EA announced the Madden 11 soundtrack today. Two thoughts about the list.
1) It would have been weirdly awesome if they included that “Mortal Kombat” techno tune. Especially since I don’t think EA owns the game’s IP
2) The inclusion of the Detroit Lions fight song. That tune is the kitchisst thing ever written. Having it in the game almost makes me want to buy the latest iteration of Madden.
High School of the Dead — the new summer series from Madhouse is your standard zombie apocalypse meets fan-service romp.
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I really didn’t want to write this post, honestly. I’ve got plenty of other stuff I need to write about — two concert reviews, a few more anime to cover, etc — but despite all my blather on twitter on the subject, it still demands a bit more ink.
So LeBron, he didn’t stay home. let me first join the chorus and say I’ve got no problem with his leaving, that is absolutely his right. The Cavaliers had seven years to construct a quality team around him, and instead they continually went with guys just past their prime to push the team “over the top.” Clearly Cleveland was never building towards something. So do I blame LeBron for leaving? Not at all. However, I share Gene Wojciechowski and Joe Posnanski — and let’s be honest most of the Western world as well — distaste for the way he went about announcing his decision. For me in particular it was in how anti-climactic the whole affair was I tried to follow Ken Tremendous’s advice, but had to pop in just to get the actual announcement, and Jim Gray was asking LeBron how many people knew his choice. LeBron very smuggly hemmed and hawed about how it was just a handful, and yet, all day everyone knew what the answer was going to be. So in the end, the event just felt self-aggrandizing, tacky, and totally without class. Which is amazing because up until this point LeBron has been practically the perfect NBA superstar. To see him fumble so badly at the point his entire career’s been leading up to is highly surprising.
My hunch is we’re seeing the creation of the NBA’s version of the New York Yankees circa 2004-2008 — a team in name only packed with superstar players, but lacking the vital glue of a champion. And the analogy works almost too perfectly, Wade is Jeter in Miami, LeBron absolutely is A-Rod, and I suppose Bosh works out to be Jason Giambi, or something. Sure, this team will probably be able to attract the sort of grit players they need to win a championship, but they also might not. However, if I were a betting man, my guess would be that Dan Gilbert’s insane prediction will not be coming true.
It’s so sad that I can watch an entire* season of a show, yet still make lame comparisons to a similar, yet vastly different movie.
* where entire is defined as missed a couple episodes here and there.
Working!! is, in setup, a standard comedy. The relatively normal straight man thrown in with a collection of wacky characters and bounced off if them — sometimes literally in this case. And to be honest, that’s mostly what Working!! was. But what did catch me by surprise was the way the show was willing to at least acknowledge the idea of character growth. Let’s be honest, a character like Inami is so extreme as to be useless in the big wide world, and a good candidate for serious psychological counseling. The show could have kept her there — which they did for a good chunk of the run — but there were the outlines of an arc for the character, which is rare for a sitcom. In fact, if you squint, the argument could be made that the central arc of the series is Inami overcoming her father’s programming and tentatively reaching out to Souta. I’ll freely admit that’s a forced interpretation of the show, and that someone (one one) else can very easily say there is no depth here; it’s just about silly people doing silly things in a restaurant. There certainly is a lot of truth to that statement, which also was part of Working’s appeal, well that and New Items. Either way, Working!! kept me entertained all through it’s thirteen episode run, and hopefully we’ll get another meal at the Wagnaria soon.
Given the news that Nick Lidstrom is coming back for next season, and that the NHL is raising the salary cap by another two million dollars. The end result is that Ken Holland has about nine million dollars left to spend. Holland says he intends to spend the bulk of that money on resigning players like Holmstrom, Bertuzzi and a raft of their restricted free agents. To a large degree I can see the wisdom in this. The team, as constructed, suffered a host of disastrous injuries last season, and yet still managed to break the 100 point mark. However, I remain vastly skeptical of the team’s ability to generate secondary scoring. It just seems like management is in danger of falling into the trap of being overly enamoured of their own talent. I’m not advocating that they rush out and spend money on Ilya Kovalchuk, but I do feel Holland needs to add some new, proven talent to the mix. Now who knows, perhaps Filppula and Cleary will get hot next year and produce on a higher level, which would eliminate the need for that second line scorer, however I’m not sure if Filppula will ever live up to the team’s hype. Hopefully a full season with a minimum of injuries will see the team perform up to it’s expectations — not neccesarily running away from the league, but mixing it up with the elite. If they scuffle through another season though, then heading into the 2011-2012 season Holland will have to make more significant changes.
I went and got another year older. In keeping with ancient tradition, the Birthday Basset returns.
The greatest test of an album is how the songs work in a live setting, and to that end I went to see Kaki King play the Ark in Ann Arbor on Wednesday. Read the rest of this entry »
Kaki King’s previous album was a major disappointment to Slincoln Blogs. Now she’s released a new record, Junior. Is it a return to form for the guitar goddess?
Ok, so it is a little premature to call the Red Wings season over, but after crapping the bed last night the fat lady is definitely getting her obituary ready. And really that shouldn’t be all that shocking given how up and down the team has played all season. However, given how weirdly disjointed their peformance has been in this series it smarts. That is not to say the miracle couldn’t happen, it’s just the comeback would be historic.
Given that the season is on life support, my thoughts are more focused on the offseason, which now becomes the most important in Holland’s tenure. At this moment Detroit has approximately 16 million in cap space. However, ten million of that is from the expiring contracts of Holmstrom and Lidstrom. Oddly enough if you asked me which player saw the bigger dip this season I’d say Lidstrom. Don’t get me wrong, Nick still played at a high level, but not at his typical Lidstrom level. Homer meanwhile played his role and got his twenty goals. If I was to be totally objective, I would offer Homer a one year deal worth about the same, or a little less, to his current deal — so around $2mil — Lidstrom I would tell “we’ll pay you what you want because you’re the best defenseman in team history, but please consider asking for less for the good of the team.” Ideally he will feel the same and take a deal in the 4-5 million range. That still won’t give the team much wiggle room with the cap since they have to pay the returning Jiri Hudler 2.5 mil, but it gets them closer. The team should also look long and hard at signing Jimmy Howard to a long-term extension. His current deal expires after next season at which point he’ll be an unrestricted free agent.
The problem Detroit faces is that they are so close to the cap they lack the flexibility to get what they desperately need, secondary scoring. Hopefully next season Franzen will stay healthy and produce. Maybe the light has clicked with Filpulla and he can be a strong 2nd line player. And most importantly, one or more of the young players Detroit has stashed away in Grand Rapids will blossom at the NHL level. If any of those happen then the Wings will be legit contenders next year. If not, it looks like another year of scuffling for a playoff spot.
One of the new shows I’m following this season is Angel Beat, but I find myself asking the question, why?
Let’s be honest this is a weird show. High schoolers battling an agent of god in some sort of Purgatory? And their leader is a blatant Haruhi copy? And they have a band? Presumably everything is building to a grand explanation of the setting — though it’s an anime, explanations are often in short supply — but until it gets there the whole thing feels very stitched together with lots of cookie cutter characters.
Now having said that, I still find myself intrigued. For starters the animation is pretty good, especially the band bits. Also I really dug the third episode. But beyond that, I can’t help shake this feeling that these kids are raging against the wrong light. That they are fighting for all the wrong reasons, and I think that would be a fun twist. Of course I am a couple episodes behind, so maybe more of the setting is already explained and I’m wrong. Still it would be a fun subversion, and probably won’t shake out that way. Or it will, but will frame their fight in a positive light.
Angel Beat certainly is not appointment tv for me — not like Durarara! or Doctor Who are certainly — but at least I’m interested in where the story is headed, so that’s something.