Links and whatnot

I meant to do a links brief yesterday but Johnny enticed me to Wrigley for a free Pirates-Cubs game.

We ended up in his CFO's alarmingly bad season seats, first row of "upper deck reserved" (a nice way of saying "nosebleed, neck-craning seats") where I sat next to and in front of two incredibly overweight women and behind a number of spider-webs, while I turned my body 30 degrees counterclockwise to get a view of the field, through said spider web, since the Wrigley architects didn't feel seats should face the field. Understandable since the park is almost 100 years old. Ah, what a place.

After watching innumerable games in the press box, I've become quite the seat snob. And after trying to navigate my way through the slow-moving crowd, not to mention my illustrious fall last season, I'm not quite the fan of the old bandbox anymore.

All in all, not a bad time, between the Pirates getting two-hit, a giggly 19-year-old yammering in our ear while Johnny surreptitiously looked up her short jean skirt. The highlight was during the girl's 15th phone call of the game, her "date" leaned over to us and whispered, "This girl's so fucking annoying. I just met her yesterday."

Second goes to the girl telling us by the time she's our age, she'll be married. As Epstein would say, "Thanks sweety."

Possibly going to Old St. Pat's this weekend, a block party Johnny refers to as a "Christian singles fest." I don't know exactly what that means - lots of Kumbayas and baloney sandwiches on white bread perhaps. Anyway should provide some good by-play at least.

Links:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050714/ap_on_go_co/clinton_video_games_2
Yeah, violent video games are the problem. So is Marilyn Manson. You know the Slick Willies, they probably invested in this game company, and now profits should skyrocket. I mean, sex in a video game? Why leave the house?

http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/scn-sa-nor.reader2jul14,0,5780027.story?coll=stam-news-local-headlines
This is pretty fucked up and I would never make light of a potential sex crime, but the fact that the guy works for Weekly Reader isn't that surprising. I mean, who didn't know that was a gay sex rag in elementary school. The answer to the jumble was always "filching."

http://www.caazone.com/boards/viewtopic.php?p=360293#360293
If you follow college basketball, you'll appreciate this photo of Gary Williams, sweaty ref baiter, working some young trim. You have to scroll down a bit.

http://news.yahoo.com/fc/world/media_watch
And Karl Rove always seemed like such a nice, honest guy...

http://mlbplayers.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/pa/news/article.jsp?ymd=20050711&content_id=1126184&vkey=mlbpa_news&fext=.jsp
While ESPN has Peter Gammons examining the second half of the baseball season, the Trib has their experts, SI has Tom Verducci, the Player's Association has, well, me.

Reviews and such

Well it's quarter to 10 and about three months behind on a usual posting schedule. So I can either get to work on the job that pays me or feed the procrastination of a few lost souls out there in the workforce. So in the spirit of Bad Idea Jeans ("I mean I know I should have worn a condom but when am I going to get back to Haiti?"), I'll go with the latter and roll the dice, as usual, on the former.

Reviews: Saw "Hustle & Flow" last week at a sneak preview mixed intermittenly with hipsters and an urban focus group, which incredibly included more than a handful of young kids who probably shouldn't be watching a movie about a pimp on the come up. Maybe, it's just me, but I thought the two tikes in the Chicago Parks District T-shirts were adorable shouting "Whomp that trick!"

All sociological scatting aside, I highly recommend this movie. Strangely enough it's an MTV-produced movie, but then again so was Napoeleon Dynamite, but it's more of a Southern "8 Mile," except this movie's slutty white girl (Taryn Manning taking "trashy hot" to new, exciting levels) is actually a prostitute - and a $20-40 one to boot!

Terrence Dashon Howard is the lead role DJay and is rigidly intense in his role as pimp (hustle) and rapper (flow).

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005024/

H&F is a little formulaic at times, but what movie isn't, really? Even "Napoleon" ends with a dance sequence and the always-unimportant high school election.

The movie's two fictional tracks will bounce around your head for a few days, not unlike "That Thing You Do" from "That Thing You Do." Except these songs are about bitches and ho's.

Also checked out "The Pain and the Itch" at Steppenwolf Theatre on Saturday, after the tapas and before the fondue, and no, I never thought I would type or say that before.

It's described as a "dark, dark comedy" which is a pretty solid description. The first half had a number of laugh-out-loud moments while the second half delved deeper into the dark problems of a dysfunctional upper-class suburban family in Chicago.

Highlights include hot Northwestern grad Kate Arrington as befuddled, racist foreigner Kalina, the comedic stylings of some old lady and my girlfriend's uncomfortable laughter as she sat next to my mom when the wife compared her husband's erstwhile beard to a vagina.

http://www.steppenwolf.org/boxoffice/productions/index.aspx?id=317

The chocolate fondue and tapas were excellent, by the way.