If you're angry and you know it, punch a cooler

Let's add these two to the list of baseball player's bonehead plays. In the spirit of NY Yankee pitcher Kevin Brown's hand-breaking, wall-punching incident of last year (which put him in surgery and lost 23 days of playing time), here are two more gems:

Oliver Perez kicked a laundry basket after a terrible outing against the Cardinals. He broke his toe and was placed on the disabled list.

Kenny Rogers punched a cooler after his bad outing, and broke a bone in his pitching hand. ESPN wrote, "Rogers was visibly upset when umpires ruled that the final Nationals hitter he faced checked his swing on a full-count pitch. Rogers spiked the ball to the ground when Showalter came out to remove him from the game and found the cooler soon after that."

Breaking a bone because of a checked swing? Man, you've got some issues. I guess getting paid millions of dollars a year doesn't mean you're any smarter.

The thing that gets me is that you're super frustrated by your performance that just ran up your ERA to the five or six range, but instead of being able to bring it down in your next outing, you've got to sit on the bench tending to an injury that was entirely your own fault. Waiting around 23 days to make up for a split-second mistake must suck big time.

Mark Twain Tonight!

When I was a sophomore in high school, I did a project called "Revolutionary Resurrection" where I portrayed Mark Twain for a ten minute presentation. It was then that my uncle introduced me to Hal Holbrook, lending me a vinyl recording of "Mark Twain Tonight." He told me about how he had seen the show years back, and that no one did an impersonation of Mark Twain better than him. Studying the recording proved to be advantageous, and I recall doing fairly well on the presentation because of it.

So, when I saw the NY Times review I knew that I had to pay my respects to the man who had aided my academic success, and who I ironically thought was dead at the time I first heard the recording in high school. (Twain would have remarked that the rumor's of Holbrook's death had been greatly exaggerated.)

Last night my uncle and I ventured into NYC to see the man who shared our love for Twain's wit, wisdom, and witticism. We arrived just in the nick of time, and upon shuffling into our seats happened to be standing next to Bill Bradley, former senator for the state of New Jersey and former presidential hopeful back in the 2000 presidential election. I moved from independent status to be a Democrat in that primary, just to vote for him. I really thought he would have made a great president. Unfortunately, I have not had much luck in that arena lately.

I mention this because, not only was it cool that I got to shake his hand and tell him that I voted for him, (p.s. he has not lost any of his height) but also because politicians were one of Twain's (and Holbrook's) favorite targets. The other irony was that on this particular night so were people in insurance and advertising business (the career paths of both my uncle and myself, respectively). So, no one in the house seemed to be immune to the cynicism. He was an equal-opportunity critic.

The show was absolutely wonderful. Holbrook was able to perform for two hours without more than half a dozen glances at his notes, including a good 15 minute routine where he acted out a scene from the great Huckleberry Finn.

It was very impressive to see how timeless Twain's commentary is on the issues of politics, culture, war, good and evil, religion, and life in general. If you didn't know anything about Mark Twain, you could come away from the show thinking that Holbrook was doing commentary on many modern issues. In fact, he has simply been able to choose parts of Twain's thoughts that are pervasive even today, because they lack specificity of time and place. Instead Twain was able to see a much larger picture, and explore situations for the 'why' as opposed to the 'who', 'when' and 'where.' Perhaps that's why he despised journalists so often, despite being one for many years.

I'm not sure if this will be Holbrook's last performances as Twain. As my uncle noted, he was playing a more cynical and aging Twain in the show. If it is, I'll be happy to say that I saw him once, and I had no idea if it was Hal Holbrook, Mark Twain, or Samuel Clemens on stage.

Batman Begins

When I saw the previews for Batman Begins, I thought to myself, "No way. Not again. I'm not seeing that." But I should have noticed something. There was something different about the trailers. They were teasers. They didn't give me any insight into what the movie is about... you know like most movie previews do now a days, giving you more than a taste of every important scene.

Well, I was drawn into the theaters by some spectacular reviews of Batman Begins by the New York Times and others. The applause from those writers will be echoed here.

This movie is fantastic. It is a total departure from the down-the-hole route the others were taking this story. Visually it's stunning, and not in any way the others had been. Part of the story is filmed in Iceland, which is akin to Hollywood's discovery of New Zealand in The Lord of the Rings. Normally these type of films use special effects to the point of saturation, or manufacture plot points simply for the placement of some extra flashy effect. In this film, every effect seemed to be justified by the story line, and (to my own surprise) actually enhanced the story.

Surprising was the use of the film's martial arts integration and the retelling of Bruce Wayne's childhood story. The worth-wile time re-telling this well-known story was also surprising. There was foreshadowing, but it was subtle, and no part of the story-telling was not utilized to support the characters.

Katie Holmes was surprisingly believable, except for the last scene, which seemed to draw on the sappy-ness of her previous roles. Perhaps writers and directors need to start casting her in more defiant roles.

Christian Bale has made himself a great Bruce Wayne and Batman. His delivery as a millionare and super hero were equally convincing.

Morgan Freeman's appearance is always appreciated, and this film was no exception.

Michael Caine was also very believable, and was a perfect cast as Alfred.

If you have questioned seeing this film, as I did, you need to come around. Don't wait for video or DVD. It's worth the sound and atmosphere that the movie theater brings, including, dare I say, the $9.50 price-tag (minus the pre-game commercials, of course).

The birds and the birds

This is straight out of health class, until you see what the film is promoting. You have got to see this video. It's actually quite beautiful, and then turns hilarious.

Micahel Jackson's playlist

While in the car today, I was listening to the verdict come in for the Michael Jackson case. I shuffled through the stations as it came in and here are some of the songs that were playing...

"Smooth Criminal" by Michael Jackson (performed by Alien Ant Farm)
"Beat It" by Michael Jackson (as in "he beat the charges")
"Don't Stand So Close to Me" - The Police

How apropos!

Time really is money

I saw an ad for these two Corum brand watches, and I thought the y were pretty sweet... until I found out that they are priced for literally thousands of dollars. I know there are some pretty expensive watches made in this world, but usually those are gem studded or platinum or something.

These "dive bomber" watches are modeled after WWII dive bomber planes, the facade of whom would have a menacing face painted on the nose. The shark and tiger were common choices for the planes. I recall thinking this was really cool when I was younger, and dreamed of being a fighter pilot.

The watches are sweet because they not only incorporate the dive bomber artwork, but the propeller is in the design of the second hand as well. I really wanted to get one of the watches, until I saw the price.

Three thousand dollars for a watch?! Maybe it's just me, but I can't justify putting three thousand dollars on my wrist each day. To me, that's like asking me to strap my PowerBook to my wrist and use it only to tell time. For that kind of money, the watch should do more (like my PowerBook does).

So, now the problem is... it's a cool design, and I want one, but even eBay's best prices are near $2,000. How do I get my hands on one?

Christian calling?

Tonight, I saw an ABC News story that blew my mind.

There is a conservative Christian telephone company out there that is calling people, using tele-marketers, telling them that Sprint, AT&T, and MCI support pornography and sex. And besides that, they tell people that if you don't like the issue of gay marriage, or if you don't like gays in general, then you should use their telephone service... because they don't either.

This is one of the many examples of right wing extremism, via conservative Christians, that is giving Christianity a bad name.

When I went to Sunday school, Jesus was a lover, not a hater. I also remember some stuff about not judging others, accepting everyone as you want to be accepted, etc. I'm tired of people making me feel like I'm not Christian because I don't hate homosexuals. It's ridiculous.

I'm not going to link to the company's web site, because I don't want to give them any business, or their web site any hits. The "busniness" is called United American Technology, and you can look it up on your own if you need proof that it exists. Since when is it a united American ideal to promote hate and bigotry? Since when is it an American ideal to be slanderous towards other companies? I think I just puked in my mouth several times over.

I'm not going to let companies or people like this destroy the positive things about Christianity. Let it be known... I am a Christian, and I accept and embrace homosexuals.

The Music Genome Project

Like most cool things I hear about, this tangent is in reference to a story I heard on NPR. Scott Simon interviewed the founder of Savage Beast Technologies, Tim Westergren, about how the Music Genome Project could change the way we find new music.

Instead of relying on purchase histories to identify songs you may like, the Music Genome Project, can make a musical suggestion based on the categorizing of 400 distinct musical attributes. This method is set up to ensure a more accurate musical match to your personal taste. The process is succinctly summed up on their web site, but the basic idea is that you could ask the application to find a song like song X and you could instantly find songs A through P that all have a distinct musical closeness to song X.

A truly amazing amount of time and effort must have been put into this project, because you can't test it until you've built the library with thousands (and I would hazard to guess, millions) of songs catalogued... and catalogued accurately and consistently. The examples given on the radio seemed amazingly similar, and sold me on the method's ability to suggest a very close style of song.

It all seems pretty powerful for the world of mood films, advertising, industrial design, and web design. To be able to match a song's tone, rhythm, and styling could open the doors for better musical choices in design... fewer cliche songs, perhaps... or maybe more?

After hearing about this, one does not need to wonder if this application will be bought, but when and by whom. On the radio program Tim Wetergren said that he could not talk about a deal that was in the works, but my friend Chris has predicted that Apple would snatch it up for use with it's, already market dominant, iTunes software.

I tend to agree with the prediction, as I think Apple is the type of company that looks for this type of innovation. I also think that rival companies may be looking to beat Apple at some of it's own innovation game. They may be willing to front some big cash to isolate Apple from the technology, with an exclusive contract or buy out.

My hope is that Apple is working the deal. I don't think anything could get me to move from using iTunes to another digital music store/service, but who knows?