) and do a great job with them. And there's somethng to be said for that. My guilty pleasure pick for '08 though was Cloverfield. I wish more horror movies were like that.....

Mark down June 4th on your calendar. TV On The Radio. That will be a good two weeks for me because in case you haven't heard, this band I like is playing May 23rd...

Speaking of live music, Coldplay's awesomeness kind of makes me want to make the trek down to TVFKAGW (The Venue Formerly Known As Great Woods) for the first time in som ten years.....

Somervillians and Cambridgians. Please. I'm begging you. Get off your fucking bikes. It's snowing and 7 degrees out. I'll buy you The Charlie Card...

Okay, so KG is out three weeks. It could be worse. When the injury first happened, I thought it was the dreaded ruptured achilles (I have a zen like ability to guess
when a player has the ruptured achilles. At first I thought it was because I had the closest thing to that, but then I realized tha I could tell it was a ruptured achilles by the fact that Player X was writhing around on the ground holding his achilles), but it appears to be a less than major knee issue. Keep in mind, he missed nine games last year, which is about three weeks and I think we know how things played out for last years Celtics. My boys P Squared and Ray Ray will step it up though, don't you worry. I say they go 8-3 without him.....

The antithesis of these Celtics might be your 2009 Boston Red Sox. Seriously, is there a more boring team in sport? Their infield on most nights will be Varitek, Youk, Pedroia, Lowrie, and Lowell. Or, The All Gerard Hate Them Because They Are So Goddman White And Boring Team. It's going to be tough to watch and root for them every night.....

Flight Of The Conchords continues to dominate television. It is so funny ("that's quite an accent you got there Kevina") and so original that it is getting to the point where I might not be able to be friends with you if you don't like the show. And even better, it helped me to understand Donny Marshall's "kiwi" reference he made in regards to a New Zealand born hoop player the other day. See, I don't have to travel the world to be cultured. All I have to do is watch trendy HBO TV shows that poseurs like me can blog about.....

So, I was thinking of making this a separate post and I may yet do that, but it will bring about considerable ire when I do so and I don't know if I'm in the mood to defend myself, but I've got some problems with Facebook. Firstly, I'm not on it because I don't need the drama, but I must admit being somewhat fascinated by it. However, here's my major beef with it: People lie about why they like it. They say it allows them to "keep in touch with people." C'Mon folks. Are you REALLY going to lie to yorselves like that? Here's why people have a Facebook: To look into the lives of "old" friends and to give people the opportunity to talk about themselves (no one cares that you're tired today!). The first part is self explanatoy, but what I mean by the second part is that Facebook gives us all the chance to participate in our favorite collective past time: One upping each other. We can post pictures of ourselves in the south of France, discuss our awesome jobs, display our ecclectic tastes in music or movies, or list our numerous degrees. And that's fine. Everyone likes to talk about themselves. But I would prefer it if people stopped calling it a "social networking" site. It is a place to talk about yourself, end of conversation. I mean, who would ever create a page on the internet about themselves, their thoughts, and their opinions?!? So arrogant.....

So I'm driving down the highway the other day and I pass a Spag's truck!!! What the fuck?!? That store still exists?!? I remember their god awful commercials from like 25 years ago. They are still in business? Where are they located? And what the hell do they even sell? And why didn't Bear Stearns steal their business plan?!? Worst economy in four score and fucking Spag's is still in existence. Unbelievable.....

While on the subject of advanced degrees, head over to Bukowski's some Tuesday night around 11. That is the night the Harvard Business School guys go in for post class drinks (the waitress informed me of such). Stumbled in there after a movie the other night and thought I was in the Bizarro Star Wars Cantina. Instead of everyone being from a different planet, it looked like they were all from the same parents. 6'3", good lucking, fit, well dressed, and surpremely obnoxious (complete with a guy who WAS the clone of the Jewish dude in Bolier Room kicking in the headlight of a random car). I didn't know whether to kill them or kill myself. I probably would have went with killing myself though because after they all got done beating me up, they probably would have beat me at Jeopardy! and Scrabble!. But hey, at least I can beat them at... NHL 95 maybe.....?

So I'm trying a new stategy in Fantasy basbeall this year since I haven't won since 1997 (That's a net loss of about $4800) and that strategy is to not read a single stupid fantasy magazine or web site. I can't take the guys they "hype" and the sleepers they tell me to pick who then spend the year sleeping statistically. Yet another reason why I need Dr. Emmet Brown and his DeLorean time machine: So I can hit the pedal to 88 and go back to about 1994 and write a fantasy magazine where I make up the stats of a guy. I can say he is going to do the next year without having any scientific proof of those predictions whatsoever and it'll sell tons of copies....

Got into a fun discussion with my bro and some of his friends the other night about scary movies and where we come down on them. It appears you are either scared by the ghost concept or the monster concept. The insane killer briefly entered the conversation and they can be scary particularly when it is a film like The Strangers, but for too many of these insane killer movies, the killer is an indestructible man who walks faster than Usain Bolt runs. So we leveled it down to ghost and monster movies and the type that scares you is the one that you find more plausible. So, with that in mind, what is more plausible, cave dwelling creatures or a little girls who walks out of your TV? C'mon now people... It's cave dwelling monsters in a landslide. That's why The Descent is the best horror move ever....

I'll see the G.I. Joe movie. I hope it is as good as some of the cartoon episodes though.....

The four songs that NEED to be on rock band are "Blank Slate" by You Know Who, The Killer's version of "Shadowplay", "7/4 (Shoreline)" by Broken Social Scene, and Ion Square" by Bloc Party. And here's why: Each song has a ridiculous mini jam that would be so fun to rock out to. They are awesome little jams that are not overly long, like a Slash guitar solo. Don't believe me? Go to the 5:10 mark of "Ion Square," the 3:11 mark of 7/4, the 2:59 mark of "Shadowplay," and the 1:51 mark of "Blank Slate." You'll feel like a air guitar god rocking out to these in your car or bedroom.....

I try to keep this apolitical, but here's why I am a democrat: Because republicans are awful people. It is a fct that we have the worst economic crisis in 80 years and republicans are UNANIMOUSLY voting against a stimulus package because it was created by the rock star democratic president they despise. On the other hand, democrats always voted for the War In Iraq and funding for troops... Because it was the right thing to do. No one understands partisan poitics better than me and I rooted against the last administration with a Michael Moore fervor at some points, but the stubbornness on display right now is disgraceful. Let that nonsense stay with the Michael Moore's of the world. I thought REAL politicans were above that stuff (as dems were during the Iraq War votes), but leave it to the worthless republicans to be their usual worthless selves.....

Bar Rafaeli, congratulations. You've cracked my top five. And what has been really fun about this is that some girls have been hating on her. My sister said she "might be the hottest girl at Whiskey Park." Sure, and girls love other girls, just as I've always said.....

The rest of the Top 5? It's always changing and it probably needs to be like a top 150, but Megan Fox is obviously there. Miranda Kerr would be too. Brooke Burke might make it there for nostalgia purposes. Then it's probably Rachel Bilson because I think she'd like me if she met me. I have nothing to base this on, other than my insanity.....

A dark horse candidate has ALWAYS been Kelly Monaco. Loved her since she showed up on DWTS.....

Okay, here are my predictions... Best Pic: Slumdog; Best Actor: Penn; Best Actress: Winslet; Best Supporting Actress: Penlope Cruz; Best Supporting Actor: Heath (bold prediction there); Best Director: Danny Boyle. And I like to think I know something about movies andI probably THINK I know more than I actually DO, but if Slumdog DOESN'T win for Best Editing, then I know absolutely nothing about film.....

Finally, big congrats to my friends Waidehi and Steve on the birth of their beautiful daughter, Leela. Also, congrats to my boy Brennan on his engagement to Andrea. They are two couples that I respect and I truly believe have found their partner's for life. One of these days, I will call them all and congratulate them verbally. That will probably be the same day that I turn into a good kid.....

And if you have absolutey nothing to do (and I mean nothing... If Hoosiers or Pale Rider is on and you just opened a bottle of wine, that's a way, WAY btter option) next Saturday, February 28th at 5:30 and you feel like taking a drive to Ipswich High School, there is this one act play being performed as part of a competition. The play, titled PS was co-written by my good friend Dave McLoughlin and some middle aged guy who writes a blog named after a quote from a dated Vince Vaughn flick. Don't expect Good Will Hunting people. In fact, if this thing is even thismuch better than Xanadu, I'll be immensely pleased. You know what? I should probably get on Facebook and tell eveyone about this, shouldn't I?