We Looked Like Giants

Four years ago, the Giants were facing the Packers in the NFC Championship. I was in the Poconos on a ski trip with a bunch of friends. A few of us were in a Reebok outlet and saw that they had some Giants jerseys on sale. Tony and I decided we should get some to wear during the game. The only ones they had were Jeremy Shockey (a much-maligned tight end who was injured and wasn’t going to be playing) and Mathias Kiwanuka (linebacker out of Boston College). Neither of us wanted the Shockey jersey so, despite my hate for all things Boston, I bought the Kiwanukae jersey.

That night, the Giants shocked the Packers in overtime to head to Super Bowl XLII. Now, I’m not crazy. I don’t believe that the Giants won because we wore our jerseys but when it comes to sports, I get very superstitious. I wore my jersey during the Super Bowl two weeks and we all know how that turned out.

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My Better Half: Carlsbad Half Marathon 2012

Carlsbad Half Marathon medal

After having a rough go of it during the Long Beach Half Marathon, I had one goal this time around: comfort. While running Long Beach, I definitely pushed myself to run fast (or as fast as I was running during my training) and that ended up wearing me out early in the race. When I started training for this race, I decided to focus more on running at a comfortable pace and trying to avoid setting speed goals. If it felt like I was getting tired, I would just slow down but not stop.

A few weeks before the race, I started to get pain in both of my feet. It felt like plantar fasciitis. I also had foot pain before Long Beach but this time it didn’t affect my training too much. It mostly hurt when I woke up in the morning and if I stayed still for too long. So running actually made me feel better. Regardless, after my last long run, I stopped running a week before the marathon to give my feet a break.

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Knicks, Cuts and Bruises

First of all, I was surprised how much I missed basketball. When the season started, I couldn’t be puled away from keeping track of the Knicks via League Pass. Whenever I got the opportunity, I would take advantage of the NBA League Pass two week free trial to watch the new Knicks. Before the season started, I had all but decided to purchase League Pass but something happened during that free trial.

The Knicks sucked.

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Movie of the Week: Young Adult

Young Adult is one of those movies that I didn’t hate but didn’t love either. I thought the performances were good particularly Charlize Theron as reprehensible and (likely) mentally unstable Mavis Gary trying to reconnect with her married high school ex. Patton Oswalt as her former classmate and unlikely friend Matt Freehauf was also pretty good. Sometimes it’s hard for me to take Oswalt seriously because when he talks, I automatically think about his comedy sets but in this film, I got over it pretty quickly.

I appreciated that the movie never tried to make Mavis sympathetic. She was a horrible self-centered person at the beginning of the movie and (spoiler alert) she leaves her hometown pretty much the same way (with a few dents in her armor). The only problem is that doesn’t make for much of a movie. You want to credit director Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody for making a movie that defies the movie convention that your main character has to change and grow but, after watching this, I now see why this convention exists.

Dialogue-wise, this was probably the least Cody-esque film she’s done. With a few exceptions, if you hadn’t told me she wrote this movie, I wouldn’t have known which is really the nicest thing I can say about a Diablo Cody script.

Dear Bill Walker

Dear Bill Walker,

It’s bad enough that beyond Tyson Chandler, Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Antony, the Knicks’ roster look like a bunch of community center castoffs – always calling “next.” It’s bad enough that Mike D’Antoni’s offensive strategy appears to be shoot as many three pointers as possible (the earlier in the shot clock, the better) and when that doesn’t work, pass the ball to Will…I mean Carmelo and hope he can bail the team out (‘Melo will be dead by the All-Star break). No, Bill.  You apparently traveled back in time to the 90′s, got twists put in your hair and made it back in time for the season.

What were you thinking?

You look like one of the Kris Kross‘ kids grown up.

You look like an extra in a Geto Boys video.

You look like Prop Joe‘s illegitmate son.

Every time you step on the court, I groan.

I blame your friends and family.  If someone loved you, they’d cut your hair while you slept.

I imagine you can’t go into a barbershop because they might actually die of laughter, so you need to shave it all off and start over.

Please.

Sincerely,
A loyal but troubled Knicks fan

Don’t Call Me During…: Midseason 2012 Edition

The fall television season of 2011 will be remembered for Homeland. It was easily one of the best first season of a show I’ve watched from start to finish. I debated doing a post about my top ten TV shows of 2011 but got lazy. I couldn’t decide whether Homeland or Breaking Bad would take the top spot. I thought nothing could top the fourth season of Breaking Bad but some of Homeland’s individual episodes (particularly “The Weekend” and “The Vest”) are up there with the best episodes of the year (another post I was too lazy to write).

Ultimately, my top ten TV shows of 2011 without any elaboration are:

  1. Breaking Bad
  2. Homeland
  3. Louie
  4. Parks and Recreation
  5. Justified
  6. Game of Thrones
  7. Community
  8. Boardwalk Empire
  9. Sons of Anarchy
  10. Parenthood
Now that I’ve gotten that out-of-the-way, let’s talk about what shows could contend for a spot on the best television shows of 2012.  Since I don’t watch these shows live, there’s no sense in listing it by time. New series are in bold.

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Happy Californiversary to me!: A Year in Pictures

It was one year ago today that, after being delayed by a stupid blizzard, I landed in Los Angeles Airport and saw this sign waiting for me.

December 30, 2010

I’ve had a fun, life-changing first year in California. Here were some of the highlights:

I went to Disneyland for the first time.
When You Wish Upon A Star...

I met one of my favorite comic book authors ever, Jamie Hernandez, co-author of Love & Rockets.
Jaime & Me

I ran my first race, the Great Race of Agoura Hills 10K
My First Racing Medal

I cheered on Cindy while she ran the Los Angeles Marathon.
Our Signs For Cindy

Cindy and I got engaged! (my story/her story)
Just Happy!

We went camping at Yosemite.
Liberty Cap and Nevada Falls

I attended Suzzy & Terry’s wedding in Napa where I got to see some friends from New York
Introducing Mr. & Mrs. McLean

We hung out in San Francisco.
We hiked up to the bridge

I “ran” the Long Beach Half Marathon.
The couple that runs together...

I went back to New York to spend time with friends and family.
A shot for Kevin's birthday

Cindy and I took our engagement photos with Michael Fletcher.
Cindy & Sean Sunset Silhouette

With my own wedding and those of two of my closest friends, 2012 is going to be a hectic year. I hope I’m ready for it.

Movie of the Week: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Before you ask, no I haven’t read any of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series nor have I seen any of the Swedish adaptations starring Noomi Rapace.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was a pretty standard whodunit with two exceptions: some graphic scenes/imagery and the performance of Rooney Mara as cyber heroine Lizbeth Salander. Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) is hired by Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) to help solve the disapperance of his favorite niece Harriet 36 years earlier.  Blomkvist later hires Salander, who went above and beyond the call of duty in her background check of him, to assist him in solving the mystery.

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