Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Pertaining to a young or small bird

Oh yeah, I'm on it baby. I created an account a while back but didn't really do anything with it. But recently, I had an epiphany, "Since I never have time for a proper blog post, this might be the best way for people to keep track of me." So I'm gonna try and start tweeting regularly ... and hopefully force myself to blog more.

It's funny, I have all these great ideas for blog posts and then I never follow through on them. I bet I could create a whole new blog just about blog posts that I didn't post here, but are actually awesome ideas. By the way, the name Twitter is stupid. I feel embarrassed just saying it to other people. I'm not a bird, I'm a person. I type or write or speak or talk or walk or run. I don't tweet.

Seriously, look it up. Tweet means "a weak chirping sound, as of a young or small bird," according to dictionary.com. Now maybe I'm just not up on the latest evolutionary experiments, but last I heard birds both young and small have never had the capability to use a computer, mobile device, or anything else that people can update their twitters with. But whatever, I'll get over the unfortunate word choice.

Moral of the story is follow me at twitter.com.mgiannotto if you'd like.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Bad News, Ben Affleck

]I come bearing news that may seem malicious, but for me, truly feel is saddening. And come HOPING for a Mickey Rourke-like pro wrestling style comeback. It all, strangely, revolves around Ben Affleck.

I was channel surfing after work, looking for something to watch. When I saw Resurrecting the Champ with Josh Hartnett and Samuel L., I immediately flipped over (Shocker, I'm a sucker for any movie involving newspapers). Instead I got the aforementioned, and might I add awful, Affleck.

I've seen Resurrecting the Champ before, so I was pretty sure Ben Affleck wasn't in the movie. The big hint? I stopped watching Ben Affleck movies after Boiler Room. From there really, it was all down hill. No exaggeration either. Just look at his imdb page (Surviving Christmas and Gigli are first in line if some alien planet ever takes over and wants to start burning our film library). I don't want to criticize him too much, though. I used to like Ben Affleck movies.

But as I was watching this movie, trying to figure out what it was, I actually picked up a little but of the plot. Ben Affleck was going after Kate Beckinsale, and well, you don't really change the channel that quickly when Beckinsale is on. Clearly for anyone who has seen Pearl Harbor, it's clear what movie I'm talking about. The days of Pearl Harbor being a year past the Boiler Room breaking point, I had never seen this movie. And after watching several minutes, for good reason. All I wanted to do was get rid of Affleck's character. He was just irritating.

An interesting subplot in all this is why my cable box was wrong with its schedule. Why did it keep saying the Josh Harnett movie I wanted to see was on, when really I was getting the Josh Hartnett flick I hate? This whole situation would have never happened if it were just accurate.

But here's my grand proclamation in all this. As I'm watching this Ben Affleck scene with unbiased eyes towards him — since I didn't know what movie it was — the moment I realized I hated it was watching him open a cork from a bottle of wine square on his nose, which he had earlier broken. The only enjoyment I got out of it was seeing Affleck at least act out pain. Sadly, my head immediately went to this thought, "Man, I hope that seen is as real as it seems and Affleck is really hurting." Maybe I'm wrong here, but it doesn't seem right to want to see someone holler in pain. That can't be what good acting is. Every other aspect of his being had made me cringe in disgust/anger at what I was watching.

Call me crazy, but don't you just want to hit this man.

Like I said, I used to enjoy Ben Affleck. Boiler Room was great. He did some nice work with Kevin Smith. Apparently he wrote Good Will Hunting with Matt Damon. He directed some stuff, too. His portrayal of one Fred O'Bannion in Dazed and Confused still has a warm place in my heart. But when weighed with these "gems

I just don't think it's a very good sign for a career when the only thing I enjoyed about a scene — when watching it without having any preconceived notions — was watching his acting version of genuine pain.

Why does this all matter you? Don't know if you've seen the trailer for Russell Crowe's latest movie, but we may be at a crossroads here. Usually a movie starring Russell Crowe is a must see — and not just because he's Lloyd Carr's boy. He's a great actor, one of the best around right now in this guy's book.

On a side note, here's an interesting article by a Washington Post metro editor about being a consultant on State of Play.

Yes, State of Play, which came to theaters last weekend, goes directly up against my anti-Ben Affleck feelings. It's a movie where Crowe stars as a journalist — usually status that makes it a must see movie. The problem, Affleck is Crowe's nemesis in the film i.e. in a major role. And here's the real bad news for Ben Affleck in all this. The more and more I think about it, I realize that I've been down this road before. I invested good, hard earned time (and a lot of times money, too) on travesties like Armageddon, Hollywood Land, Paycheck, Changing Lanes, not to mention Jersey Girl and Daredevil.

Let's just put it this way, Obama may be able to lift the Cuba embargo, but even in these times of change, even with a movie about a newspaper, the Ben Affleck Embargo stays. That's bad news for you, Ben Affleck.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

A Notebook of Thoughts

I really wish I could expound more on this blog, but you know, life gets hectic. I went to Florida, somehow figured out a way to cover the Frozen Four from the Sunshine State, and then when I got back, shit hit the proverbial fan. I found out there were some more layoffs at my full time gig, meaning I'm not only covering boring high school sports, I've now added boring school board and county council meetings to my docket. Essentially I'm back to my New York Sun days, except instead of the excitement and blowhardness of New York City, I get the mundane comings and goings of Suburbia. Oh yeah, the Capitals just started the NHL playoffs, and I'm covering that, too.

Throw in an impromptu visit to NYC (And really shouldn't all trips be spur of the moment. Everyone drinks more, savors the moment more, and in general thinks about it more — both positively and negatively). But through all this, I haven't been able to write for pleasure — something that I hope will change come summer time. And really, there's so much to write about. It's my favorite time of the year to be a sports fan.

Greg Paulus: Yeah, there has been a lot of talk about this whole Greg Paulus to Michigan thing. There's Paulus's take — "With me only having an opportunity to play for one year, the chance and the opportunity to compete at a high level is important. There is an opportunity to do that at Michigan."

There's Michigan freshman and presumed starter next season Tate Forcier's take: "“I’ve been talking to coaches all morning, and my position coach, Coach Smith, he told me specifically that they have not offered him — they don’t know why he would lie,” Forcier said Thursday afternoon. “They said, ‘We’ll let you’ll know what’s up,’ because right now, their specific words were, they haven’t offered.”

And then there's the man who really matters, Rich Rodriguez. Oh wait, he hasn't commented on this, instead letting this story ferment for a couple days. People have called and texted with outrage along the lines of "Why! Why! Paulus?" To me, though, it's a non-issue. The guy can only play for one year so he won't be taking a scholarship. It's not like any current quarterbacks on the Michigan roster have done anything to merit no competition for the job.

And frankly, I don't expect Paulus to win the job even if he does come. He'd have to be an other worldly talent to win the job for a rebuilding team that's looking to get its quarterback much-needed reps. Plus, I'm one of the few people on the planet ecstatic about this development. It's a fusion between two of my passions. But in the end, I'm convinced this will be a non issue. Forcier is gonna start, with the other freshman, Denard Robinson, getting some reps as well. As for a predicted record, ummm ... did you see last season? I'm not gonna venture down that path until I absolutely have to.

The Nats: Hey, not sure if you noticed but the Nats finally got in the winning column last night, beating the Phils. When I was down in Florida for a week, I caught the Nats second game of the season and grew quickly depressed as a bunch of Marlin runs went up on the scoreboard and I had no ammunition to fire at the 5,000 or so fans in the crowd.

I'm not sure what to think about this Nats team. They can hit some, but as expected the pitching is pretty atrocious. Last night was the first time all season the team got a quality start. I was quietly optimistic in spring training, and I could still see them being excitingly average, but we'll see. Be optimistic all you want — I'm officially declaring the race for the worst record in baseball on.

Gilbert: Gilbert Arenas came back for two games at the end of the season to test out that balky knee and did reasonably well. Now he's telling reporters that he wants the Wiz to get more serious for next season after this year's 19-63 — yeah it got that ugly — record. I get to meet Gilbert tomorrow (Saturday) at an Adidas store opening that I willingly volunteered to cover. I want to meet Gilbert so bad that I'm skipping being in attendance for Game 2 of the Rangers-Caps series. Hopefully, I'll be able to score an interview with my man, Gilbert. And by hopefully, I mean there's no way I'm going to this thing and not having some kind of interaction with the dude.

As for the Flip Saunders hiring, I like it. I like it a lot. Some were calling for Avery Johnson, but I think Phoenix was a prime example of what happens when a team tries to hire a mismatched coach that doesn't match the strengths of a team. The Wiz need to embrace offense because in my opinion, there still isn't a threesome that can score with Gilbert, Caron, and Antawn (when healthy) in the Eastern Conference. They aren't better than teams at rebounding, they aren't better in crunch time, and they sure as hell ain't better than any quality teams in the defense department.

The Economy: I took news of things like Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup actually posting profits like a Nats victory. Yeah, they won, but what about the end of the season. The record is still gonna be horrible. We may have stemmed the tide when it comes to residential real estate and the sheer orge-like corruptness that is the collective leadership of investment banks in the this country, but there's a new monster on the horizon starting to bear its head. But then you hear things like this:

New-home construction tumbled 11 percent in March, according to government data released yesterday, dashing hopes that the troubled housing market had begun to improve. The drop was bigger than analysts had expected and was a reversal from the surprise 20 percent jump in new-home construction in February, which had stoked hopes of a market rebound. Most of the drop came in the market for multi-family housing such as condominiums and apartment buildings with five or more units, which tumbled 42.6 percent.

In addition, I'd heard rumblings from friends in the real estate market that said commercial real estate is what will keep this recession alive and kicking. I work in an area of Northern Virginia called Tyson's Corner that is almost exclusively office buildings and shopping malls with a few condos and apartments that got thrown into the mix during the housing boom. Well, walk around this area for 10 minutes and it becomes abundantly clear that half the office space is going unused.

Then I read this today:
General Growth Properties, the giant shopping mall company whose holdings stretch from Tysons Corner to the planned community of Columbia and Baltimore's Inner Harbor, yesterday sought protection in bankruptcy court, citing debts of more than $27 billion. The bankruptcy heralds a wave of trouble in commercial real estate that threatens to put another damper on the economy, industry analysts said. By the end of 2011, $1.2 trillion of commercial real estate debt will come due, and like General Growth, many of the borrowers will be unable to refinance or repay their loans, said Gregory H. Leisch, chief executive of Delta Associates, which tracks the industry.

Specifically, this company owns Tyson's Galleria, which has a money food court. It's like a classy version of a food court, though, which makes it really delicious. Luckily, the article goes on to say that the mall operator thinks business will continue to go on as usual despite the bankruptcy. BTW, I've formed some strong (mostly liberal, anti-investment banking) opinions about this recession, but they are so volatile I think they deserve their own post.

The NBA Playoffs: With news that Kevin Garnett might be sidelined the entire playoffs, pretty much every media member wrote off the possibilities of an NBA final involving anyone but the Cavs and Lakers. I tend to agree, but it doesn't mean things can't be a little interesting before we get to that point. Even though the NBA playoffs never have a massive amount of upsets, I think the league owes it to us after the non-scintillating NCAA Tournament. Seriously, though, it's gonna be Cavs/Lakers, LeBron/Kobe, and the rest doesn't matter all that much — even though the team that faces the Lake Show in the West finals could be any one of the two through seven seeds.

The NHL Playoffs: So I'm actually getting to cover these playoffs since I do Caps stuff for the Washington Post Express. I was at Game 1 Rangers-Caps and got to witness Jose Theodore do his best Billy Sauer impression (or was it Billy Sauer doing his Jose Theodore impression when I covered Michigan hockey? I'm just not sure.). I still think the Caps win this series in six if Jose keeps it to one stupid, "he shouldn't have let that in" goal, rather than the three he allowed in Game 1.

As always, though, the NHL playoffs are a crapshoot — proven last night when Western Conference power San Jose fell in Game 1 to Anaheim. I really don't know what's gonna happen in the coming weeks, but I'm excited to cover it all.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Where Have I Been?

It's been awhile since I could hold my head up high ... oh shit the last thing I want to do is imitate Staind. But seriously, I haven't blogged in forever and I'm not happy about it. I was forced to take my furlough induced break last week, so I scurried off to Florida for seven days. Now I'm back tanner than I've been in quite some time and refreshed with a new outlook on things.

On the trip I began reading "Scar Tissue", the autobiography of Red Hot Chili Peppers lead singer Anthony Kiedis. It's a fascinating read, although I'm only now in the parts of the book where the band is starting to come together. Let's just put it this way, on the front cover of the paperback, there's a quote by some Time magazine reviewer about the book and it goes like this: "A frank, unsparing, meticulous account of a life lived entirely on impulse, for pleasure, and for kicks.


Reading about his life makes me think about just how mundane everything can be in our lives. This is a guy who smoked pot at age 10 and has photo documentation of it, did coke as a 12-year-old, and started his heroin habits at age 14. After living in Grand Rapids until age nine, he moved in with his Dad, a drug dealer and big time night clubber in Hollywood. Kiedis was mashing it up with guys from Zeppelin, The Who, and all these other great bands as the lone teenager in clubs with his partying father.

And yet through it all, he got great grades, even got into UCLA for college. Then when he dropped out of Westwood, he literally stumbled into what would become the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He was friends with Flea from high school and was merely the guy who would introduce his buddy's band before dancing up a storm during the show. Then one day, some other band needed an opening act and Kiedis sang ... and the rest is history.

He just lived life without worrying about the future, the present, or the past. I guess that's what musicians do ... and I'm so jealous. Let's hope now that the weather is improving and I'm on the verge of moving out on my own that I can emulate just a bit of the Kiedis way. We all should.