Thursday, June 5, 2014

Memorial Day-Vacation Sports Journal 2014 Part 5

Monday

Today’s meal: A Dominos Chicken Bacon Ranch sub sandwich.  It’s not like I’d go there for their pizza.  Their subs are actually excellent, but they do take about 15 minutes since they run them through their oven.  That’s enough time for me to walk over there to pick it up and work up an appetite.  It was a beautiful day, why not?  I baked up a side of sweet potato tots to go with it.  Yeah, it was good.

Movies
It doesn’t have to be all sports, does it? 

I picked up the Director’s Cut of Blade Runner at the used bookstore.  (I suppose it’s not going to boost my literary credentials to say that I also got two comics and a graphic novel there.)  I’d heard about the cut version, but never actually seen it, though I’ve seen the original many times.  This was a barebones, no extras or commentary version, which is okay, since most extras are a complete waste of time. 

I was, as always, struck by the level of detail in the sets, just layer upon layer of detail.  Incredible.  I’ve heard that they’re making a sequel.  They’ve got their work cut out for them to duplicate the look (especially as technology has dramatically moved on from what was featured in the movie).  Harrison Ford hated the movie (and it mostly shows).  He said about director Ridley Scott’s production, “The actors were just human props on his massive sets.”  In this case, the sets were the real star of the movie.  

Essentially the cut had to two differences.  There’s no Marlowe-esqe voice-over.  Given how listlessly Harrison Ford did it, you’d think you wouldn’t miss it.  In this case, the studio was right to insist on it.  At least in the beginning part of the film, it’s way too spare and uninvolving without it.  The other thing was the insertion of a Unicorn dream sequence.  It’s like an outtake from another Scott movie, Legend.  It’s supposed to show that Deckard might actually be a Replicant himself.  I don’t get it or why you’d want to insinuate it either.  Thankfully, they didn’t really change the ending, which I was most afraid of.

Green Lantern was on a Juarez station Sunday night.  I say this with full irony, it’s like a Disney animated movie.  If it had been, you might not have questioned all of the questionable motivations and plotting, chalking it up as a Sci-fi fairy tale.  Ryan Reynolds wasn’t bad and there were a few witty lines, but you can’t make sh*t shine.  If this had been part of some larger DC universe of films, where Superman and Batman were well-known heroes, Hal Jordan taking up the mantle, might have made more sense.

Soccer
During the Green Lantern broadcast there were non-stop commercials featuring the World Cup.  Not to mention, Fox broadcast yet another European soccer championship on Saturday.  Somehow they can show these matches without constant commercial interruption, but not NASCAR.  If baseball is boring, then what is soccer?  What am I missing whenever I’ve tried watching?  Why is this national, international, all forms of media whether sports related or not, all-out marketing blitz somehow not improving my opinion of the actual sport itself.  The collective media is trying very, very hard to get my attention for a sport that they don’t get to run commercials during every five minutes.  Highly suspicious.  I don’t see soccer as a sport in this country; I see it as an agenda.   

Tennis
I tried watching French Open tennis while I was eating, but I couldn’t sit through it.  If Maria Sharapova was playing, maybe, but without some sex appeal, the sport no longer has any appeal for me.  I used to love watching, pretty much regardless of who was playing (more so if there was an attractive girl involved).    

Baseball
I didn’t like rooting against the Tigers for the last two days.  I have a Tigers pennant and a black and white, mounted photo of my long-lost, beloved Tigers hat on my wall.  But, I have to show loyalty to one of my other favorite teams, the Rangers, since it’s their broadcast.  Eric Nadel was absent again for the Memorial Day game.  Matt Hicks had it covered for the Rangers 7-2 win over the Twins, whom I have no trouble rooting against.  Once again, there were challenges on every close play, though not all successfully.  It looks like this will be a constant interruption in the game.  Look, if you don’t want managers and players arguing, just do what you do for balls and strikes, automatic ejection.   

After Rangers game, I flipped over to the El Paso Chihuahuas game.  I tuned in just as Brooks Conrad hit a two-run homer against the Rainiers in the 3rd, for the first score of the game.  Timing is everything.   I keep meaning to mention Matt Wisler, one of the Padres’ top pitching prospects.  I keep not doing it, because he hadn’t done anything worthwhile.  Today, however, he totally nailed it: 7 innings, 1 unearned run, 2 hits, 1 walk, 7 strikeouts.  Little wonder the dogs won 3-1 in a bit more than two hours.  No doubt both teams were exhausted after the first three games in the series.

Meanwhile, I hear in the update that the Tigers’ freefall continues, as they lose 10-0 to the A’s.  I had hoped KROD would join an ESPN game in progress, as I got to listen to a Memorial Day double header last year, but I was being too greedy.

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