baseball!

Admittedly, I am one of those baseball fans who gets very excited at the beginning of the season. Every year I read up on the Giants, start watching Baseball Tonight on ESPN, read the internet columns, and even join a fantasy baseball league or two. "This is going to be a great baseball year," I tell myself every March. Inevitably though, something happens along the way. I get bored. The season is long and I don't live in the Bay Area anymore, so following the team gets harder and harder. I get tired of baseball hilights on sportscenter, can't read anything else about steroids, 15-day disabled lists, or ERA's, and eventually allow my fantasy teams to fall by the wayside. Finally, as summer days shorten and fall approaches, I willingly abandon baseball's regular season in favor of my dark master, the NFL.

Be that as it may, there's one baseball event that never gets old, and that's spring training. This year my dad and I made our second annual trip, and I'm here to tell you, if you haven't been yet, either to Arizona or Florida, you really should consider a trip. There's nothing like walking into one of these tiny little stadiums and taking in all the sites and sounds of the beginning of the season. Fans from all over the country meeting one another and exchanging stories, vendors good-naturedly haggling over who's got the coldest beer, and players actually playing with a little spring in their step - even smiling and joking around on the field as they greet old friends and enemies at a time when everyone's tied for first place. They even pipe in the score from "Field of Dreams" over the loudspeakers, just in case you weren't yet convinced you'd died and gone to heaven. Throw in a round of golf and some great dinners at Scottsdale area restaurants, and you've got it made. Here for you now, some footage from us entering Scottsdale Stadium this past Sunday. Beer!

nothing doing

Perhaps you've come to the site recently and been dissappointed by my lack of consistent postage; well, join the club. Work's been busy and I'm simply too mentally emaciated by the time I get home to think of anything good to say. If it makes you feel any better, even I look at the site sometimes and think "jesus, why doesn't this guy post more stuff?" Anyway, just checking in. Here is a link to someone who has a way better site than me: low culture. In the meantime the only thing cool right now (besides the fact that I'm working on a new adrenaline this month) is that I'm going to my first wedding of someone I used to know in high school. Sure, I been to weddings before, but they was always for people who I was related to. This time it's a bunch of my friends and what I'm sure will be a very open bar. If you're like me, right now you're saying "who cares about your stupid friend and the stupid wedding." Well said. The reason I mention any of this is that recently I've been having fears that I may stand up in the middle of the ceremony and shout out something inappropriate. "Why would you do that?" I have no idea. I have no history of outbursts at public functions, or private ones for that matter. Still, I can't seem to shake the thought that "what if"? What if there's such a thing as temporary wedding tourette's syndrome? I mean, I've never been to a wedding like this before. Who the hell knows what's going to happen? What if I just shout out something like "huge ass!" or "hurry up!" Or, worse yet, something completely nonsensical like "yo yo ma!" or "i like it!" I'll ruin the whole thing; nobody will remember what the bride looked like, but they'll reminisce for years to come about how Justin alienated himself from "the group" when he ruined the wedding. I'd better just stay home.

A couple of notes on the Oscars

I concurr with every other pundit out there regarding the tameness of last night's Oscar ceremony. However, there were a couple things that went down which I have not seen mentioned in any of today's monday morning quarterbacking. Thing number one: Erroll Morris is a jerk. This guy has made several well-recognized, award-winning, and influential documentary films. He makes wheelbarrows full of money for directing TV commercials for Apple, Nike, and Miller Beer. He is a man of considerable stature in the film community who's made it farther in this business than most people can dream of. Yet he gets up on stage and gives a speech that basically amounts to this: "Thanks for the Oscar. What took you so long." I stomped around my apartment for 10 minutes before finally being able to sit down and resume watching. They should make every Oscar nominee watch the clip of Joe Pesci accepting his supporting actor award for "Goodfellas" - he walked up to the microphone, quietly said "thank you", and walked off the stage.

Ok I'm moving on. Right now I'd like you to take a deep breath and just clear your head. Last night we were trudging through the cumbersome middle portion of the show where they give away best short-subject documentary and best sound editing. LOTR was still cleaning house and my eyes were slowly glazing over as they began to read the nominees for best Live-Action short film. All of a sudden I awoke as if under hypnosis when they read the name "William Zabka". No? Not ringing a bell? How about this: "You're dead LaRusso", or "Sweep the leg Johnny!" Seriously. Nothing? Well perhaps you've heard of Billy Zabka, aka "Johnny" from The Karate Kid. In case you were wondering: HE WAS NOMINATED FOR AN ACADEMY AWARD. Evidently the man wrote and produced "Most", which was some short film about who cares because Johnny got nominated for a freaking OSCAR! Why didn't they stop the show right then and there? Couldn't there have been a short tribute to the KK trilogy, with special appearances by Elizabeth Shue and Pat Morita? We didn't even get a cut away to Zabka. He was there, wasn't he? The theatre would have gone bezerk if they'd showed him on the jumbotron. It would have saved the telecast. As they opened the envelope to announce the winner, I actually prayed. I prayed to God that this man who once shown so brightly in Hollywood would again walk amongst the elite. Sadly it was not to be, but hopefully somebody with way more readership than me will give some publicity to last night's most overlooked moment.