Bad Boys...

The Bad Boys of 88-89 were recently voted in Sports Illustrated, the second most hated team of all time. You gotta love the hate.

"Between the joy of Magic and the majesty of Michael was the dark and frightening rise of the Bad Boys. They threw hip checks like the Red Wings and were as mean as any boxer in Kronk Gym. Outside the state of Michigan, you wanted these guys in handcuffs. Never has an NBA team been so easy to detest, what with Rick Mahorn throwing forearms, Dennis Rodman elbows and Bill Laimbeer fits. (Somewhere, Laimbeer is probably still whining to the refs). Worst thing about them? They were a great basketball team. For all their roughhousing, the Pistons could light up the scoreboard with anyone -- Isiah Thomas flashing that sneaky grin as he beat you off the dribble, Joe Dumars locking up opponents and knocking down threes, Vinnie (Microwave) Johnson throwing in jumpers from everywhere. Fact is, the Pistons helped end two dynasties (Magic Johnson's Lakers and Larry Bird's Celtics) and delayed the start of a third (Michael Jordan's Bulls). They were bullies in basketball togs, but they could play."

Peace out. I'll catch you all in August.

-M, p, z & shredder

Thor...

Get it while it's hot kids (before it's taken down anyway). Early trailer of Thor from Comic-Con. It's pretty awesome. Branagh seems to be doing a great job and it looks to fall into place perfectly for The Avengers. Enjoy it while you can.


Thor - Comic-Con Trailer [VO]
Uploaded by Eklecty-City. - Check out other Film & TV videos.

I'm out. Go big.

-M, p, z & shredder

Kill Me...

My dream job, as far as starting jobs in the biz go, was just posted:

Job Posting Date: 07/29/10
USA’s PSYCH seeks energetic, multi-taking, self-starter to fill PRODUCTION ASSISTANT position. You will be part of a production team working in the Manhattan Beach Writer’s Office. Responsibilities include answering phones, running errands and general office assistance. Great entry level position into production.

Granted, I don't do that anymore since I started school. And I live in Chicago and not LA. But, I'm sending out a resume regardless.  Fingers crossed my friends. Hopefully this will be my in to slip in the screenplay for an episode that I wrote.

-M, p, z & shredder

Shake Your Money Maker...

You know what I find hilarious? When NBA players say they need to do what's "best for them and their family," when considering offers from teams. I'm pretty sure when you're making between 5 and 20 MILLION dollars a year, anything is best for your family. I'm pretty sure that's more than some countries National GDP.

This isn't new, but I was hoping that the Latrell Sprewell incident many years ago would have made people seeking more money a little more hesitant to do so. For those who don't know, Latrell Sprewell famously turned down a 3 year $27,000,000 contract (which breaks down to 9 mil a year for you non-Asians who can't do math) because he claimed it wasn't even enough to feed his family. Granted the dude had like 5 kids, but I'm pretty sure he could somehow scrape by. After turning the offer down presuming he would get more money, not only did Minnesota not offer him more money, but no other team offered him anything. He never played again. I'm pretty sure he could use that money now.

I mention this now because it seems every time there is a period of free agency in pro sports, like there is now in the NBA, players always use that as their excuse to leave a city where they're loved (i.e. Ben Wallace in Detroit) to go somewhere else for more money. This is why there's no rivalry in sports. Jonny Damon to the Yankees?! (though I do love him now that he's a Tiger). LeBron to Miami?! Ron Artest to the Lakers?! How can anyone form any sort of hatred or rivalry if players don't care where they play, just as long as they get paid.

That's it. Go big.

-M, p, z & shredder

Smart Again...

I have once again joined civilization and returned to the land of smart phones. This was pretty much me for the last few weeks. (video courtesy of Rusted Jesus)



Now that I have it, it's everything I hoped it would be and more. It has voice command dammit! As Other Guy pointed out, so did his phone that he had 10 years ago. Anyway, the phone rules, 3G is way better than the shitty Edge network I was still dealing with and I haven't dropped a call yet. It's nice to have an ipod again and even though it's only 16GB, it's still the largest ipod I've ever had.

You may now start calling/texting me again.

I'm out. Go big.

-M, p, z & shredder

Keep On Truckin'...

You know what's strange? The fact that people jump in front of huge semis on the freeway or in the city with no regard for the fact that the semi could run them over in a second and not even feel it. When did people decide that every truck they cut in front of is a gentle giant. Who decided that the right way to merge was speed ahead to the first truck and then jump in right in front of him?

As I was driving back to Chicago from Michigan today, I decided to take I-90, which is a toll road, because 94 has been heinous with all the construction. While sitting at one of the three toll stops, the huge semi in the lane to my right kept honking his horn. I looked over and noticed that no less than 5 cars jumped right in front of him when he was almost at the toll. A normal person like myself would have been furious about this and I wondered what was stopping this truck from ramming into the last asshole that cut him off. He's a professional driver with deadlines and cargo and a bad back and these assholes just need to get home so they can tivo Two and a Half Men!

I found myself hoping the driver would snap and instead of honking his horn, just roll one of his tires forward and flatten that asshole's BMW into the ground. But he didn't and I paid my toll and drove off. But it did make me wonder why so many people think that there is no danger in cutting off a truck. That's like walking by a bunch of murderers with pistols and fucking with the one with the bazooka because apparently anyone with a gun that big is not going to use it.

Anyway, I'm out. Go big.

-M, p, z & shredder

Youtube Two Three...

What's crackin kids? Just thought I'd throw some clips at you on this rainy Sunday evening.

My current favorite commercial:



These dudes are pretty sweet:



Aaaaaand it's almost back. 3 more days til season 5!!!!!!



I'm out. Stay golden pony boy. Go big.

-M, p, z & shredder

UPDATE!!!
This may be the greatest video ever made (courtesy of Jess Spano)

A Week...

It has now been one week since I have been without a phone. It's not as bad as you would think. I'm sure there are legions of people who are calling me and texting me about how much they want to hang out and wondering why I'm not responding, but everyone else has reluctantly been emailing. And it's been glorious. I really think it's more of an annoyance to my friends than it is to me. Would I like to check my email and be in contact with people and listen to my ipod? Of course. But by using my original ipod mini that is 7 years old and only lasts about 20-30 minutes on a full charge, I have rediscovered some of my old faves that I haven't listened to in forever like Architecture in Helsinki and the Postal Service.

It's a crazy world that generally moves fast, but really, no one needs cell phones. The world got along fine without them for a couple of years before they were inevented and will survive when we switch to telepathy. I can't wait for the future.

-M, p, z & shredder

To Infinity And Beyond...

I just read this article in the times that you should read. It's awesome. Just to nutshell a little, it's about a guy who flew a solar powered plane longer and higher (26 hours and 28,543 ft) than any other solar plane before. The only downside is that he only went 25 miles an hour. That would be like getting on a roller coaster and having the brakes on the whole time. It's still awesome though.

The other day I was talking about how it's 2010 and Back To The Future made promises of flying cars and hologram ads and robot waitresses in 80s retro diners. None of that is happening! I demand satisfaction. It'd be cool to have flying cars and all that jazz, but how about just getting off our oil dependency. President Obama is really dropping the ball on the whole BP debacle. He should have used all the outrage and momentum behind the disaster (that is still ongoing despite a seemingly huge drop in interest) to spark a move toward going green so this will never happen again. To put the oil spill in context, I read somewhere that there is so much oil being spilled that every four days is equivalent to the entire Exxon Valdeez spill. Food for thought.

Anyway, go big and go green.

-M, p, z & shredder

Ex-Communicated...

So I've had my iPhone for about 2 1/2 years. Within the last few months it has deteriorated to the point that it was almost useless. The ipod function was out of control. It was slow as a snail stuck in molasses and it constantly lost service. Randomly just lost it. I'd be on the phone with 4 bars and then the call would fail and I couldn't get service for an hour. So Friday I go canoeing and get drunk and afterwards I try and make a call. My phone keeps dropping the call and then finally froze and said I had no service. So I threw it a few times. Into trees. And then in one moment of complete cathartic triumph, I chucked it into the river.

If you play golf and have anger issues on the golf course like I do (did), it's kind of like breaking a club. The pure joy of snapping that intolerable club over your knee and throwing it down in disgust. Oftentimes when you want to break something like a useless computer or any printer ever made, you wait until you have a back up. That would have been nice ideal in my situation, but it wouldn't have felt as good. Not knowing when I would have a phone next made it all the more rewarding. I hated that phone so much that I didn't even care when I would make my next phone call or what I would make it from. Seeing that phone fly into the Huron River was elation like you wouldn't believe.

That was 5 days ago now. I still have no phone and have been too busy to get one. The first couple days were the hardest. But now I've accepted the fact that I can't check my email every 5 minutes or text anyone or get ahold of anyone for that matter. Going out has reverted back to high school where you actually have to make plans to meet people at a certain time because "meeting up later" is not an option. It's liberating and suffocating at the same time. I'm on a priority list for a new iPhone and will be incredibly happy to join the human race once again, but for now, living in 1999 and feeling like I'm a senior in high school again is alright with me.

Go big

-M, p, z & shredder