Back to the Kingdom

In honor of the Kings opening their 2010-2011 season, please enjoy this recent article on future Norris Trophy winner Drew Doughty:

Doughty and Simmonds are slobs.

Off to The Bro's favorite sports bar to take in all the Kingly action tonight!

For your reading pleasure: A completely unhinged review of "Secretariat" in which the story of a racehorse is compared to Leni Riefenstahl-style master race propaganda

Seriously, I think this guy needs help.  Or maybe medication.  Possibly both: Andrew O'Hehir "reviews" Secretariat for Salon.  This is just from the first paragraph:

But the welcoming glow that imbues every corner of this nostalgic horse-racing yarn with rich, lambent color comes from within, as if the movie itself is ablaze with its own crazy sense of purpose. (Or as if someone just off-screen were burning a cross on the lawn.)

...in its totality "Secretariat" is a work of creepy, half-hilarious master-race propaganda almost worthy of Leni Riefenstahl, and all the more effective because it presents as a family-friendly yarn about a nice lady and her horse.

Read the whole thing.  It's like getting a peek into the disturbed mind of someone who so despises anyone who doesn't march in lockstep (see what I did there!!!) with his way of thinking that he will take any opportunity to lash out, no matter how misplaced his anger is and no matter how inappropriate or unwarranted the venue.  Notice he couldn't even get through the article's subtitle without invoking the Tea Party, which has nothing to do with racism or the 1973 Triple Crown.  Trust me, I'm familiar with at least two of the three.

I'm surprised he didn't complain about Secretariat having so many white socks.

Secretariat in his deceptive blue & white Meadow Stable colors, rushing to his next Klan meeting.  I wasn't able to find a picture of him in his usual white sheets.

I so want to call this and announce, "RANGERS SUCK!!!"

Via Slublog on Twitter, it's the Urban Speaker in NYC!  Call up and give New Yorkers a piece of your mind!  From the link:

This is the Urban Speaker: a smartphone attached to a loud speaker attached to a traffic sign. Tomorrow, when it goes live in NYC, you'll be able to call it up and announce whatever's on your mind. I smell mischief!

This can only end in tears.  Tears of joy, that is!

That number again? (979) 997-3041.

So tempting, especially with the season just starting.

GO KINGS!!!

Kings hockey is almost upon us!

The 2010-2011 NHL season begins Thursday, with the Kings debuting Saturday night at Vancouver.

The Kings opening night roster has been set.  The full roster is here.

Jonathan Bernier will remain in L.A. as Jonathan Quick's backup.  It's going to be a hell of a battle between those two for the starting job in goal long-term.  This means last year's backup, Erik Ersberg, is odd man out.  Ersberg has been assigned to Manchester but per Hammond, he may look into playing in Europe.

Yahoo Sports put the Kings on their list of 10 Stanley Cup contenders.  ESPN goes one up on them and puts the Kings in their top 5:

I caught two playoff games at Staples Center this past spring and thought the roof was going to collapse. It's amazing to see hockey back in L.A., and this team shouldn't disappoint. Drew Doughty, Willie Mitchell, Rob Scuderi and Jack Johnson as your top four on D? Hello!

The Quacks are at #24 out of 30 teams.  Heh.

The Bleacher Report breaks down the Kings:

With a year more of maturity for the baby Kings, another playoff berth seems like a lock. Watching such a fast, scrappy team each night could prove to be the most entertaining thing in the long run.

Drew Doughty, Superstar.  Scroll down to #8:

...Drew Doughty is the consensus favorite to be that next best defenseman in the league. A finalist for the Norris in June, Doughty will be able to build off of a breakout year that saw him score 13 times and log 25 minutes a night for the Kings. Factor in the two weeks he spent surrounded by experienced, veteran makeup of Team Canada during their gold medal run and Doughty, still just 20 years old, is poised to become the second youngest Norris winner behind Bobby Orr.

Some observations on the Kings upcoming season:

• Number of players on the Kings roster age 30 and over: 5 (Michal Handzus, Alexei Ponikarovsky, Ryan Smyth, Willie Mitchell and Rob Scuderi).  Smyth is the senior King at 34.
• Number of players on the Kings roster who need fake IDs to buy brewskis: 6 (Drew Doughty, Brayden Schenn, Colton Teubert, Kyle Clifford, Andrei Loktionov and Viatcheslav Voynov).  Schenn, born 8/22/91, is the baby King.
• First game: Saturday, October 9 at Vancouver Canuckleheads.
• First home game: Tuesday, October 12 vs Atlanta Thrashers.
• Final game of season: Saturday, April 9 vs the Mighty Quacks.
• Longest homestand: 8 games, December 30 through January 15 (vs Philadelphia Flyers, San Jose Sharks, Chicago Blackhawks, Nashville Preddies, Columbus BJ's, Toronto Maple Leafs, St. Louis Blues and Edmonton Oilers).
• Longest road trip: 10 games, February 1 through February 23 (at Minnesota Wild, Edmonton, Calgary Flames, Pittsburgh Penguins, Washington Capitals, Philly, BJ's again, NY Rangers, NY Islanders, Anaheim Duckies).
• Defending Stanley Cup champs at the Staples Center: Saturday, November 27 and Monday, January 3.
• Sid the Kid and Malkin at Staples Center: Zip, zilch, nada.
• Game at which Ilya Kovalchuk will be booed every second he's on the Staples Center ice: Saturday, October 30.
• Game at which I will be in the 6th row, dead center: Sunday, December 26 vs the Quacks.
• All-Star Game: Sunday, January 30 in Raleigh, NC (home of the Whalercanes).

I am so excited about this season.  GO KINGS GO!!!

Expo a no-go

I've decided to pass on the Screenwriting Expo this year.  It just doesn't seem like there are as many classes and speakers as previous years.  I found several classes I wanted to take, but not enough to fill three days.  Also, they had previously announced David Milch as a guest, which for me would have been reason enough to attend, but he never came up on the schedule.  There were no must-sees for me this year (unlike last year when guests included John Cleese and William Goldman, CSI creator Anthony Zuiker, and James Manos, Jr., who adapted Dexter for television).  I'm not sure if it's just me or if the Expo is just having a weak year.  Either way, it's kind of a shame, because when I enjoy the Expo I really, really enjoy the Expo and I've been looking forward to it all year.

An additional bummer in all this is that because I planned on attending the Expo, I passed up on attending SledgeFest 2010, which is now sold out.  A celebration of the hysterically funny 1980's TV series Sledge Hammer, it's taking place this weekend at the Silent Movie Theater on Fairfax.  Although the website says it's the first and last fest, I'm hoping that since they sold out, they'll think about having another one in the future.

In writing competition news, the Scriptapalooza TV deadline (extended to October 4) has come and gone without me finishing my White Collar spec.  I'm making progress that I'm happy with, but haven't come up with the big "gotcha" moment to resolve it.  It'll come.  Next deadline is December 31 for the Script Pipeline (formerly Script P.I.M.P.) competition.

Star Wars gets the silent treatment

The "Luke, I am your father" scene re-imagined as a silent film.  This is brilliant and hilarious:

 

H/T to AoSHQ.

Another beautiful day in L.A.

After a brutal, record-breaking Monday, the past few days have been absolutely gorgeous.

This is the view from my sliding glass door this morning:

Yep.  Beeeeoooootiful!!!

Update:

Secretariat World Premiere at the El Capitan Theatre

Obviously, my invitation was lost in the mail.


The real star is apparently putting in an appearance tonight.  That's a horse trailer and you can't really see it in the picture, but there are shavings under that tent.  For you non-horsey types, shavings are used as bedding in box stalls.



Dang, what a beautiful animal.



I really hope they did Big Red justice.  He should have had a film years ago.

Kings 8, Ducks 3 (It's only preseason, but if they both want to keep playing like this...)

I don't normally pay much attention to preseason hockey.  Not sure why, I just don't get interested until opening night, when the games start to actually count.  But this headline got my hockey-loving attention:

Kings should be good . . . but THIS good?  Yes, it's only an exhibition, but L.A.'s 8-3 victory over the defense-challenged Ducks could be an indication of what the regular season might hold in store for the Southland teams.

Besides the fact that it's so loooong (because we need another reason to bag on the L.A. Times) if this is in fact what's in store for both teams this season, then I am going to be one really happy and smug Kings fan.  It's enough for me for the Kings to be successful, but if the Quacks want to epic fail at the same time that works too.

Regular season starts October 8 (aka my Dad's birthday) at Detroit for the Ducks and October 9 at Vancouver for my wicked-awesome Kings.  Wow.  Opening against the Red Wings.  In Detroit.  Just get out the roasting pans now.

You...yes you...are toast!

Back to normal...or whatever passes for normal in L.A.

After yesterday's record-smashing temperatures (113 degrees in downtown! Triple digits at the beach!) things got back to normal today.  While still hot, we can handle temperatures in the 90's.  I finally left my air-conditioned apartment to run the errand I passed on yesterday.  

Note to my Dad: That means your birthday stuff is in the mail!

A few sights from Hollywood Boulevard today:

The fountain at Hollywood & Highland doing its part to keep things cool:

Looking across the street at the historic El Capitan Theatre.  I know where I'm going to be seeing Secretariat:

(This was just an ad that popped up - they're currently hosting a Beauty & the Beast sing-a-long.  Cute.)

Hard Rock Cafe signage competes with Teddy Bears:

From the Department of You Can't Make This Stuff Up (Strange Deaths Division)

Segway Company Owner Dies After Driving Segway Off Cliff.


My favorite part of the Gizmodo article (bold mine):

Police believe that it was just a freak accident, with nothing suspicious about the man worth $262m falling to his death.

Really?  Especially when you consider how he died?


The obvious question in all this, is of course: Which CSI wants to take this one?


According to one of the Gizmodo commenters, the answer is Miami.

Don't get the idea that I'm making fun of the poor guy.  What happened to him was awful.  I wonder why he couldn't stop.  I also have to wonder how safe a Segway really is.  This sure doesn't make me want to go out and ride one.

Image snicked from Gizmodo comments.

Father Knows Best: A look back at the Dexter Season 4 finale

Season 4 found Dexter Morgan embarking on a new life as a suburban family man.  It’s a situation that his ghostly father, Harry, greatly disapproves of and he isn’t shy about saying so.  It's a bone of contention between father and son throughout the season.  In fact, by the finale, Harry’s constant harping on Dexter’s attempt to balance a normal life with his homicidal urges, and his dismissal of Rita and the kids is downright callous.  But it’s hard to fault a guy when he turns out to be right.

The Season 4 finale of Dexter has already gone down in television history as one of the most jolting and unexpected moments ever seen on the small screen.  One of the things that has always made this show so good is its willingness to make and execute the difficult story ideas that other shows can't or won't.  A network show will usually only kill off a character if the actor wants to leave, and then the character’s demise is usually well-publicized as an “event” episode and will not come as a surprise to viewers.  Cue announcer voice: “...and things will never be the same!”  

Dexter has done this once before when they killed off his nemesis, Sgt. Doakes, at the end of Season 2.  Season 4 also killed off Special Agent Frank Lundy, who returned in search of the Trinity Killer.  It’s an indication of how strong this show is that it can dispatch major characters and not be weakened by their departure.

The annual season-long arc for Dexter was his attempt to "live the dream" of normalcy (combined with serial killing), and his fascination with Arthur Mitchell, aka The Trinity Killer.  Initially, Trinity seemed to be pulling off the trick Dexter is having trouble with, balancing family life with his homicidal urges.  Despite having satisfied the Code of Harry (confirmation that Mitchell was, in fact, a killer worthy of some Dexter-style justice) early on, Trinity was allowed to continue to live so that Dexter could study him in pursuit of a successful double life.  This delay produced horrific results for the Morgan family.

Eventually, we learn that Arthur's happy home life is a facade.  Nonetheless, late in the finale, Dexter is still determined to have it all, even if he has to figure out the "how" by himself.  Unfortunately, waiting to dispatch Trinity to his great non-reward meant that Dexter gets himself not a happy home, but a nightmare Seven-ish finale: He got the bad guy, but the bad guy got him too.  Played by John Lithgow, who would win a well-deserved Emmy for his portrayal, Arthur/Trinity is the first person we've seen beat Dexter at his own game.

In the end, as Arthur lies on Dexter's killing table awaiting his fate, the veteran serial killer seems to be imparting advice to a young upstart; this morphs into an entirely different and much more chilling conversation when re-watched knowing what awaits Dexter back at the house, especially the chuckles at Dexter's insistence that, unlike Arthur, Dexter is good for his family.  Arthur makes the cryptic comment, “It’s already over,” (both the first and last thing we ever hear him say) and Dexter doesn't know it yet, but he has just been completely outplayed.

The episode's seemingly stubborn insistence on plodding toward a happy ending made the last reveal all the more jarring.  And upon finding his dead wife, Dexter knew instantly that by not cutting Trinity's killing spree short much earlier, he was responsible for Rita's horrifying end as Trinity's final victim.  One of his first comments after discovering her body: Harry was right...

His unsuccessful attempt at normalcy and at keeping the Dark Passenger from being the biggest influence in his life would seem to put Dexter back on track as far as Harry’s Code is concerned.  He ran wild in Season 4 and the result was deadly and devastating.  He became increasingly careless, eventually leading Trinity to his place of work, his true identity and eventually to his family.  Early in the finale Harry tells him, “The messes are piling up,” and that pile soon came crashing down.  Harry didn't mince words when it came to Dexter's ill-fated attempt to be someone he's not.  One can only imagine the conversation they'll have when Season 5 begins.

The sad fact is that Harry was right all along.  The family was a liability that Dexter simply could not balance with his true nature and his attempt to do so caused their ruin.  If Dexter had listened to Harry, followed the Code and offed Trinity earlier, Rita would still be alive and her children wouldn’t be orphaned.  Granted, she’d still be married to a serial killer, but as long as she was blissfully unaware of this fact, she was happy.

In addition to dooming his wife, Dexter also inadvertently helped Trinity complete his final quartet: The kidnapped boy, the young woman bled out in a tub (Rita), the suicidal young woman (Christine) for once not staged and the bludgeoning of a middle-aged man (rather than his usual knife, Dexter used Arthur’s own hammer for the lethal blow).

Michael C. Hall did his usual fantastic job as everyone's favorite sociopathic serial killer, embroiled in his toughest battle yet.  This was made all the more impressive later when it was revealed that Hall spent the latter part of the season being treated for non-Hodgkins lymphoma (he has since made a full recovery).

Also major props need to go to Jennifer Carpenter.  Always excellent, she really stepped up this season as Debra suffered the loss of her boyfriend and things became more and more traumatic for the foul-mouthed detective, culminating with her discovery of Dexter’s lineage.  It was touching - and kind of pathetic - hearing her tell Dexter that he’s only constantly good thing in her life. You have to wonder how it would utterly destroy her to discover the truth about him .  Finding out about Harry’s numerous CI’s/mistresses has damaged his memory for her.  It’s hard to imagine her finding out that not only is her beloved brother a sociopathic killer/monster, but that Harry knew it and not only failed to institutionalize him, but taught him how to hide in plain sight while satisfying the Dark Passenger’s homicidal urges.  His good intentions notwithstanding, Dexter will always be potentially harmful to those closest to him.  Trinity made that abundantly clear.

Dexter wanted to learn from Arthur, specifically how he balanced a normal, successful family life with the Dark Passenger riding shotgun.  What he ended up with was an unfortunate lesson in the importance of Harry’s Code and why it had been put into place to begin with.  The Code is there for a reason and when you deviate from it, bad things happen.  Dexter has had the occasional doubt about Harry and the Code in the past.  I doubt he’ll have them in the future.

On a cheerier note:


Image snicked from here.

Dexter returns tonight on Showtime.

Dexter (official site) - Dexter on Facebook - Dexter on Twitter - John Lithgow on Twitter