Mama's

I mentioned in this post that I was looking for a place to spend my Saturday nights now that Sign of the Whale was no longer an option. For a while I was considering the Ducournau, which was right on Front Street. It was a good restaurant and had a nice, quiet bar. Notice that I said "was" twice. It closed in January. Happily, I have found someplace else.

Mama's is just up the street from the Ducournau and has three things that I find very attractive: a long bar, TVs set on ESPN, and bartenders that I can chat with. It also does not have one very important thing: people that I hate. I don't mean that in a way that pinpoints a particular person or persons. It's just that there's a place out on the bypass called Antoon's that I've been two a few times, and every time a guy walks in the door, it's somebody I want to punch in the face. I don't even know any of them. I just have this gut reaction that I really don't like whoever they are. This does not happen at Mama's.


I think they serve extra-strength Crown & Diet drinks, as I can really only have two if I expect to be able to drive home safely. A big bonus is that Mama's is only about a mile and a half from my house, so I can easily (and safely) walk home should the need arise. Chalk up advantage number one over SOTW. The other big advantage is the food. The burgers at SOTW are excellent, but overall the food at Mama's blows it away. I recommend the alligator (fried or blackened) if you're ever in town.

Alas, though I do like the bartenders I've had, it's just not the same experience chatting with them. Sandy, Liz, Brian, Misty, and Crystal were all around my age range, probably within 3-4 years at the most. They called me either "Scotty", "buddy", or some variation of "sweetie." Talking about the week we had was easy.

In contrast, my last bartender at Mama's looks half my age, wears braces, and calls me "Sir." (I am also informed by someone that she has a baby and doesn't know who the father is, but that's beside the point) Now, I have no objection to being called "Sir" or "Mr. Williams." I like being called "Mr. Williams." But not by my bartender. Most of the staff is either in high school or undergrad and what am I going to talk about with them? There is a bartender on Saturday night I get along well with, so that's nice. Another girl who works there is taking my dad's class, so he and I make sure to tease her mercilessly.

In the long run, I have very high hopes for Mama's. Various family members pop in from time to time to relax and occasionally pick up my tab. C'est nice. I never went out like this when I lived here before, so it's a pleasant new experience for me.

The Title Is: "This Post Has No Title"

Saturday, February 14, 2009 was a beautiful day for baseball here in Natchitoches.

Oh, so you went to a baseball game? Who won?

Um, no...

What did you do?

Actually, I went to the library to study, and took an hour off to go watch NSU women's tennis. It was a little strange, since they play all the matches at once. It's tough to keep track of six or seven matches at the same time. I had no idea who was winning or what the status of each match was. I later learned we lost 6-1, but I have to say that I still enjoyed the whole thing a lot. It's not Wimbledon or anything like that, where each court has its own set of stand watching. There's four courts on one side, and four more on the other side. You can sit on bleachers and watch either side. Or you can walk back and forth in the aisle between the two sides and watch a point here and a point there. It was very strange.

Then why did you open with the line about baseball?

Because that's what Harry Caray used to say when it was nice day out, jerkface, so leave me alone while I talk about football.

The Pittsburgh Steelers recently won their sixth Super Bowl when they put together a late drive and defeated the Arizona Cardinals. A few weeks earlier, the Florida Gators won their third national championship when they beat Oklahoma in the BCS title game. Arizona was a Cinderella story, as they had won a weak NFC division with a 9-7 record. They hosted an 11-5 Atlanta team in the first round, beat Carolina thanks to a complete implosion by Jake Delhomme in the second round, and hosted 9-6-1 Philadelphia in the NFC title game. Their appearance in the Super Bowl led some to say that a great story like that could never happen in college football, where the lack of a playoff wouldn't allow for such a thing. I think they're partially correct, but only because college football and the NFL are after two different things.

The thing that bothers me most about BCS bashing is that people aren't willing to admit that their goal is not to determine who the best team is, but to crown a champion. If you're looking for a champion, then a tournament (or playoff, whichever term you prefer to use) is absolutely the way to go. But if your goal is to find out who the best team is, then there are definite risks to holding a playoff. The most obvious is that the best team could lose.

NOTE: The dirty little secret of the NCAA tournament is that the NCAA hopes for upset the first weekend in order to build the drama and the Cinderella stories, but wants the traditional powerhouses to make it to the Elite 8 and the Final Four. As big a story as it was for George Mason to make it to the Final Four a few years ago, nobody is going to watch them play Butler in the title game.

Arizona finished first in a lousy division (NFC West), but still got to host a playoff game against a team that was two games better than they were in the regular season, along with playing in a tougher division (11-5 Atlanta from the NFC South). The last six weeks of the season Arizona was 2-4, with the four losses coming by margins of 12, 28, 21, and 40 points. Am I expected to believe that a system that allows a team like this to play for the championship is really interested in finding out who the best team is?

I don't mean to pile on the Arizona (formerly Phoenix, formerly St. Louis, formerly Chicago) Cardinals. They have nothing to apologize for and deserved to win all the playoff games they did. But they got as far as they did because of a system that also allowed an 8-8 San Diego Chargers team to host a playoff game against a team that finished four games better than they did in the regular season (and who beat them head-to-head), the 12-4 Indianapolis Colts. The Chargers made the playoffs over another team who finished three games ahead of them in the regular season, 11-5 New England.

So if you want to criticize the BCS for being a strange way to determine a champion, that's fine. But if you want to criticize the BCS for being a lousy way to determine who the best team is, then you should probably take a look at the flaws in the NFL playoff format first. The purpose of the BCS is to pick two teams at the end of the regular season to play for the championship. One of the writers over at CFN argues that this actually comes closer to determining the "best" team than a playoff does.

I'm not against a college football playoff. What I'm against is people being stupid and hypocritical about what they're after (which is entertainment and a champion, not finding the best team), especially stupid hypocrites who don't watch college football.

Of course, the fact that LSU has won two championships in the BCS era might be coloring my perception. Maybe.

The Demon Called "Introspection"

There's a book out there somewhere called "The Lesser Key of Solomon", which supposedly contains instructions for summoning any of the 72 demons of hell to do one's bidding. Among them:

• Agares, who can make runaways come back, cause earthquakes, and teaches languages
• Vassago, who can discover hidden and lost things
• Furfur, who can cause love between a man and a woman

In true demonic fashion, I'm sure that there's some unintended consequence to using their services that wreaks terrible chaos on the summoner.

In my experience, there's a 73rd demon out there who tends to go unnoticed, and I sometimes feel that I'd rather face all 72 others simultaneously than this one alone. I speak of the demon known as "Introspection", who appears unsummoned and unwanted.

His power is to make long journeys quiet and uneventful. No turbulence. No jammed landing gear. No gremlin on the wing. Peace and quiet leaves no outward commotion to grab the traveler's attention. This forces the traveler to direct his attention inward. And when said traveler is moving across long distances around the holidays, it can lead toward introspection and the consideration of one's current circumstances. Where do I stand with the people I am now leaving? With the ones I am going to? What on earth am I going to do about so-and-so? And the dreaded "What am I doing?" (or even worse "What am I doing with my life?").

I hate asking these questions. I hate trying to figure out the answers, if there even are any. I can fall asleep on a plane pretty easily. This past trip he managed to make sure I got a good (and I mean really good) night's sleep beforehand so I wouldn't be too tired to think. He's a tricky devil, I have to admit.

DC Activities

I was very happy to be able to spend the New Year's holiday in and around some of what I'm starting to think of as the "old places": Smithsonian Museums, Pentagon City, the tunnels beneath Crystal City, Sign of the Whale and some other spots have received a great deal of my time and attention over the last nine years, and it was nice to get back to some of them.

I got into BWI on Sunday and met Kathy and Adam at Union Station. They are wonderful people. Dinner at Carlyle restaurant was chicken paillard. Very nice.

Monday I went to the Pentagon's 9/11 memorial, which opened just before I moved. This was the first time I had seen it. It's a series of 184 benches, each dedicated to a victim. The benches are arranged according to the birth year of the victim. The youngest was born in 1998, the oldest in 1930. There were at least two sets of spouses that I saw. A spouse's bench also includes their husband or wife's name and year of birth so you can find them as well. The year 1947 had the most victims with 11.
Benches facing towards the Pentagon represent people who were on the plane. Those facing away from the building represent people in the building. It's definitely not flashy, and I don't find it particularly moving. I guess it's more interesting than anything else. There's a lot of trees but little greenery. I'm not disappointed in it myself, but I imagine that other people are.

After that I wandered over to the recently-reopened American History Museum, which had been closed for two years until November. The line out back stretched to and down the sidewalk. The line out front was even longer, but moved pretty quickly. I'd heard they were going to change the interior layout to make it easier to get around, but I didn't see anything like that other than a new entryway.

Something I liked but didn't get to see too much of was a stage set up for singers to perform old songs and standards. These were theater or Broadway-type singers, and they were good. It occurred to me that there are probably 50 understudies on Broadway who actually sing better than just about every recording star in America, but just don't have all the extra stuff that goes with stardom. After the museum it was off to help Cousin-sama move some stuff, then a custody transfer to my friend Melanie, where I stayed the next three nights.

Tuesday I finally paid a visit to the George Washington National Masonic Memorial. I say "finally" because I lived two metro stops away from it for six years and got off at King Street Station a hundred times (or more) without even looking at it. It was more interesting than I had figured, and I'll probably go back and take the official tour one day.

Someone had told me about something at the National Gallery, but I couldn't remember what it was, so I wandered around for a while. I like the religious triptyches and ships at sea.

NOTE: "Triptych" is one of my favorite words. Anyone thinking of producing a "word of the day" calendar in the future should seriously consider it for entry.

It turned out that what I was looking for was the exhibition on Pompeii and the Roman Villa, which was pretty good. I had lunch with some former coworkers again, then plans for seeing a movie fell through. Soooooo...what does one do in D.C. with a couple of hours to kill? I thought you'd never ask.

Terry Pratchett talks about Samuel Vimes knowing where he is in his city by the feel of the cobbles beneath his boots. He also talks about the policeman's walk, an efficient stride that a seasoned policeman can maintain all night. Walking from Chinatown to Sign of the Whale felt just like that. I've approached SOTW from the South/Southeast hundreds of times. The exact route varies from time to time, but the general pull is the same. Sort of like turtles using magnetic north to navigate their way across the oceans. The passing of the city blocks was a trancelike blur until I got close.

On my way out, Vito recognized me and said, "You're back!" I always liked Vito for rescuing the Whale from the spawn of Satan that was going to turn it into an Irish pub, but I never really spoke with him until a few months before I moved. So it was nice to be remembered. Dinner at Noodles and Company and a trek to Crystal City, then konked out on the couch. Thus endeth the Tuesday.

Wednesday I went back to the National Gallery to do something I never had before: pay for those audio devices that tell you about parts of the exhibits. So I plopped down the five bucks for the Pompeii stuff. I learned a good deal, though I can't promise that I remember anything. Back to SOTW for lunch with Cousin-sama, then Gran Torino. Melanie and I ordered pizza that evening before heading to Bobby McKey's for New Year's.

Bobby McKey's is a dueling piano bar owned by the former owner of my former company. It's nice, the piano players are good, and I hope it does well.

I'm never going there again.

It's in an inconvenient location, the crowd is boring, I couldn't sit at the bar, and the check I got averaged out to $14 a drink. Just for the record, that's more than 60% more than I would get charged at SOTW, and there I frequently paid for only 60% of what I drank anyway. My impressions of the place the next morning were filled with profanities. What a great way to start the year.

New Year's Day was spent as it should always be: sitting in front of a TV watching bowl games. If we ever stop doing this, the terrorists have already won. My trip back home on the 2nd was smooth and uneventful, for which I am grateful. I owe a big debt of gratitude to my friends for letting me stay with them during my visit, which makes travel so much more convenient (and affordable).

In my next post, we'll go over one of the great hazards of traveling long distances, which is being confronted by a very overlooked Demon of Hell: He Who is Named...



...Introspection.

cue dramatic music, lights fade to black

Gran Torino

On New Year's Eve I visited one of my old haunts, the Regal Gallery Place movie theater in DC's Chinatown. If I had to do it over again, I probably would have gone to the AMC theater at the Hoffman Center on Eisenhower Avenue, since I spent much more time there when I lived in Alexandria. Alas.

I went to see Gran Torino, starring Clint Eastwood and a bunch of people you've probably never heard of. I say "probably" because it's just within the realm of possibility that you may recognize John Carroll Lynch, who played Drew's brother on the Drew Carey Show. When reviewing an older movie, I often say something like "XXXX was the year that brought us Movie A, Movie B, and Movie C." However, 2008 is a little too recent for that. So before going into the movie itself, let's do a brief review of some of the things Eastwood has accomplished, film and otherwise.

He's got five Oscars, though none as an actor: 2 for directing, 2 for producing, and 1 lifetime achievement award. How many people win a regular one nine years after their lifetime achievement award? He's played two iconic screen characters, the Man With No Name and Dirty Harry. He was the mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea for two years, and carried a loaded pistol to city council meetings. He's been on the cover of Time Magazine.

Back to the movie.

Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski, a Korean War vet who loves America (or what he thinks it used to be) and uses racial slurs at frequent rate, especially against his Asian neighbors. He gets involved with them in spite of his feelings, and the story goes from there. I recommened to someone, "Go see Gran Torino. Walk over dead bodies and hot coals if you have to." It's really, really good, and comes with my Scotty Williams #1 Grade A recommendation. I loved it. I came way, way closer to crying at this movie than I ever would for something like The Notebook. Movies about strength humbling itself for other people always get me. Throw in Eastwood pulling off the grizzled, tough old guy to perfection, and it's fantastic.

Sometimes the slurs are used to give a portrait of his character, and other times they're used for comic effect. The movie has a few cliche elements, most notably a mentor/apprentice relationship, but it's done well enough to be easily forgivable. Be warned that the movie has A LOT of bad language even without the racial stuff. It's very raw and doesn't bother to sugarcoat anything. It starts early and doesn't really let up.

There are times when you can tell that most of the Hmong characters haven't acted before, but this was done on purpose to give things a more authentic feel. I don't think they've got too much to apologize for.

NOTE: The Notebook is a good movie. I'm not banging down any doors to see it again soon, but still good. A little predictable, but that's okay when the predictable thing is well done. At one point I said something would happen and it happened. I turned to my viewing partner and said, "I haven't seen this movie, but I've seen a lot of movies." Well-written and acted, good-looking cast who knows what they're doing, and it's got most of the elements of a good love story. I can see why so many girls list it as their favorite movie, though I would of course recommend to all of them, "You should see more movies."

Smiles und Sunshine

"We Germans aren't all smiles und sunshine."
-- Simpsons episode 8F09, "Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk"

Saturday December 27th, 2008 was a bright, sunshiny, pleasant day with clear skies and a gentle breeze wafting through the tree limbs. It was a fine, fine day to be out and about with friends and loved ones, and there was nothing at all to mar the experience. Smiles und sunshine, indeed.

Now, it may just so happen that one day you will run into someone who was in Natchitoches that day and will call me a loon, a liar, or something even worse. "Is he stupid? It was raining cats and dogs that day! It was awful! It dropped 30 degrees from noon to nightfall once the rain started, and we were lucky to get the fireworks in? What is he thinking?"

I'm thinking that that person didn't have the company I had. Because any day spent with my friend Sandy is full of smiles und sunshine, and no mere trifle of weather phenomenon can change that. Many moons ago we went to school and worked at camp together and were forged in the same fires, and it is the value of shared experience that means so much to me, both with her and with so many other friends. We caught up on what happened to so-and-so and whatever became of you-know-who. We swapped stories back and forth with another friend, some of them new to me. It is something I get to do much too rarely these days, and I murmur a word or two of thanks to God in His Heaven for making it happen.

I even got to meet a few new people along the way in the form of our friend's family. Her mother is an amiable spitfire of a lady who could probably chew me up and spit me out seven times before breakfast without breaking a sweat, and yet was gracious enough to accept me at her table for dinner, dessert, and very pleasant conversation. Her first words to me: "I hear you're a Williams."

I must have it tattooed on my forehead or something.

NOTE: Before I start to sound "woe is me" about it, it does occur to me that there are probably very few people who are consistently around the (non-family) people they experienced a certain stage of life with, and that it probably decreases the older they get. So I'm hardly alone in this regard. I'm also pretty sure that there are plenty of old friends I'd like to see on a much less frequent basis, so maybe a little absence isn't so bad after all.

The Day Scotty Stood Still

We'll start by me saying that the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still isn't as good as the original, but that's pretty obvious. I still enjoyed seeing Gort, but there was too much blah-ness that overrided anything good. The original came out in 1951, the same year that brought us such notable films as An American in Paris (probably my second-favorite opening scene, behind Patton), A Place in the Sun (reviewed by me here), and A Streetcar Named Desire (not to be confused with "A Streetcar Named Marge". On to more pleasant things:

People here in Natchitoches keep telling me that it must be such a big change going from the big city to back home. I suppose it is, but honestly I don't feel any sort of culture shock at all. I did live here the first 22 years of my life, and came back a few times a year for visits or other purposes. So it's not like I didn't know what to expect. The two biggest differences are driving and Saturday night.

I can't shake the feeling that I'm not as good a driver as I used to be. After not even having a car when I lived in VA, I'm used to just being carried along, rather than bearing any responsibility for the caring. I find myself staring a little too long at things on the side of the road that grab my attention, or being a little lackadaisical about certain things, expecting that they're just going to happen instead of making them happen.

As for Saturday night, there is of course no Sign of the Whale here. And if there were, it wouldn't be THE Sign of the Whale. I need to find a place where I can just sit and relax. Wish me luck.

I am very happy to report, however, that Natchitoches recently got a Dairy Queen (specifically a Dairy Queen Grill and Chill). For decades I wondered why we didn't have one. It seemed like Texas had a state law mandating that all towns of at least 500 people had to have one. Why couldn't we? Well, now we do, and the Snickers Blizzard is marvelous.

LSU's football season did not go the way most hoped or expected. There were weaknesses at the beginning of the season (secondary, LB, QB) that remained weaknesses all season long and didn't get any better. That's a bit of a surprise, but a much bigger surprise was the play of LSU's lines. I would have said (and probably did) at the start of the year that LSU had as good a matched set of lines as you would find in the country. I feel like both the offensive and defensive lines dramatically underperformed this season. The epic failure of the co-defensive coordinators didn't help things, either.

I am very happy to say that I got to go to two LSU home games this season. I hadn't been to Tiger Stadium in probably over 20 years, and I saw them play Tulane and Alabama in consecutive weeks. The Tulane week was a bit blah, but the tailgating for the Alabama game was something I shall not soon forget. I took a very long walk around campus, and I never ran into an area that was not partied upon. It was really something.

Now that my first semester of Heritage Resources grad school is over, I'm looking forward to visiting D.C. for New Year's. I miss some people and places and can't wait to see them again. The American History Museum has reopened, the Pentagon 9/11 memorial is up, It's really nice that I have free places to stay. I love you people.

This is my first post in a while, and it's a bit haphazard. I'll do better next time.

Paul Newman

There's got to be some post limit or date of expiration for old posts on this blog, because when I did a search for mentions of Paul Newman, I only came up with this one. I just can't believe that I haven't talked about more than one movie with Paul Newman in it. Running through his IMDB bio, I know I've seen Road to Perdition, Hudsucker Proxy, Slapshot, The Sting, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Cool Hand Luke, The Hustler, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Those last six are probably as impressive a list as anybody else can throw out there, and that's just the ones I've seen.

One is the greatest scam/heist movie ever. One is one of the funniest sports movies (I would say THE funniest, but I'd probably get run over by a Caddyshack fan tomorrow). One is one of the greatest westerns. One is one of the greatest prison movies. One is the greatest pool movie ever, and is also a great personal drama/tragedy film. And the last is one of my favorites because it has so much raw emotion packed into every scene.

I Know, You Know I Know, But I Know You Know I Know

They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Last night LSU and Auburn renewed their SEC West rivalry with an exciting and much-too-tense-for-me football game. All LSU-Auburn games for the last decade or so have been nail-biters than leave the caring viewer exhausted and trembling when it was all over. The game even has its own Wikipedia entry (arbiter of all that is true and right). The home team had won eight in a row, and the four most recent games had been decided by a total of 14 points. LSU fans hate this game, mostly because there have been times when LSU was ranked higher and favored to win, only to come up on the short end.

LSU won 26-21 in another great game with a late drive that featured aggressive playcalling and good execution. There's a couple of scoring plays for each team I want to talk about that concern Auburn's defense being so familiar with LSU's offense. (You can see an LSU-based recap of the game here)

The first was an awful play by Jarrett Lee late in the first half. He double- and triple-clutches on a flare pass out left to Keiland Williams, an Auburn DE makes a nice play to intercept it, and he brings it back for a touchdown. Last year, Keiland Williams burned Auburn bad on this same play, which can be seen here. So when Auburn sees Lee in the shotgun with Williams to his left, they're ready. Even before the hesitation by Lee, about five Auburn guys are headed over to cover Williams. The pass never should have been thrown, but it was still a nice play by the defender to gather in the pass and head in for the score. It was a case of Auburn knowing what LSU knew.

Later on in the game, LSU knows that Auburn knows what they know. LSU seems to run a particular play with Keiland Williams about once a game. The formation includes a fullback in front of Williams. Hike, and the QB fakes a dive handoff to the fullback, then pitches it out the other way to Williams. The first time I remember seeing this play was from San Diego with LaDanian Tomlinson a few years ago. Some teams use it regularly. LSU seems to use it more often than most, and Keiland Williams gets it more than anyone else. Auburn knows this well.

So when LSU is down on Auburn's 22 yard line and Williams is lined up behind a fullback, Auburn is ready again. Fake dive handoff, pitch outside to Williams. But instead of running with it, Williams gathers it in and throws a halfback pass to a moderately-open Demetrius Byrd, who had gotten behind two defenders. LSU was able to use Auburn's knowledge of the play against them, showing them something they'd seen, then showing them something else. Nicely done.

Women's Soccer

I was a season ticket holder for all the seasons that the Washington Freedom were in the WUSA before the league folded days before the 2003 Women's World Cup. After the first year the team drafted Abby Wambach out of Florida. Lost in the finals the second year, won the title the third year. The league will be replaced by Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) in 2009. Player allocation of National Team members was a few days ago, and Wambach is back with the Freedom, which makes me happy.

The Freedom are the first and only team I've ever had season tickets to, so I feel like the connection I have to them is different than any of the other teams I root for. Definitely not stronger, but different in a way I kind of like. I think I'm going to get season tickets again, even if I can't go to any games. I'll try to find a way to make one or two, though how I'm going to get to the Germantown Soccer-plex is beyond me. RKF it ain't. I'll probably send someone the tickets to had out as they wish for the games I don't get to.

Interesting note: The NBA logo features a silhouette of Jerry West. The new WPS logo will feature a silhouette of Mia Hamm. That's a nice touch.

By the way, the Chicago team is called the Red Stars. Doesn't that sound like it should be an old Soviet team?

At another level of women's soccer, I've had the chance to attend a few Lady Demon soccer games recently. They're held at the Demon Soccer Complex, which may have been in its infancy when I was a student. It's turned out to be really nice, and is much nicer than any place I ever played. I'm very pleasantly surprised at the crowds that turn out for the games. I told my dad that if you added up all the people who ever watched my league teams play, they wouldn't equal the crowd there. Where did all these people come from? I used to feel like I knew pretty much everybody in town who was interested in soccer. Verily, things have changed.

Come on, ship...Come on, ship...Come on, ship...Come on in.

The biggest news story in this part of the state the last few months has centered around a geologic formation known as the Haynesville Shale. It's really far underground and contains natural gas. Lots of it. Maybe enough to be the fourth-largest deposit in the world. It was long considered too hard to access, but a new drilling technique has opened things up. So if you own a few acres in the right place, you could be looking at a nice chunk of change. If you own more than a few, you could probably retire. Consider (with the warning that I may have no idea what I'm talking about):

Say you own a section of land, 640 acres. You get paid a fee per acre just for the company to drill. I've heard of fees ranging from eight thousand to twenty-five thousand dollars (not too many people own a whole section, I think).

The price of natural gas is based on per thousand cubic feet produced in a section. Recently the price has been about $7 per thousand cubic feet. Some of these wells can produce more than ten million cubic feet per day.

You get a percentage royalty of the overall production, around 16-25% (one-sixth to one-fourth royalty).

Let's do some math with relatively conservative numbers. The exception is owning a whole section. I don't know an example of anyone who does, though I'm sure they're out there.

640 acres with a $8,000 per acre leasing fee: $5,120,000
7 million cubic feet per day at $7 per thousand cubic feet: $49,000 per day
$49,000 per day times 30 days: $1,470,000 per month
$1,470,000 times 12 months: $17,640,000 per year
$17,640,000 with a 1/6 royalty: $2,940,000 per year

The leasing fee is yours, independent of any royalty. You still have to pay taxes on all this, somewhere in the neighborhood of 42%. Whatever the details, good luck to all the landowners who are in line to take home a nice piece of cash. Some of these people have only ever owned land and not had any money to go along with it. Those are the ones I feel pretty good for.

Two week notice

It's been an interesting couple of weeks lately. I started my graduate assistantship, where I am scheduled to work all day Monday/Wednesday and half a day Friday. The first week the mayor gave us Friday off. Then Monday was Labor Day. Classes and the office were closed Tuesday and Wednesday due to Gustav. Thursday and Friday I was out of town for a wedding in Florida. So I was basically on a week, off a week. We got sent home early today because of Ike. I walked in at 1 and they told me to go home.

Going to the beach we stayed north for a while and went through Natchez, MS, then on down to Hattiesburg before hitting the coast. On the way back we came through Slidell (north of Lake Pontchartrain, for those of you not familiar with Louisiana geography), over to Baton Rouge, and then on up. For fifty miles outside of Baton Rouge, we saw downed power lines, telephone poles hanging over the highway, collapsed or damaged buildings, and flooding on either side of the road. And this was with Gustav not being as bad as feared. If Ike had taken the same path, he would have been serious trouble for a part of the state that had already been hit hard.

Scotty Williams Health Update: The Monday after we got back from the beach, a voodoo queen exacted a measure of revenge on behalf of some old enemy of mine. I don't know which one. Sitting down to dinner, my back started to itch from should blade to shoulder blade. Not the kind of itch that you can scratch and it goes away. But a deep, intense, mind-numbing itch that consumes 100% of your attention and mocks any attempt at relief. It was likely an allergic reaction to something at the beach, but I don't know what. Other people complained of some sort of reaction. I don't think they had it as bad as I did, though.

As I was lying in bed facedown, trying to relax and get to sleep, the Marie Laveau wannabe went to work, and my right shoulder would jerk back suddenly. Then my left. On and on till 4 in the morning. If we were living in a different age, they'd have called an exorcist. Living as we do now, we went to Walgreens. But as John Astin used to say on Night Court, "I'm feeling much better now."

One of the ladies I work with used to live in Alexandria, VA. So did yours truly. She asked me if I ever hung out in Adams Morgan. "Nah, I mostly hung out at a place on M Street called Sign of the Whale." "Oh yeah, I've been there a lot!" she said. So I moved back to Louisiana to find someone who used to live in the same city and hung out at the same place. It's a crazy world.

I went to the Texas A&M Commerce/NSU game last weekend and had a great time. It had been a while since I'd sat in Turpin Stadium and yelled at the people on the field. Mostly griping about NSU coach Scott Stoker's decision to punt on 4 and 1 inside the opponent's territory in the first quarter. Fortune favors the bold, coach.

In the second half I felt like getting nachos, so I went to the concession stand. The item list said "Nachos: $3.00". THREE DOLLARS!! I almost started to cry. I can't get spat on at RFK or the Verizon Center for three dollars. I thought about getting four orders of nachos just because I could.

There's a story on ESPN about three Saints starters who will miss the game this week against the Washington Redskins. Roman Harper has a pulled right hamstring, and Randall Gay has a pulled left hamstring. Can't they just strap the two injured legs together and compete as a single player, sort of like a three-legged race in the secondary?

Sports and Weather at 11

I know I had all sorts of stuff I really wanted to talk about, but most of it has left my consciousness. Let's see what I can do anyway.

Olympics

I'm willing to believe that the 3rd graders on China's gymnastics team are old enough to compete, as long as China gives us back our nuclear secrets. The nucular secrets they can keep.

My favorite part of watching Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh win the gold medal was seeing them on the podium while the national anthem was played. I mentioned earlier that I liked seeing the women's eight all sing the national anthem. M-T and Walsh didn't sing the whole thing, but they each sang parts of it. I think they were overtaken a little by the amount of emotion you could see coursing through them at the time. It would be insufficient to say they looked happy. I'd use the word "joyful" or "euphoric" instead. I think they embody what I loved so much about the teams of Hamm, Foudy, Fawcett, Chastain, etc. Namely, the obvious love that they played with, both for the game and for each other. They are very worthy champions, great examples for America to show off to the rest of the world, and I wish both of them well in their plans to start having kids with their husbands.

As for women's soccer, the US team won an exciting gold medal match against Brazil thanks to a great strike from Carli Lloyd in overtime. There is no sudden-death in soccer overtime. They play two 15-minute extra periods, regardless of who scores first or how many goals are scored. Lloyd scored in the 6th minute of extra time, meaning the US had to hold out against 24 more minutes of desperate Brazilian attacking.

Brazil has Marta, generally considered to be the best women's player in the world. I'm rather partial to Wambach, but Marta is terrific and very, very dangerous. She carved up the US defense several times, but was stoned either by late defensive play or in one case, a great save by Hope Solo. Solo has had a tough time personally since she spouted off about Greg Ryan's decision to bench her against Brazil in the 2007 World Cup.

Solo was banned by her teammates from playing in the consolation game. She was banned by her teammates from eating with the team. She was banned by her teammates from flying back to the United States with the team. That's bringing down the heavy hammer. She lost a few friends along the way.

I wrote that this sort of thing was pretty unprecedented for this team, and that I didn't want the women's game to become more like the men's game, with players criticizing each other and calling each other out. But part of me feels for her, and sort of likes the fact that she was so open and honest about what she thought. If she had waited a month and then sat down in an interview with some soccer mag, people would have come down on her and said, "Why didn't you say anything a month ago?" and accused her of being whiny. She's a good player, and she hasn't lived the easiest life in the world, so I'm glad to see her take home the gold.

So who "won" the medal count? The United States had the most overall medals, but China finished with 51 golds to 36 for the US. How did they do it? See here. They dominated in Gymnastics and Diving, kept their top status in table tennis, broke the strangleholds of Korea and Indonesia in Archery and Badminton, respectively, and put a lot of effort into some relatively lightly-contested events like Trampoline and Sailing. The biggest surprise to me was the EIGHT golds in weightlifting. I thought the Eastern Europeans had that stuff down pat.

Weather

Gustav is on his way to Louisiana, expected to make landfall with the eye to the west of New Orleans. Meteorology review:

Hurricanes are like big energy machines. They draw energy from warm water areas. The longer they stay over water, the stronger they get. They weaken when they get over land. They rotate counter-clockwise, meaning that the Eastern part of the storm is stronger and more damaging than the Western part. I think of it as a big right hand coming in to land a punch. If Gustav were to the West of New Orleans, the wind and rain would be less severe, since the stronger part would have already come over a bit of land before coming around to reach the city. Of course, that would also be bad news for whoever is sitting a few hours east of N.O.

I grew up in a state that had a general feeling--in spite of having been hit with devastating storms before--of "Hurricanes? Whatever. I'm not leaving my house, thank you very much." Now I'm seeing reports that 90-95% of the Louisiana coast has been evacuated. Some estimates have only 10,000 people staying behind in New Orleans. That's what seeing your city under ten feet of water for days on end will do for you. We'll probably get a lot of rain in Natchitoches, and I expect there will be some wind damage and a lot of picking up limbs in the yard afterwards. Gah.

Football

College football season started this weekend, and I was very happy to watch LSU beat Appalachian State yesterday. Game time was 10am due to evacuation concerns, so I guess tailgating started at 8pm Friday night. I didn't like the sluggish third quarter, but the lines were great, the tackling was good, and the game was never really in doubt. Not a bad way to start the season, and hopefully they'll get better each week leading up to the Auburn game in Week 4.

Sarah Palin

I have seen three pretty funny reactions related to John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his VP running mate.

1) Someone writing in to Jack Cafferty saying "If I had known that being an inexperience hockey mom was qualification enough to be vice president, I'd have told my wife to apply for the job."

2) Cafferty apologizing for being late to a segment with Wolf Blitzer to talk about Palin. "Sorry I'm late. I was under heavy sniper fire on the 4th floor." (using a "misremembered" Hillary story for an excuse. I like it) This was followed by Wolf talking to Glenn Beck, who also apologized for being late. "I'm also sorry I was late. I was on the 4th floor adjusting my scope." Now that's funny.

3) This video from the Red State Update guys. I'd never really watched any of their stuff, but this made me giggle.

Olympics

I picked a pretty good time of year to have two solid weeks with no responsibility. I get to see pretty much all the Olympic events that are on TV if I so choose. I really do enjoy watching certain sports I don't get to see very often, such as badminton, archery, field hockey, and handball. Track and field is on sporadically throughout the year, but I don't pay as much attention then as I do during the Olympics. I really like the Olympics. The idea of somebody from Central African Republic taking on somebody from American Samoa (no idea if this actually happens) makes me smile. Thoughts on some of the action so far:

I always wonder how some countries end up having national uniforms that don't match the colors of their flag. Italy wears blue uniforms, despite the flag being green, white and red. The Italian national soccer team is called the Azzurri (from Azzurro Savoia), which translates roughly as "the Blues". Wikipedia (arbiter of truth in today's world) calls it "the colour traditionally linked to the dynasty which unified Italy in 1861". (the French national team is also called "les Bleus")

The Australian Flag is red, white and blue, but their national uniforms are green and gold, making them look like the Packers. (away soccer jerseys are blue)

I was watching some men's rowing yesterday and saw the 4-man team from Denmark win a gold medal. I think that any Scandinavian team winning rowing gold should immediately rampage through the surrounding countryside, pillaging and burning everything in their paths. Reflecting one's Viking heritage is very important.

I also saw the U.S. women's eight win gold, and let's just say they were happy. Happy when it ended, happy in the interview, and happy during the national anthem. For some reason I was caught up a little watching and listening to several of the women actually singing the anthem. In most cases you just see their lips moving, if they sing at all. They could be using my sister's old trick of singing "cantaloupe, watermelon" when they don't know the words. But in this case I could hear them singing, and combined with the obvious joy on their faces, it made for quite a scene.

From what I know about rowing and the training that goes into it, I'd be thinking "Okay, I've got a medal. I never want to get into that ******* boat again."

I wrote in this post about my favorite overall team being the US Women's Soccer team. I got a chance to watch them this morning against Japan and was relatively pleased. They're playing without three starting players: Leslie Osborne, Cat Whitehill, and (sniff) Abby Wambach (sniff). They lost the opening game of group play to Norway 2-0. Since then they beat Japan and New Zealand to advance to the elimination rounds, beat Canada in overtime and beat Japan again today to reach the finals. This means the team has made the finals in every Olympics since women's soccer was added as a sport. For this to happen without three world-class players is very, very impressive.

Good luck against Brazil in the finals. They're going to need it.

Ato Boldon is doing color commentary for NBC's track and field coverage. I knew he was from Trinidad and Tobago, so I was looking forward to him speaking with a heavy Trinidad accent. I used to work in an office that had a lady from T&T, and I could listen to her talk all day, where I would understand about 2 of every 3 words. Sadly, Ato seems to have lost (or disguised) most of his accent by moving to Queens, NY when he was 14. Zut alors!

Finally, I'd like to direct your attention to this video, which is called "Beijing Welcomes You". It's very nice, very pretty, and very sweet. It's about friendship and camaraderie and how China opens its arms to the rest of the world for the Olympics. It's got Jackie Chan. I'll have it stuck in my head for a week. If they made one like it in America, we would rip it to shreds and make fun of if mercilessly.

Come to think of it, we didn't even wait for an English version, since someone already came up with a version called "Please Ignore the Communism". (Note: both videos appear to have spotty accessibility--I've seen "this video is no longer available" on both, but searching for them seems to work okay). My favorite lines:

"We will get to know each other/nd I am sure you will find love

becomes

"So have fun here and when you leave/please take these extra children"

and

"The evergreen tree grows in my yard/I will tell you my stories"

becomes

"When the Party tells you to dress like Elvis/You dress like ****ing Elvis"

My favorite parts of the parody:

Weekend in New Orleans

I spent the weekend in New Orleans with my parents. Dinner at Galatoire's Friday night (duck crepe, turtle soup, poisson meuniere amandine, coffee chocolate layered over chocolate mousse covered with whipped cream), Insectorium, Riverwalk, WWII Museum and Vincent's Saturday night. Pretty nice.

Saturday morning we were wandering outside the French Quarter and saw three or four guys wearing red dresses. This does not cause one to look twice in New Orleans, especially in the area of the Quarter. You're almost guaranteed to see stranger things than that.

But it didn't end there. Apparently there was a breast cancer run being put on by the New Orleans Hash House Harriers. There were THOUSANDS of people running around in red dresses. Every participant, male and female, was in a red dress of some variety. Even in New Orleans, that's enough to get some attention. The Hash members refer to themselves as "A Drinking Club With a Running Problem".

In closing, if you get a chance to stay at the Ritz Carlton outside the Quarter, take it.

And run with it.

Red dress optional.

Three Really, REALLY Different Movies

I've seen three movies in the theater over the last month or so, each of which is much different than the others and was seen under different circumstances. So here we go:

Wall-e.

I saw this on a Monday afternoon at Gallery Place in Chinatown while I was wandering around DC taking pictures of things I didn't have on digital camera yet. It's well done and kind of funny, and I could see some people maybe getting a catch in their throat watching the parts meant to be emotional. But overall I just didn't see the big point of the movie. If it was just to show off what Pixar can do, then good job. But Pixar's reputation is already established, so it wasn't really necessary to prove anything. Was it to tell me that pollution is bad and that we should take better care of the planet? I already knew that, and seeing Wall-e didn't pound it home.

I also think that Wall-e is for really, really obese people what 300 was for Persians, just not in the really mean way.

Best thing is getting to experience the work of Ben Burtt, who did so many sounds and voices for the Star Wars movies.

The Dark Knight.

I saw this one at Tyson's Corner with my friends Kathy and Adam on a Saturday morning. It is currently on its way to smashing the box office into tiny bits (in thy mercy). You can make the argument that it's too long, but it's not like the extra 15-20 (or 35-40) minutes were that bad.

A lot of attention was paid to Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker, and I'd say it was richly deserved. I'm sure somebody out there has talked about him exploring the dark recesses of his soul to come up with this version of the bad guy, which was so much different than Jack Nicholson's. I'd resist comparing them simply because each guy was asked to do such different things with the character.

While watching it I was thinking about some of the "ideas" of Batman. I thought about Gordon, and how Commissioner Gordon is one of the reliable characters. I really like what Gary Oldman has done with him in the last two movies. He's played some really crazy/creepy/whacked out characters (none more so than Beethoven, who seemed even stranger than Dracula), so it's a little odd to see him as someone relatively normal. By the way, Immortal Beloved came out in 1994, the same year as Leon, called The Professional in the US. Good movie.

I thought about one of the things that people forget about Batman: Batman doesn't kill, and he doesn't use guns. It's been that way for almost 70 years. The Joker references this once or twice, but I don't know if people understood what he was getting at. Batman could have run over the Joker or let him fall to his death or blown him to smithereens, but he doesn't. Among other things I think it helps keep the plot interesting.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Ugh.

I saw this on a Wednesday afternoon at the Parkway Cinema in Natchitoches. The "ugh" is not for the venue, though it's certainly not comparable to the other two. It's not even for the loud commenter sitting in the row behind me or the walrus making and taking phone calls in the row in front of me. The "ugh" is for the movie expecting me to suspend disbelief enough to allow for Brendan Fraser holding his own against Jet Li in a fight. It's not a good enough movie for that to happen. I wish Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh would stop making movies for American audiences. Their straight Chinese stuff is so much better.

On the other hand, I did get to see Maria Bello. I love me some Maria Bello, even if her British accent was just atrocious. I see from her IMDB bio that there's now a director's cut of Payback, a movie I really, really enjoy watching. I'll have to look into that.

Movies and Museums

These two things have taken up a rather large chunk of the time I've spent in the DC metropolitan area. I don't regret that at all. Good thing, too, since that's what I did yesterday. I saw Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. I would tweak the title to read The Golden Duet instead. The duet designation can refer to my two favorite scenes in the movie, which ran back-to-back, or to the actual duet that occurs in movie. You can't go wrong either way. Both were reminders of why I like going to see movies in the theater, because they were just so much fun and so well done. For me, going to the movies is supposed to be an entertaining experience. I don't mind the serious stuff now and then, but I'd rather enjoy myself. The torture porn and scary stuff isn't really for me. I have an overactive imagination as it is, so I don't need any help dreaming up horrible things that could happen to me.

As for the film itself, it's directed by that nice Spanish gentleman who also did Pan's Labyrinth, which got such good reviews. He brought that same visual creativity to Hellboy, and it looks wonderful. The action was okay, nothing that thrilled me. I would like to have seen more of Jeffrey Tambor's character, but I guess I understand why they didn't use him that much.

Two other things that bothered me: 1) Selma Blair is a real downer. She never smiles or looks happy. Maybe she was depressed by bad acting. 2) I never felt any real threat from the bad guy. In movies and in pro wrestling, they say the hero is only as heroic as the villain in villainous (only they probably use simpler words like "good" and "bad"). This bad guy didn't seem all that remarkable. Good fighter, but that's about it. There's no real sense that this guy actually can win, even though we know he's the bad guy and will lose in the end.

This is sort of the opposite of the problem I had with the recent Superman movie, if you will allow me the hubris of quoting myself:

"The only major critique I have would be that I didn't really feel a lot of suspense or danger. He's Superman, for crying out loud. He's going to save the day, and come out pretty much unharmed in the end. Not anybody's fault, but it's just the nature of the adventures of Superman, I guess."

It's hard to feel suspense with Superman vs Luthor because he's Superman. It was hard to feel suspense with Hellboy 2 because Prince Nuada is not like a Doomsday or Darkseid or any of the other titanic bad guys that have challenged Superman.

One more note: I found the Elvish language interesting. It's not the soft, gentle, flowing stuff you get in Lord of the Rings. It's a bit harsher, more earthy. I don't know what they based it on, but it sounded a little Teutonic to me, a reminder that elves originated in Germanic mythology.

--------------------

Some years ago I started to think that everything in life could be related back to one of two things: The Simpsons or Hitler (who said anything about Hitler?). So it was no surprise when I was playing this scene over in my head yesterday:

Professor Frink takes over the kindergarten class, drawing equations and
free-body diagrams on the blackboard to explain the workings of one of
those things that kids push which makes the balls pop.

Frink: N'hey hey! Ahem, n'hey, so the compression and expansion of the
longitudinal waves cause the erratic oscillation -- you can see
it there -- of the neighboring particles.
[a girl raises her hand]
[sighs] Yes, what is it? What? What is it?
Girl: Can I play with it?
Frink: No, you can't play with it; you won't enjoy it on as many levels
as I do.
[he chuckles as he plays with it] The colors, children!

After the movie I wandered over to the Ripley Museum to see the exhibit of Jim Henson's creations, the Muppets first and foremost. It was nice. Not mind-blowing, but nice. They have an 18-minute film showing highlights of Henson's career. At one point a little girl was sitting to my right. As scenes from the old Muppet Show (one of the five greatest TV shows of all time) and Sesame Street and The Dark Crystal rolled by, I wanted to tell her, "You have no right to be watching this. You don't appreciate it on as many levels as I do." I somehow managed to restrain myself.

Media Studies

I'm not the only person who has felt a little disturbed watching this Travelers Insurance commercial. A girl at Sign of the Whale said something to me when it came on during the NCAA Tournament. The part that gets me is the strange man walking up to children who are out all alone, offers them a ride, and they just hop on with him. Didn't their parents ever tell them not to speak to strangers? I don't mean to sound like I'm sounding disaster alarms, because it is just a commercial, but the thing that always comes to mind when I see it is, "That's really not a good idea, children. Tell him to get lost."

----------

The Washington Post has the first in a series of articles about the disappearance of Chandra Levy and the ensuing investigation. I quote:

"The serial will show how the sensational nature of the media coverage quickly overwhelmed the investigation."

I wonder how the Post will evaluate its own coverage of the case. I seem to remember an article or two showing up in its pages along the way. Who gets labeled "sensational"? I do remember walking the halls of the Rayburn Building that summer and seeing a line of TV cameras outside Gary Condit's office, so the label probably applies to someone out there.

I can confirm that the scandal led to some interesting Letters to Leaders on Congress.org. One asked Condit if he pooped in his pants when he heard a verdict ("Was it large?") and another told him how popular a cute guy like him would be in the big house.

The last serial I paid attention to in the Post was its extremely long and detailed rundown of the DC lobbying industry and the role my former company, Cassidy & Associates, played in the business. I thought they did a pretty good job.

----------

I'm not sure if the current state of the Chicago Cubs qualifies as a media event, but it probably will later this year if the Cubs remain in playoff contention the rest of the season. As you may have heard, the Cubs have not won the World Series since 1908, leading us to the magical 100-year mark. (I once saw a t-shirt that read 1907-08 Back to Back World Champions. I love that stuff). There will be talk of drama and futility and curses and all that on every sports-related (and some non-) that you can think of. So that gives me an excuse to talk about this:

There are those who point to history--ancient and recent--as a reason why the Cubs are of no concern when it comes to the playoffs. They'll choke in big games, lose games they should win, fold when the pressure's on, etc. Whereas some other team--oh, I don't know, let's pick one at random--the St. Louis Cardinals, know how to win and are therefore much better in close games and big games than the Cubs. There's actually an argument to be made for that, seeing as how the Cards are 3 games over .500 in 1-run games, while the Cubs are just one game over.

However, there is zero argument at the moment that can support the Cards actually being a better team than the Cubs. The Cubs have more run, hits, walks, stolen bases and home runs, and a higher batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage. Their ERA/runs allowed, hits, and home runs allowed are all lower. The Cubs' run differential is almost five times greater, and a few days ago was exactly six times greater. Don't forget the 5.5 game lead.

There's my small contribution to the best rivalry in the Midwest.

The Great Captured Wonder

Over the weekend I wandered into DC with the intention of seeing a movie at Gallery Place, probably Wall-E. But jeezum crickets, the lines were long, and it's not something I want to see that bad. Long lines means crowds, crowds mean crowded theaters, and crowded theaters get on my nerves. And people younger than me, to make it even worse. Bah.

So I kept wandering on over to E Street Cinema, stuck my head in, and was pleasantly surprised to see Mongol starting in about 20 minutes. I've always found Genghis Khan and the rise of the Mongol Empire to be a very interesting subject, so I was pleased yet anxious when I heard they were making a movie about his life. I hadn't really paid attention to release dates, so it was a bit of good fortune that I stumbled on it when I did.

Let's get the standard stuff out of the way first: This is a really good movie, very well made, which tells a very specific story in a very specific way. I think the acting is good, though I sometimes have trouble determining such a thing in foreign-language films. I don't know what the dialogue is supposed to sound like, so it throws me a little bit. The scenery is great, the girl playing Borte is pretty (at least I thought so, an acquaintance disagreed), and all aspects of the movie come together well.

On to particular thoughts on the story:

When I think about Genghis and his eventual empire, I think BIG. At its height the empire covered over fifteen and a half million square miles. The phrase "Mongol Horde" brings to mind visions of vast numbers of men on horseback thundering across the steppes. So I was a little caught off guard at how little of that there is in the movie, mainly because the story focuses on Genghis as a man and his individual relationships with a select group of people: his father, his wife, and his blood brother Jamukha. For the most part, it's very small in scope for a man who would cast such a large shadow later on in his life.

Another thing that keeps the vast armies off the screen: Genghis is always getting captured by his enemies and put in chains. The guy is good at getting away, but largely stinks at staying free. That may be some of the "liberties" that the director took with the script to fill in some holes, but I have done some reading that mentioned at least to imprisonments of Genghis before he became the Great Khan.

My acquaintance said that this was just the first in a trilogy about Genghis, but I haven't seen that mentioned anywhere else. I hope it turns out to be true, and wonder if it will follow just Genghis himself or extend beyond into the later conquests of the horde. I'd sort of like to see the battle tactics that Mongol generals used to conquer China, conquer Central Asia, and kill tens of thousands of Western knights in a single battle.

Forbidden Home Companion

In the past few weeks I had the opportunity to see two things for which I have particular fondness: a Chinese martial arts movie and Prairie Home Companion. The movie was Forbidden Kingdom, and PHC was playing at Wolftrap, where I'd never been before. Movie first:

I was very excited back in March or so when I heard that Jackie Chan and Jet Lie would be in their first movie together. The 1994 version of Drunken Master is my favorite martial arts movie, and Fist of Legend comes in at second. They've both done a lot of great work over a long period of time, and in pretty different ways. I'd say that Chan is more of a stunt-comedy performer, and Li more straight martial arts, and that may be a reflection of their training backgrounds. Chan was brought up in the Peking Opera, and Li was a Wushu champion. So they have different styles, and it makes for an interesting matchup to watch.

As for the movie itself, here's what I liked:

--The general storyline. Find magic staff, free Monkey King, defeat evil warlord and assorted minions. That works for me.

--Any fight involving Chan and/or Li. The matchup between the two of them was quite good. I got to see Drunken Boxing vs Wushu and Crane vs Tiger. I could have stood a little more.

What I didn't like:

--The kid from Boston. I had a hard time buying him as the "chosen one" character.

--English. Jet Li can't speak it well, and neither could the pretty girl.

--Dialogue. Awful, cliche stuff. Tough to listen to.

I thought more could have been made of what was a pretty solid storyline. Why the first Li/Chan film is in English and made for American audiences is beyond me. I believe it would have been better had it been a straight Chinese movie. It would have allowed a more natural performance from Jet Li, and I wouldn't have had suspension of disbelief issues with the American kid. I think the villains could have been a bit more evil, but this seemed to be a bit kid-friendly, which held it back. I'm glad I saw it for the Chan/Li stuff, but it could have been better.

--------------------

Prairie Home Companion was a lot of fun. Wolftrap has an interesting setup, with people able to sit out on the grass and still see the stage.

I saw the show several years ago in Baton Rouge, and it hasn't changed much since. What was a little different is that this was the Friday night show, rather than the taped Saturday show. The first 15 minutes was us singing along with Garrison Keillor. "Let's sing O Beautiful, for Spacious Skies." So we all sang that for a while. Everybody knows the first verse. Some people know the second verse. Nobody knows the third verse.

"Let's all stand up and sing the national anthem." So we all stand up and sing the national anthem. No fancy arrangement that you get at sporting events, just the straight anthem, just the way I like it.

"Since it's getting close to summer, let's sing 'Summertime'." So we all sing the first verse of the song. The acoustics at Wolftrap are great, so everybody sounds good. I am amazed at the number of people who know the lyrics to "Summertime". It's a great song.

Summertime,
And the livin' is easy
Fish are jumpin'
And the cotton is high

Your daddy's rich
And your mamma's good lookin'
So hush little baby
Don't you cry

They also had Raul Melo, a tenor from the Metropolitan Opera singing Italian love songs and a couple other things. It got me to thinking about singers and performers. If there's somebody you hear on the radio singing R&B, or hip-hop, or rock, or easy listening type of music and you think they can sing, then listen to somebody like Raul Melo and let me know what you think. A lot of the people we like listening to have their blemishes covered up by excellent production techniques. Get them in front of live people, and it's a different story. For guys like Raul Melo, that's not the case. They can SING. They spend all their time perfecting their voice and training it to do exactly what they want it to do. They are a pleasure to see in person.

Spring Post--LSU Sports

It's been an interesting few weeks in LSU sports. Let's start with what most people would consider the biggest story: Ryan Perrilloux getting kicked off the team.

Perrilloux had been suspended by Les Miles for much of spring practice for missing class, team meetings, and workouts. Then there was some incident at a restaurant. Then he was suspended for the rest of the spring for not meeting his obligations to the team. At that time, I believed there were 5 main approaches to the RP situation among LSU fans. There may be more, but the ones I thought of were these:

1) The "Get Right" approach. This approach hopes that RP does everything the coaches ask him to do and stays out of trouble. Goes to class, makes the grades, stops staying out late, works hard in the film room, takes control of the offense, and has one of the greatest seasons ever for an LSU QB. This is a very optimistic approach that relies on RP maturing as he gets older and on the coaches being able to handle pretty much any situation.

2) The "Just Win" approach. This approach takes a look at the depth chart at QB, then looks at the SEC road schedule, and figures a troubled RP is better than a RSFR or a Harvard transfer. Yes, he's a headache, but he's also got talent out the wazoo, has been with the program for what will be four years in the fall, and is our best chance to compete in a league that seems to get stronger each year. As long as he doesn't commit, you know, a "serious" crime, he's too important to kick off the team.

3) The "He's Dead to Me" approach. This approach is one of resignation to whatever happens. If RP straightens up and plays, I'll be happy for whatever success the team has due to his performance. If he screws up and gets the boot, then that's fine too, and we'll move on to Jarrett Lee. Either way, I'm not going to invest myself emotionally in RP anymore, because it's just not worth it.

4) The "Get Rid of Him Now" approach. This approach argues that keeping RP is bad for the team. Allowing him so many chances sends the wrong message to the players who are doing things the right way. RP is unreliable and an unnecessary distraction. He also damages the reputation of the LSU football team as a whole. Miles looks like a hypocrite for talking about the importance of character while supporting a player who has shown little.

5) The "We Want Jarrett Lee" approach. A corollary to the "Get Rid of Him Now" approach. The team is better off nixing RP right now and moving on to the Jarrett Lee Era. Get him some experience now, when he's got a good line and good talent all around him on offense. Best case scenario is Sam Bradford's year at Oklahoma as a RSFR, and turning into a 4-year starter with a great career at LSU. There's the added bonus of Lee never getting into trouble (that we know of).

SI's Stewart Mandel had written a previous column stating that RP should get the boot, and he followed it up with this one once the dismissal was announced.

ESPN had a pretty good rundown of what to expect at QB for LSU.


LSU hired Trent Johnson as the new basketball coach, replacing interim coach Butch Pierre, who replaced the fired John Brady. I didn't particularly dislike John Brady, but it was pretty clear that he couldn't be kept on as coach without alienating a big chunk of the fans. Johnson is a good hire who had success in a strong conference at Stanford. I am somewhat optimistic.


The LSU baseball team has won 19 games in a row after beating Alabama in the SEC tournament today. Midway through the season it looked like LSU would miss the NCAA tourney for the second year in a row. Now there's a legit shot at hosting a super regional and playing in Baton Rouge for two weeks (assuming they keep winning) before going to Omaha. Well done, Tigers.

Games and Game Theory

My understanding of game theory is limited at best, mostly coming from ecology class in college and some independent reading. I do find it interesting, though. So here's a Slate article on the "weak-bidder" theory as it may apply to how men get chosen by women as they get older.

LSU's women's basketball team made the Final Four for the fifth year in a row, only the second team to accomplish the feat. That is outstanding. The team also lost in the national semifinals for the fifth year in a row. With the exception of last year, when they got blitzed and run out of the building by Rutgers, each loss has come as a result of not being able to throw it in the ocean from farther out than ten feet. It was a problem in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008. You'd think that somewhere along the way, someone would have thought about recruiting a player with shooting skill. Just one, that's all I ask.

This makes me think of something Jim Calhoun said in an interview with Charlie Rose. Rose asked him the difference in the recruiting strategies between Roy Williams and Mike Krzyzewski. Calhoun replied that Williams goes for athleticism, and Krzyzewski goes for skill. Williams would like skill, and Krzyzewski would like athletes, but given the choice between the two, they differ. LSU's women's team has apparently chosen athleticism, and his has paid off in a very big way. But one skilled player would have been nice.

Now that baseball has started again, be sure to check out the FJM blog, which does an entertaining job of ripping apart bad sportswriting.