Broxton Blows Another One

It's hard to give the team much shit for losing a game where they had to watch a teammate be carted off the field on a stretcher after taking a line drive in the head...

BUT!

SON. OF. A. BITCH!!!!!

This team is falling apart before our very eyes and taking this awesome season with them. They've got the Giants AND the Rockies nipping at their heels now with just a handful of games back and the Dodgers are looking the worst they have all season.

The starting pitching is spotty with Bills injured, Kuroda potentially out for no telling how long, and STILL no answer for the #5 slot which is a revolving door of mediocrity.

The bullpen is scary. Just scary. Broxton's been a completely different pitcher since his toe injury and I have less and less confidence with him every time he goes out there. He needs to be shut down to get healthy and let Sherrill close until then. It's not the ideal situation but neither is THIS Broxton in October.

The offense is eh. One day it's amazing, the next they can't produce for shit.

So, what's next?

I predict a desperation trade for a starting pitcher depending on the Kuroda diagnosis in the next week. But I don't know if that salvages anything.

Every team has a losing streak or six and theirs has arrived. Unfortunately, it's also arrived right when the teams chasing them have gotten hot. They need to get their shit together and make things happen.

And yeah, it's a hell of a lot easier said than done but it's the time of year where you've got to man up if you're going to win.

So, man up, damn it. My blood pressure can't handle shit like this.

Bridge School Benefit Rumors 2009

Well, I wouldn't really call them rumors, I guess. I have absolutely no evidence of anything I'm about to claim.

But, in all honesty, if you Google "Bridge School Benefit Rumors" you still get my post from last year so... well, I'm a whore for a post that'll get me quite a few page views! So sue me!

Actually, it's a little odd to not have much in the way of rumors at this point in the game. We're only a few weeks away from the lineup officially being announced. Is there that little interest this time around or is it just "too early?" My original post last year was actually August 14th which is totally coincidental, I assure you.

FYI, I successfully selected two bands last year not counting Neil Young himself. And although it wasn't in my post, I had talked about how I thought the Pumpkins were a strong possibility. So, let's say I called three of them! Wooo hoo me!

Let's take a crack at this...

First off... the "buzz" on the Internet that I was able to find had these as possibles.

Both of these are listed as "rumors" by someone on the Coachella board:

Pearl Jam (as of now, they have the dates cleared but who knows? I was surprised they didn't play last year considering it was an election year and all so I'd be doubly surprised if they don't make it back this year)

Dave Matthews Band (possible according to tour schedule but PLEASE GOD NO! I thought I was going to need to slit my wrists when they played Bridge a few years ago and I don't know if I can handle the thought of sitting through them again)

Another blog, Spinning Platters, picked a six band "educated guess" kinda like I'm shooting for. They went with Weezer, Neko Case, Rufus Wainwright, Stone Temple Pilots, Monsters of Folk, and Jason Mraz.

Yeah, I could live with that. Let's hope they're right!

My turn...

The show will, of course, start with some stuff from Pegi and Neil. That leaves 6 or 7 spots.

I'll go with the easy one first. I'm fairly sure Pearl Jam will make their BSB return this year.

And while the Neko Case argument from Spinning Platters makes sense, I'm going to say that it'll be Regina Spektor instead who will be in Los Angeles on 10/28. There's a chance there could be both - which would be awesome - but I don't expect it.

Josh Radin is playing with The Watson Twins supporting in Los Angeles on 10/28 so I'm gonna pick them to join the bill. Potentially, I might go with a Jenny Lewis or Rilo Kiley appearance here as well to work with the Watsons.

That probably only leaves 2 spots. Snow Patrol looks like they're ending their tour in Los Angeles on 10/20 and the Decemberists will be in SF the week before BSB. I'm going with my hope on this one that the Decemberists hang around for a set.

And my final pick is that Bob Dylan will be there as well. He's finishing a run of shows in LA on 10/15 so it wouldn't be too big of a stretch.

So, there it is...

Pegi kicks off the show.

The Watsons get the early day death slot.

Josh Radin goes on next.

The Decemberists are on as night starts to fall.

Regina Spektor is next.

Pearl Jam blows everyone away as usual.

Bob Dylan takes the lengthy pre-Neil slot.

Neil wraps it all up.

Oh, and I'll call the PJ/Dylan pairing on "Masters Of War" that will rock my pants.

What Have You Done For Me Lately?

I read earlier tonight that Bryan Singer is growing close to signing on to produce and possibly direct a Battlestar Galactica feature film. Ordinarily, in a post-Superman Returns world, I'm not sure I'd know how to feel about that.

Luckily, Universal has managed to make my feelings very strong about this one.

Despite the fact that they're rolling over a super-popular, critically acclaimed BSG series helmed by Ron Moore, they've decided that they don't need Moore involved with this project. And yeah, I guess that's true since they've decided to ignore the recent TV series and make this movie a throwback to the original series.

If I had the emoticon for shaking my head nearby, I'd use it here.

I mean... fuck.

Seriously?

I'm not sure where this ranks on the stupidity scale but I have to imagine it may be just a little bit lower than Fox deciding to base a Buffy movie remake on the original film and not the wildly-popular Joss Whedon TV series.

So, two amazingly talented writer/directors give you two amazingly fantastic TV series that revive your property that was basically dead and buried before they came along and their reward for their hard work and talent?

"Well, we'll just do this next one without you."

What have you done for me lately?

We're Talkin' Baseball

So, it's been a couple of days. I decided that I wasn't doing anyone [least of all myself] any favors by forcing myself to post every day when I felt like I didn't have any desire to write anything. The YouTube clips are fun but after a while, I'm sure they get annoying to everyone - even to me.

I saw this article today at work and thought it'd make an interesting post. A writer at Fox Sports decided to pick 10 ways that the 2009 baseball season could get even better before it ends. A couple of these hit home so here are my thoughts on their thoughts...

A Triple Crown For Albert Pujols
My immediate reaction was, "Holy shit - is he really that close to make that a discussion point?" Apparently, he has a shot... not a great shot... but a shot. He leads the NL in homers and RBIs and is fourth in batting average trailing the leader by 17 points. The HR and RBI lead is superslight so it'd be incredibly tough for him to win the Crown. It'll be a hell of a time if he's even close to it in September though.

A Dodgers/Yankees World Series
Awwww shit! As much as Southern California is all a-giddy at the thought of a Dodgers/Angels World Series, who wouldn't love to see the crosscountry Series just a little bit more? Well, the Angels fans, of course, but since when did their opinions count? Give me any reason for talk about Mr. October and the Bobby Welch strikeout and all those other cool Dodgers/Yankees stories.

Wild Wild Card Finishes
It's interesting because I was one of the people completely irate when the baseball divisions got split into three and the Wild Card was added and while I often think I was completely right, especially when divisional races turn out pointless because of the Wild Card, I have to admit that it's provided some damn fun races for that playoff spot in the past.

300 Strikeouts For Tim Lincecum
Agggh. I REFUSE to root for any Giant setting any kind of record but god damn, it's a cool one for him to snag. If he hits that mark, he'll be the first pitcher to do so since 2001. He'll also be the youngest pitcher to do it since Vida Blue [the first person I ever heard of it with my name] back in 1971. In fact, he'd be the youngest NL pitcher since 1900 to pull it off. Good grief. But he's a Giant so fuck that noise.

A Dodgers/Giants NLCS
God damn that would be fun. But I really have no desire to meet a rotation in the playoffs that contains Randy Johnson, Tim Lincecum, and Matt Cain. Nope. No desire. Not at all. And yeah, that may make me a coward but I'm a smart coward, damn it. Keep the Giants out of my way and things will be just fine.

Another 200 Hits For Ichiro
Wow. I didn't realize that he was one more 200 hit season from the record. Can you imagine what this guy would have managed if his entire career was spent here instead of just part of it? The funny thing is that Ichiro's continued awesomeness is the reason that every single Japanese player that gets posted gets snatched up lightning quick. Signing a Japanese player is like a box of chocolates - you just never know what the hell you might get.

A Cubs/Cardinals Photo Finish
Eh, I guess that's cool. I don't know that I really care. I've always had a soft spot for the Cubbies but it's not like I'm going to root for them unless the Dodgers don't get there so it's really a wash to me. The teams only have 3 games left against each other [who wrote that horrid schedule?] so it won't be much of a fun race, in my opinion.

The Tigers Go All The Way
Um, fuck no. Okay, fine... I rooted for New York to win the World Series after 9/11 but I'll be damned if I'm rooting for the Tigers no matter how bad of shape the auto industry is in!

A Pedro Renaissance
Um, FUCK no. I am not cheering for this - especially after being slapped around by Philly in the NLCS last year.

The Pirates Finish On A Hot Streak
Really? The Pirates managing NOT to break the record for most consecutive losing seasons (17 seasons?! My god! I'd stab my eyes out if I had to watch this team) is going to make MLB 2009 a better season? I'm not sure about that. Now if they could set that record and then become scorching hot in 2010 to shock everyone by winning their division - THAT I could get behind. The ultimate in worst to first.

Not a bad list, huh? I could dig seeing a few of those go down. It's been such a fun season to watch...

...and I STILL haven't been to a game. FUUUUUUUUCK!

The Coolest Thing I've Seen All Day

Oh. My. God.

Make sure you watch both parts because this is one of the most awesome things ever... EVER!

Dodgers Lose. EPIC FAIL.

The bullpen continues to freak me out every time they're used (and even more when they're overused.)

I'm too tired to look it up right now but the number of Broxton blown saves sure has to be piling up in a hurry.

(500) Days Of Summer

Go see this. Please. I beg. I implore. I plead. It was awesome and must be seen by all of you thinking, "Hey, maybe I'll go see Funny People this weekend" or other such crap.

Please.

PLEASE!

The Fresh Prince Of Milwaukee

One of my favorite baseball stories of the year...

KILL SCREEN

The Elevator Action one is my fav.

Not Feeling The Writing Lately

Old School

Stuck in the parking lot of Irvine Meadows. No post tonight.

Sent from my iPhone

The Happiest Place On Earth

We're Talkin' Baseball...

With the trade deadline coming up tomorrow, it seemed like a good time to run down some of the happenings on and off the diamond.

Dodgers beat Cards!  I knew this four game set was going to be a nightmare when I saw it on the schedule but I had no idea it'd be this bad.  Blown saves, extended rain delays, extra innings, shutouts.  Good grief, Charlie Brown.  Thankfully they managed to scrape out one win tonight but the pitching staff and offense have both managed to fall asleep at the same time.

Speaking of the pitching staff - the Dodgers made a deal today, sending out two minor leaguers for Orioles closer George Sherrill who is a pitcher I've seen described today as "death on left handed hitters."  The bullpen looks to be gaining some strength back with the return of Kuo and the addition of Sherrill.  It doesn't mean that Torre won't manage to overwork them in the two months left and make them useless but let's hope for the best.  I wouldn't be opposed to seeing another 'pen arm picked up if the price is right.

Still no starter added though which makes me nervous.  I'm fine with Bills, Kershaw, Kuroda, and Wolf.  I truly am.  Sure, I'd love a Cliff Lee or Halladay to lead the pack but I'm really fine without them.  I know, I know.  Everyone wants the Dodgers to have an "ace" but honestly, how many teams have a legit ace starter leading the way?  Besides if Bills is half of an ace and Kershaw is half of an ace... ?  Both of those guys have ace stuff and the potential to be an ace on any given night.  I think both are showing signs of fatigue though which worries me.  What I'd like to see though is one more back of the rotation guys.  Schmidt doesn't appear to be the answer.  Neither does Weaver [although he looks good every once in a while.]  James McDonald?  Scott Elbert?  Maybe.  But neither of them can get settled in that spot before they get yanked out of it.  Who is out there?  No clue.

In addition to all the trade deadline madness, of course there was the Manny story today.  I think I've lost the ability to care.  I officially have PED story fatigue.  I'm just going to assume that everyone from pre-2003 was probably taking something and deal with it.  I'm not sure there are any names left that could come out on that list that would surprise me.  Let's just deal with the people testing positive now and not worry about who tested positive six years ago.

I'll be home some of the day tomorrow so if the Dodgers manage to make any more moves, I might drop in with some comments.

In the meantime... go Blue!

A Shit Ton Of Stuff

Tiffani Thiessen is Busy from Tiffani Thiessen

The End Of An Era Is Upon Us

If the Dodgers first 3-game losing streak of the season wasn't enough to be bummed about, the news broke today that legendary Hall of Fame announcer Vin Scully plans to announce in 2010 and then hang 'em up.

Part of me is glad to have that date out there because the man deserves the rest.

Part of me is terrified because the Dodgers have yet to find anyone who comes close to lacing Vinny's proverbial boots in the booth.

And part of me is sad because I just can't imagine a historic Dodger moment going down without Vinny's voice there to call it.

It's the end of an era upon us, folks... just about fifteen months away.

Hot And Cold

I still can't decide if I'm going to like it or not but with just a week or so to go until the G.I. Joe movie finally hits the big screen, they've done a pretty good job lately of getting my interest back up. A couple of decent reviews from the boys at AICN have me leaning towards wanting to see it after months of bad news had me leaning the other way.

They released this video to further hype. Not sure it succeeded but...

OC Fair 2009: A Day In Photos

Finally got my photos from yesterday on the computer so I thought I'd share a batch of them.  Enjoy!

This is the first thing I saw when I got out of the car.  I'd never ride the damn thing [I hate Ferris Wheels!] but it's a pretty imposing sight when you first walk in.

"And they called it... puppy looooooove"

The sheep seemed absolutely terrified when someone got in their pen, all herding up in a pile like this.  That or someone lost their keys and everyone was pitching in.  One or the other.

"By day, I'm just your normal everyday farm animal.  But by night..."

"I AM EL DANDY!  FAMED LUCHADOR!"

Poor guy.  I never really thought sheep and goats and the like were personable animals but these guys really seemed like they were almost like pets.

"What?!  The Dodgers are letting Jason Schmidt pitch again?!"

All together now... "Awwwwww!"

The rabbits had it the worst of any animals I saw all day.  Some of those cages weren't any bigger than a shoebox.  

This was the cutest little guy.  He kept sniffing the bars when I moved the camera closer so I got some really cool closeups.  Damn bars get in the way though.

A moment before this shot, the little guy tried to stand on the other one to reach the feed bag but fell flat. I guess this was good enough for him though.

I swear, for the first few seconds, I thought this pig was dead (swine flu!).  All the pigs just looked exhausted, sprawled out and sleeping.  Don't worry - I didn't lay on the ground next to the pig for this one but the camera did get lowered quite a bit for it.

A Dodger pig!  AY!  Save the Lasorda jokes, jackass!

Speaking of pigs... here's the pulled pork sandwich I had for lunch.  I didn't even realize I ate pulled pork after looking at pigs until I just wrote that.  Egads, that's awkward.  Oh, and large beer = $9.  Painful but oh-so-nice on a warm day.

Giant sand sculpture of Weird Al's head.  No, we didn't go the 3-D showing of Al's Brain and yes, this is a very close second for most disturbing photo I've seen this week.  First place of course goes to the Twilight Moms.

I thought this was a cool shot.  I need to play with the coloring a little bit when I get some time.  Oh, and those gondolas look like the most potentially deadly things I've seen in ages.

Ah yes.  Fair food.  The quickest way to a stomachache.  I successfully avoided the plethora of fried foods that sabotage all fair trips.  Last year, we ate corn dogs and some horrific Australian ranch fries thing where they cut big slabs of potato, deep fry them, and serve them with ranch and liquid cheese.  The mere sight of those this year made me feel sick all over again.  My mom thought the Deep Fried Avocados might not be bad.  I couldn't bear the thought of eating anything from this "menu."

Of course, since I had a photo on exhibit in the Visual Arts area, that was the main reason we were attending this year.  I knew I hadn't won anything but I still wanted to see it on display and check out some of the others.  I felt weird taking photos of other people's photos - although there were some fantastic pictures and anyone who goes to the Fair should spend plenty of time checking them out - so I snapped a few of pieces of artwork that I liked.

And of course, I had no qualms about taking a photo of my photo.  I'm still pretty proud of it even though there were no less than 3 peacock photos within a fifteen foot radius of each other including one that looked almost identical.  

Thank you, thank you.  Hold your applause.  No, no, really.  Okay, fine.  Anyone who wants to buy a print of it, let me know!  I'm a not-so-starving, non-college student who could really use the money!

When rides collide!  Well, not literally but at a Fair, would you be surprised?  God damn carnies!

And lastly, the award for Worst Sounding Fair Food goes to...

Ugh.

We had a fun time in our few hours there but we were very glad to be heading home as the crowds got larger as the day went on.

Besides, we got in a game of the BSG board game last night to boot so that's well worth cutting a Fair day short, you know?

Affliction DOWN!

I was planning to do a photo blog tonight about my day at the Orange County Fair alas I haven't had the chance to upload my photos to the computer yet.

Instead, we'll talk about one of the happiest days in Dana White's life.

Affliction as a fight promoting company is dead. Not a big shock. I think we all saw it coming at one point or another but I think we also all thought they'd manage to get one more show out before the end. Josh Barnett and his love of being muscly ruined that one, didn't it?

So, with Barnett out, apparently Affliction decided they had no marketable Main Event available to save their show - a fair estimation in my point of view as they had presented no potential opponents that I'd pay to see Fedor against. Now, granted, I wasn't going to pay to see Barnett against Fedor either but...

Once again, there's a vacuum in MMA as Dream, Strike Force, and the UFC will scamper to pick up the pieces - not that there's a lot of pieces worth picking up. Anyone not named Fedor could pretty much have been had at any time.

One more obstacle is out of the way for that Fedor vs Brock match.

But will it be enough?

Oh, and don't get me started on the Tito Ortiz stuff!

This Is The World We Live In

I don't know if I should be disgusted or frightened.