Doctor Millionaire

 This is America, to me, summed up in one picture:


Yes, that is a hot dog topped by a piece of cake.  Taken at last year's Fourth of July celebration.  If only there were fireworks in the background.  

We are about two weeks away from the Seattle International Film Festival, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite times of the year.  The schedule went up on Thursday and I've been scouring the website for the must-see films.  Here is what I've found so far.  

The Admiral - Miraculously, SIFF is actually coming to West Seattle this year, with a week's worth of films playing at the Admiral Theater, which is practically walking distance from my house.  I am not familiar with most the films that they have chosen to show at the Admiral, but this film appears to be a worthy choice for two reasons: 1) who doesn't love Russian historical epics and 2) it looks like the programmers chose it because it shares a name with the theater.  I will gladly support that sort of arbitrary scheduling.  

Small Crime - Now, here's a movie that I probably wouldn't give a second glance if it wasn't playing six blocks from my job.  However, the recap does sound pretty adorable and I think I might be able to talk Meredith into coming to this one with me.  

Every Little Step - Yeah, that's right, the Chorus Line documentary.  It's about casting the broadway revival of a show about casting a broadway show.  Meredith and I are so excited.  Sure, we could probably wait until it comes back to Seattle, but we never have time to see movies during the school year.  SIFF gives us an excuse to see movies that we will be too lazy to check out if and when they come back to town.  

Sunset Boulevard - Every year, I end up going to two or three of the archival presentations at SIFF and I always end up feeling a little bit bad about it.  After all, the primary focus of SIFF is seeing new and original works, not movies that I've already seen on DVD.  But then those programmers go and decide to include Sunset Boulevard and I'm lost.  I'll probably end up seeing either Adventures of Robin Hood and/or The Third Man as well.  I can't resist.  

Once Upon a Time in the West - Case in point.  

The Square - I have already admitted that I am not an expert in contemporary world cinema and I don't pretend to have any insight into this movie in particular.  The SIFF website just makes it so easy to find the particular genres you want.  Australian neo-noir?  Sold.  

The Red Race - I always end up getting the most excited about the documentary section of the festival.  Lots of the entries sort of fall into stereotypical film festival categories (coming of age, family drama, "world cinema," etc), but the documentaries all seem to be unique.  Like my favorite discovery King of Kong.  Anyway, this one's about the twelve year old girls in the Chinese gymnastics program.  It sounds pretty great.  
talhotblond - While this sounds like it could just be a long episode of Dateline, the premise is intriguing and the scheduling is even better.  This is the perfect follow-up to Once Upon a Time in the West.  I've seen a bunch of movies purely for scheduling purposes.  Some have been good, others...not so much.  

Art & Copy - This one's about the advertising game and I've watched enough Mad Men to be into it.  

Pop Star on Ice - OK, I probably won't get around to seeing this, but it's a documentary about Johnny Weir, the bad boy of figure skating.  This is the reason I love SIFF.  

Now, this is just a preliminary overview.  When the Stranger's SIFF guide comes out, with their actual reviews of the films coming to town, I will get out the schedule and make an actual viewing plan.  And I will probably post that, too.  

Meredith is busy finishing up some Spring Break grading leftovers and I'm listening to Rolling Stone's Top 500 Songs of All Time.  I figure this is as good a time as any to take a closer look at what I spent my money on at the Emerald City Comicon.  My favorite part of Comicon: I discovered that there's a comic book store opening on the same block as my job.  Goodbye paycheck!

A quick word of warning: I am a giant nerd.  As proof, I've organized this list into a few separate categories.  

Dollar Comics:

Teen Titans #32: I took a break from serious comic collecting while I was at PLU, with just a few trade paperback purchases to tide me over.  I got back into things while going to grad school at Western.  I either made the mistake or had the good fortune to pick up Identity Crisis #1, which led into Infinite Crisis, which all got me hooked on DC in a major way.  This issue is an Infinite Crisis crossover that I've been looking for since about 2006.  In brief, Superboy beats up the Teen Titans and the Doom Patrol for 25 pages.  

Villains United 3-6: A lead-in to the aforementioned Infinite Crisis.  I realized, after buying the first two issues of this mini-series, that following all of the storylines I'd started was getting a little expensive.  Four years later, I'm finishing it off for less than half the price.  

Legends 1, 5, 6: I picked up issues 2, 3, and 4 of DC's big follow-up to Crisis on Infinite Earths back in '05, figuring that I'd pick up the remaining issues on the cheap down the road.  And it only took me four years to finish it off.  I have no idea what happens in this mini-series, but 1) Darkseid is involved, so it's probably the 80s version of Final Crisis and 2) it can't possibly be worse than Marvel's follow up to a massively successful mini-series, Secret Wars II.  

Suicide Squad 2-8: In case you don't know, here's the premise of this series: a number of DC's super villains are recruited by a secret government agency to perform secret missions.  I had heard good things about it on the internets and picked up the first issue at last year's West Seattle Street Fair from a guy selling...you guessed it...dollar comics.  What I did not know is that the first issue is a cliffhanger, which required me to fill in the holes in my run.  And since DC has delayed the Showcase version of the series, this is my best shot to jump on board.  

Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad Special #1: I've never heard of this comic before, but it combines two of my favorite teams of all time, it was only a dollar and the cover is mindblowing.  

Justice League International: 2, 3, 10, 19-30, Annual 1-2: Same deal as the Suicide Squad - a critically acclaimed series from DC in the 80s where I picked up a bunch of random issues from a random dude selling dollar comics.  My original plan was to fill in a couple of gaps in my collection, just up to issue #22.  But the cover to #23 had the Injustice League and I was sunk.  At least in this case, I've read through the issues I have already and they are absolutely wonderful.  They just recently came out with hardcover editions of these very issues, but this route is actually cheaper.  

Secrets of the Legion of Super-Heroes 1-3: I've been on a massive Legion of Super-Heroes kick lately and I've heard of this '81 mini-series on various Legion blogs.  It's essentially the origin of every single member of the Legion wrapped around a thin story and reading it has made me love the Legion even more than I already do.  

Legion of Super-Heroes #38 and The Legion 25-30: Blame this article.  I thought, for just a second, about getting the whole run of the former, but I figured I'd start with the issue where they blow up the earth and move backwards.  

Legionnaires Annual #1: I actually was looking for #2, but this one is an Elseworlds.  I couldn't resist a comic that combines alternate history with the Legion.  

Fantastic Four Roast and Fred Hembeck Destroys the Marvel Universe: After reading the story behind these comics, I really couldn't resist when I stumbled across them in the dollar stacks.  They are unrepentantly silly.  I respect that.

The Tick: The Pseudo Edition #13: Ben Edlund only ever wrote 12 issues of The Tick and that twelfth issue ends with quite a few loose ends.  Thankfully, his company realized that there was money to be made and got some other dudes to make a fantasy issue #13 for the hardcore nerds.  I am now one of those nerds.   

50 Cent Comics:

Justice League of America #135: Yep, it's just a random issue from 1976.  I really only picked it up because it was part one of the 14th annual Crisis crossover between the Earth-One, Earth-Two and, in this case, Earth-S.  I love the idea of multiple universes so much that I will always pick up any comic I see with that storyline...especially if they're only fifty cents.  When I opened up the issue, I discovered that Ernie Chan drew the cover...and he was at Comicon, too!  Too bad I'm too intimidated to approach anybody I don't actually already know or I could have had him sign it.  

The Flash #223: I went through a Flash phase for a while there in 2005 as well.  When I moved to Seattle, there wasn't any nearby comic book store and I was broke.  Now, I'm slightly less broke and there's a comic book store five minutes from my house.  Gaps will be filled, my friends, starting here.  Also, I love the Reverse-Flash, whose powers and evilness are really self-explanatory.  

Full Price Comics: 

Dr. Doom and the Masters of Evil #3: Picked up #1 after reading a review online and fell in love.  Pure comics wonderment on every page. It's designed for kids, but I think anyone who loves Marvel comics will love this.  Issue #1 had the Sinister Six tricking Iron Man into fighting a bear with a mop.  I shouldn't need to say anymore.

The Muppet Show #1: Once I heard that this existed, I knew that I was buying it for Meredith.  I picked it up straight from the source, the Boom! Studios booth, where I also picked up....

Irredeemable#1 and The Incredibles #1: I read reviews of these two at my favorite comics blog, and, since I was already at the booth, I decided to give them a shot.  I mean, they are both written by Mark Waid, who has done some fantastic work.  

Trade Paperbacks: 

Showcase Presents Brave and the Bold: Batman Team-Ups: I love the Showcase series.  500 pages of comics for about 12 bucks.  Sure, they keep it cheap by printing the comics in black and white, but it's a sacrifice I am more than willing to make.  True, I was skeptical at first, but the Justice League Showcase showed me the error of my ways.  I'm not super into this one, but it was half price and I could not leave Comicon without 500 pages of comics for only six dollars.  

Y: The Last Man Vol. 3 and 4: Meredith deserved a present for allowing me to spend all day at a comic book convention while she stayed at home and graded papers.  I think she might love Brian K. Vaughn more than she loves me.  Which is fair, because I've never created anything as awesome as Lost or this series.  

Free Stuff: 

The X-Files #2: I didn't even know they were making X-Files comic books anymore, especially ones written by actual X-Files writers like Frank Spotnitz.  Thankfully, the DC booth opened my eyes to this phenomenon.  I can't decide what I enjoy more: the computer graphic version of David Duchovny on the cover that is so lifelike, I didn't even realize it was computer generated until I got home or the first six panels of the comic re-creating the opening titles of the TV show.  That's dedication.  

Saga of the Swamp Thing #21: The DC booth was a free stuff bonanza, highlighted by piles and piles of comics with the catchy slogan, "After Watchmen...What's Next?"  Sure, it may be a callous attempt to cash in on the Watchmen movie, but it enabled me to grab a hold of a classic Alan Moore Swamp Thing issue.  Thank you, corporate synergy!

Planetary #1: Same thing here.  My reaction was basically, "Hey...I've vaguely heard some good things about this series.  I'll gladly pick up an issue for free!"  

And, yes, to answer the question you may be asking, I am not expecting anybody to read this except myself.  And maybe the author of Bullshot Crummond.  He's a frequent guest at my blog, you know.  

Travis

I apologize to anyone that's checked this blog in the last few months looking for an update.  Ever since the Super Bowl, I've been too busy living to update my blog.  Not much free time between work, marriage, the play, Anna Karenina, and beating Dan at another fantasy sports tournament.  But once my favorite long dormant blog has started posting again, I knew I had to return.  

(Which reminds me...if you're curious, I won the bet with Dan.  He picked Pittsburgh -7, I picked Arizona +7 and while we both had to suffer through ANOTHER Steelers championship, at least I got the pick right.  I have been a little burned out with football after all that, which is why I didn't even bother with my 2009 predictions.  I'll do that this week.)

I was going to write a long post summarizing The Underpants and Comicon, but I'll save that for later.  The play ends tonight and my blogging resumes.

At least until The Music Man starts up in a couple of weeks.
Travis 

Super Bowl Prediction: Pittsburgh 20 Arizona 14

Springsteen's Playlist: Radio Nowhere, Born to Run, The Rising, Working on a Dream, Badlands

My Dream Playlist: Tenth Avenue Freezeout, Glory Days, Girls In Their Summer Clothes, Prove It All Night, Rosalita

My Dream Depressing Playlist: The River, Darkness on the Edge of Town, Reason to Believe, The Wrestler

...for this brief message:



WHAT?!? 

This message brought to you by Tom DeFalco and Dazzler #4

All right.  Here we go. 

Our winner from last weekend is, of course, ADAM, the only guy to correctly pick the Super Bowl matchup.  Everybody else got at least one right.  Except Eric.  Poor Eric.  Here, for posterity, are the results. 

Andrew: 8
Adam: 6
Chad: 5
Eric: 5
Doug (who e-mailed me his picks after the fact and I'm believing him): 4
Travis: 3
Dan: 2

This means that our penultimate standings are as follows:

Andrew: 135
Eric: 130
Dan: 126
Travis: 126
Dave: 122
Adam: 120
Chad: 105
Doug: 85

That's right, Dan and I are STILL TIED!!  Now it all comes down to one game, the Super Bowl, with your Arizona Cardinals vs. the the hated Steelers.  Last I heard, the spread was 7 so I'm officially going with a 7 1/2 point spread.  The rest of you can feel free to make your Super Bowl picks, but it really just matters what Gomez and I pick.  And...just in case we pick the same team...

SPECIAL TIEBREAKER SECTION:

Bruce Springsteen is playing the halftime show this year.  What songs will he play?  I believe Tom Petty played five songs last year, so make a top 5 list of what you think he's going to play. 

(And, if you want to be extra nerdy about it, and I know I do, pick the five songs he should play.  Or at least the most unexpected ones.  Like Atlantic City.  If only the Eagles had won, he could have played Streets of Philadelphia.)

I'd love to hear Springsteen picks from everybody.  We had a good old time arguing about what Petty would play last year. 

One last thing...get your picks in for next year.  I'll post a few basic categories, but let me know if you have any additional predictions you want to make and match up against your peers. 

2009-10 Season Predictions:

Super Bowl: XLIV

AFC Playoff Picture:
West:
South: 
North:
East:
Wild Cards:

NFC Playoff Picture
West: 
South:
North:
East:
Wild Cards:

Record Predictions for our favorite teams:
Seahawks:
Raiders:
Rams:
Patriots:

Random Record Predictions:
Steelers: 
Cardinals:
Lions:
Eagles (so Andrew can nail the prediction again):

I'll post the results Sunday night, hopefully.

Q: What do Krist Novoselic and my uncle Terry have in common?

A: They're both featured in this wonderful article in The Daily News about Cowlitz County residents going to the inauguration.  

Although my uncle is pretty awesome with his, “I’m looking just as forward to seeing the helicopter fly off with the outgoing president,” quote, Mr. Novoselic barely beats him out with this gem.  In response to a question about the price of his hotel room, he says:

"“Good thing people are buying Guitar Hero and Rock Band,” he joked, referring to two popular video games for which Nirvana provided music. “Grunge dollars at work.”"

The best part, as always, is the commenters

" What a puff piece!!! This is supposed to be news? It was so sickly I wanted to gag. Nice to see where the sympathies of your "news" team is. "

(Really?  You're criticizing the Daily News for a puff piece?  It's the LOCAL NEWS section, for God's sake.)

" I too will have tears in my eyes on Tues, however mine won't be tears of joy, they will be tears of sorrow as I lower my flag to half staff, memorializing the end a 232 year era. All the America haters will rejoice on tuesday as socialism begins... "

Oh, how I miss  my hometown.
Travis

Well, the pick'em game is pretty much over, but there's still the matter of a tie to be decided so I got as many picks as I could.  

Andrew: Arizona and Baltimore
Eric: Philadelphia and Baltimore
Dave: Arizona and Baltimore
Chad: Arizona and Baltimore
Travis: Arizona and Baltimore (who knew THAT would be so popular?)
Dan: Philadelphia and Pittsburgh
Adam: Arizona and Pittsburgh

So, no matter what, somebody is going 2 for 2 today.  And Dan and I are exactly opposite so, hopefully, we will have a winner.  Unless we split.  Then it's Super Bowl takes all.  

It's a three-way tie for first place this week!

Andrew: 3
Doug: 3
Chad: 3 (I'll give him the Baltimore pick, even if he did hear the 7-7 score)
Adam: 2 (Thanks for reminding me about that quick switch...almost gave you three points)
Dave: 1
Eric: 1
Dan: 1
Travis: 1

The playoff totals so far:

Andrew: 7
Doug: 5
Adam: 4
Eric: 4
Chad: 4
Dave: 3
Travis: 2
Dan: 1

And the complete totals: 

Andrew: 134
Eric: 130
Dan: 125
Travis: 125
Dave: 121
Adam: 117
Chad: 104
Doug: 84

Andrew has once again clinched a victory, but we all really know it's about Dan and I in the battle for third place.  

As far as I can tell, here are the spreads for next week:

Philadelphia (-3 1/2) at Arizona

Baltimore at Pittsburgh (-5 1/2)

FUCK BALTIMORE!
That is all
Travis

P.S. GO CARDINALS!

 Still waiting for Chad to wake up and give me his picks.  And Doug mentioned he might want to change his picks, but I haven't heard anything since then.  Here's what we have so far:

Baltimore at Tennessee

Andrew: Baltimore
Eric: Tennessee
Dan: Tennessee
Travis: Tennessee
Dave: Tennessee
Adam: Tennessee
Doug: Baltimore

Arizona at Carolina

Andrew: Arizona
Eric: Carolina
Dan: Carolina
Travis: Arizona
Dave: Arizona
Adam: Arizona
Doug: Carolina

Philadelphia at New York

Andrew: Philadelphia
Eric: New York
Dan: New York
Travis: New York
Dave: New York
Adam: Philadelphia
Doug: Philadelphia

San Diego at Pittsburgh

Andrew: San Diego
Eric: Pittsburgh
Dan: Pittsburgh
Travis: San Diego
Dave: San Diego
Adam: Pittsburgh
Doug: Pittsburgh

If anybody wants to change Sunday's picks, just leave a comment or e-mail me.  And now, there's just one last thing: Super Bowl Predictions.  I collected some of these before Wild Card Weekend and some afterwards.  Let's see if you can tell which ones came when: 

Adam: Giants over Dolphins
Travis: Tennessee over New York
Doug: Colts over Giants, but he'd love to see Eagles vs. Chargers
Meredith: Colts over Giants
Dave: Chargers over Giants
Dan: Colts over Falcons
Andrew: Carolina over whoever.  

Here's how I got mentioned on The Stranger's blog:

A few months ago, I worked backstage for Bullshot Crummond, the fall show for Twelfth Night Productions.  It was a script based on an improv which was, in turn, based on old 1930's British radio serials (or something).  The Stranger decided to review the show and, as you may have guessed, didn't care for it.  I discussed that review briefly here.

Months pass and the show gets mentioned a second time in the Regrets issue of the Stranger by the reviewer as "the only play he regrets seeing this year...."  This seemed like a low blow.  Feel free to hate the show, but to bring it back months later and slam it again seemed a little much.  I decided to write a short letter to the editor asking for their input on how best not to suck so bad we get mentioned negatively twice.  

Amazingly, that very reviewer responded to my letter.  I already responded once in the comments, but I would like to point out that I am actually a little relieved that Bullshot was, in fact, NOT the worst play in Seattle last year.  That said, he makes some great points.  Twelfth Night is not a professional theater - we would all certainly agree with that.  We are amateurs.  We put on amateur shows.  He felt bad for criticizing us because, and I'm paraphrasing here, it was like kicking a puppy.  And nobody likes to kick puppies.  

That post led to this reply by the editor who points out that it is The Stranger's job to point out when plays suck to keep their readers from seeing those shows.  Fair enough, though the original point about being an amateur production still stands.  My favorite part comes in the comments where somebody points out that, "Youngstown is a horrible venue, not even really a theatre. That said, it's not the worst, there are "professional" theatres in Seattle with worse digs."  True enough.
 
Somehow, that led to another reply by the original author.  Yes...Bullshot Crummond has now been the subject of one review, one paragraph in a feature story and three separate blog posts.  That's penetration, holmes!  The post itself is really just a bit of housecleaning about amateur productions, etc., but the money shot comes in the comments.  Brendan Kiley, arts editor, pops in to muddy the line between amateur and professional theater companies.  After all, some of the finest work in this city is coming from non-professional sources.  However, he writes, it is important to "check in" on the "consistently ramshackle companies."  

"Consistently ramshackle."  

That absolutely needs to be the new motto of Twelfth Night Productions.  We need to put that on press releases and T-shirts.  I can't wait for next year's brochure:

Here's what the critics have to say:

"...consistently ramshackle..." - Brendan Kiley -- The Stranger

And it all started with Bullshot Crummond.  God, I love theater.  

 Your winner for the weekend...ANDREW who continues his dominance of the pick'em league.  

Here are your point totals:

Andrew: 4
Eric: 3
Dave: 2
Doug: 2
Adam: 2
Travis: 1
Chad: 1
Dan: 0

What can I say?  My head said Baltimore and Philly, but my heart said Miami and Minnesota.  When will I listen to my head?

And your updated complete totals:

Andrew: 131
Eric: 129
Dan: 124
Travis: 124
Dave: 120
Adam: 115
Chad: 101
Doug: 81

The rest of you can do what you like, but Dan and I are locked in a fierce battle for that #3 spot.  And Dave's not out of it as long as Dan and I keep up this horrific pace. 

And here are your lines for next week's action: (as of 1/4/09 at 10PM)

Baltimore at Tennessee (-3 1/2)

Arizona at Carolina (-10 1/2)

Philadelphia at New York (-4 1/2)

San Diego at Pittsburgh (-6 1/2)

For the record, I added a half point to each of these lines because I don't want to have any pushes.  If you disagree, let me know.  E-mail me at the regular address.  

 Sorry I'm a little late on this.  I was up late grading papers and talking about theater.  My life is so exciting I can hardly stand it.

Anyway!  I haven't seen a single score from today yet (and I don't even know who won Chargers/Colts yet) so these picks are still valid, in my book.

Baltimore (-3) at Miami

Andrew: Baltimore
Eric: Baltimore
Dan: Miami
Travis: Miami
Dave: Baltimore
Adam: Miami
Chad: Miami
Doug: Baltimore

Philadelphia (-3) at Minnesota

Andrew: Philadelphia
Eric: Philadelphia
Dan: Minnesota
Travis: Minnesota
Dave: Minnesota
Adam: Philadelphia
Chad: Minnesota
Doug: Philadelphia

Results tonight when I finish watching both games.

Usually, the NFL playoffs is one of the best times of the year.  It's too cold and miserable to go outside and the playoffs provide the perfect excuse to stay inside and watch television for hours.  This year, all the games should be excellent, starting with four close matchups.  However, it's painful to try and pick these games.  It almost ruins what should be a great football weekend.  Almost.   

Eric only sent me picks for today's games, so we'll have to wait until tomorrow for the full slate.  Here we go:

Atlanta (-2) at Arizona

Andrew: Arizona
Eric: Atlanta
Dan: Atlanta
Travis: Arizona
Dave: Arizona
Adam: Arizona
Chad: Atlanta
Doug: Atlanta

Indianapolis (-1 1/2) at San Diego

Andrew: San Diego
Eric: San Diego
Dan: Indianapolis
Travis: Indianapolis
Dave: Indianapolis
Adam: Indianapolis
Chad: San Diego
Doug: Indianapolis

And I want to watch all these games so badly.  I will be working lights for a show, however, so I'll miss large chunks of both.  Next week, though...next week it is on.  

First of all, the reason I don't post very much is because I'd rather be reading a book or playing my brand new Guitar Hero 3-pack.  This is purely for me, after all.  One great thing about this blog, though, is that it provides a perfect place to make my predictions a matter of public record.  As you will see from this post, that's not always a good thing. 

The NFL regular season is over, which leads to one of the best times of the year: the playoffs.  It is also a good time to take a quick look back at the year that was and, more importantly, the year I thought it was going to be. 

For posterity, here are the final Pigskin Pick'em records:

Andrew - 127
Eric - 126
Dan - 124
Travis - 123
Dave - 118
Adam - 113
Chad - 100
Doug - 79 (mostly because Doug gave up six weeks ago.)
Matt - 0 (Did he forget his ESPN password?  It is still a mystery.)

Once again, Andrew is the regular season champion.  However, the way we play it, it's not over until the Super Bowl.  ESPN may disagree, but we're still going strong.  Now, to encourage full participation, I will be keeping track of the playoff records as well as the total records.  Much like the Chargers, Doug still has a chance. 

Last February, after we all got over the Super Bowl, I sent out an e-mail soliciting predictions for the next year.  Only Andrew had the balls to respond and now, it's time to go over our results.  Come along, if you like. 

My picks:
AFC

North: Cleveland Browns (Mostly I just thought the Steelers would suck.  And by thought I mean hoped.)
South: Indianapolis Colts (Hey, I loved Tennessee, but I think everybody in the country had this penciled in)
East: New England Patriots (Well, what are you going to do?)
West: San Diego Chargers (1 out of 4...and only because the Broncos choked.  Wow.)

Wild Card: Jacksonville, Tennessee (For the record, I think Oakland has a chance to finish just outside the wild card. Oh, wait, do they still employ Gallery? Never mind.) (Oakland showed some fire, especially near the end.  Raiders/Seahawks Super Bowl in 2010!)

NFC:

North: Minnesota Vikings (Hey, I got one right!)
South: New Orleans Saints (Come on, this division was a toss-up)
East: Dallas Cowboys (WHOOPS!)
West: St. Louis Rams (Hey, listen, I'm not happy about it, but I realized that the Seahawks weren't going to win the Super Bowl when their big free agent pickup was Julius Jones. I want to pick the 49ers, but I didn't know they were having a quarterback controversy. And the Cardinals are still trying to start Kurt Warner, for God's sake.) (I feel like I should get a little bit of credit for accurately picking the order that the teams would finish in the division, even if I did it completely backwards.  For the record, I was wrong about the relative merits of Kurt Warner and Matt Leinart.)

Wild Card: Seahawks, Giants (And I was the most pessimistic Seahawks fan before the season started.)

Seahawks will be eliminated in the second round of the playoffs, for the third straight year in a row, by the NFC North Champion. Adrian Peterson will run for about 350 yards. They will then go on to lose in the NFC Title Game to the Saints. (This could still happen, if you replace my predicted teams with the actual the winners of the NFC West and South.  Oh, wait, Vikings/Panthers will happen in the second round.  Forget it)

On the AFC side...fuck it...Cleveland/San Diego in the AFC Title Game. (I had no idea, really.)

How about Cleveland/New Orleans in the "Something's Gotta Give" Super Bowl? (Neither team made the playoffs.  Ouch)

Yeah, it'll probably be Dallas/Indianapolis instead, but what's the fun in that? (One of those teams sure has a chance to do it)

I know New England is prohibitive favorite to advance, but I don't think they'll be as good this year. (I am an accidental genius!)

Andrew's picks:
AFC:

West: Broncos? (I think that if the Broncos would have won the division, this is how it would have looked on nfl.com.  Broncos?)
South: Jaguars (So close and yet so far)
North: Browns (We loved the Browns, apparently.)
East: Patriots (Tom Brady knee injury/Patriots miss playoffs by a game.  Weirdest story of the year?)

NFC:

East: Redskins (Sadly, the power of Zorn was not that strong yet)
North: Vikings (Where did all this Vikings love come from?) 
South: Falcons? (Brilliant guess.  I think Andrew is the only person in the continental United States to pick the Falcons to win the division.  And he was off by a single game.)
West: Rams (We thought Bulger would bounce back.  How could we know?)

Wild Card Teams: Chargers, Colts, Dallas, Seahawks (One of these is right, which is one more than me.) 

AFC Title Game: Patriots Cleveland (Oops.)
NFC Title Game: Seahawks Vikings (Vikings could still go to the Title Game.  It's doubtful, unless Adrian Peterson turns into football Jesus over the next three weeks. 

Super Bowl: Patrios vs. Vikings 31-3 patriots (At least one of his Super Bowl teams made the playoffs.)

Who will be better: Cardinals or Bears?

Andrew said: "Bears, although if this were after the draft and free agency I may think differently..."
I said Cardinals, because I thought Leinart would lead them to victory. 

I win, but it's a hollow, lucky victory. 

That's all for now.  Playoff picks from everybody, hopefully, coming before kickoff on Saturday. 
Travis

Well, OK, not really. 

I'm working backstage on another Twelfth Night production this weekend.  That show, Bullshot Crummond, just so happens to be the very first show in the history of our organization to get reviewed.  Here is the full text of the Stranger review.

A few points: 

1) Most of the criticism has to do with the script, so I don't have much of a problem with the review.

2) Matt Orme's fight choreography is actually pretty good, considering the limited stage combat experience of our actors.  Rick and I had a similar problem during the run of True West

3) Travis Pavey should, now and forever, include "occasional entertaining, rubbery bursts of physical comedy" as part of his program bio. 

I just wish I knew which "questionable rape joke" he's talking about. 

I haven't written anything about the election, mostly because I'm not knowledgable enough to make predictions or provide in-depth analysis.  I was, however, ecstatic when Obama and the Democrats triumphed last week.  I thought that I couldn't possibly be more excited about President Obama...until I read this tiny article.

See if you can find the thing we have in common. 

Here's a hint...it's not this fun fact:

"He applied to appear in a black pin-up calendar while at Harvard but was rejected by the all-female committee."
 
There's really no commentary that can express how awesome that sentence is.  Other than the fact that such a picture, if it existed, would deserve to be on some sort of fake currency in gag shops around the country. 

Come on ladies, how can you turn this down?

It's time for my favorite yearly tradition!

Formerly known as the 24-hour Halloween Movie Marathon, this tradition began back in 1998 when my friend Matt came up with the idea as a freshman at Pacific Lutheran University.  My first exposure to the festivities came the following year when Brad and I made it 21 1/2 hours until the suckfest that is The Texas Chainsaw Massacre lulled us to sleep.  However, a last second brainstorm of a field trip to go see Fight Club guaranteed consciousness for the entire 24 hours.  (Gave me a heck of a headache, though.)  Other highlights included Serpent and the Rainbow (featuring Bill Pullman's scrotum nailed to a chair) and Dawn of the Dead at dawn.  

In 2000, I missed the first four hours because of a date, but did make it all the way through the miniseries of Stephen King's It to the early afternoon screening of Troll 2.  Wow...that's a bad movie.  For 2001 I was all alone at the DVD store (due to a last minute road trip by Donny, Matt and Suzanne) and, as a result, I don't remember much of it, other than Night of the Lepus.  

2002 was an absolute classic, with such forgotten classics as Near Dark and Ravenous, not to mention our genius idea of watching just the death scenes in Final Destination.  Good lord, that film has some of the best death scenes of all time.  Since then, my actual life (grad school, job, etc.) has necessitated a mutation to a weekend long festival of horror movies.  

This year, the marathon will be held his coming weekend, Saturday the 1st and Sunday the 2nd.  The wife and I will probably start it off with Werewolf before we hit a Halloween party on Friday, but after that, it's wide open.  I picked up a copy of David Cronenberg's The Brood off the DVD Swap that I'm itching to start, not to mention Maniac Cop and the It's Alive trilogy.  Also, Turner Classic Movies is having a marathon all day Friday and I'm DVR'ing the titles that intrigue me the most like Cat People and I Walked With a Zombie.  

I guess what I'm trying to say is this: you should come over to my house and watch movies with me this weekend.  

Are you in?
Travis