KFB Flashback - 6/16/07 - New York Mets at New York Yankees

As I mentioned before, I got to see three Yankees games in one week. Three victories as well. The Mets / Yankees game was the game with the best seats as well so please enjoy this bunch of photos.

It was a long time ago, so I don't really remember the details. There was a rain delay in the game that made it really long.

At some point in the week, but not at this game, Miguel Cairo was at bat with the bases loaded. Inside the Stadium, John Sterling could be heard saying, "Miguel Cairo is having a bad year, but he is a clutch player, and the kind of hitter you want with the bases loaded." Meanwhile, on YES, there was a stat listed, "Career with bases loaded: .224 AVG." Just another day listening to the Yankees.

KFB Flashback - 6/13/07 - Arizona Diamondbacks at New York Yankees

What a strange week it was - I had planned on going to the bat day game, and then suddenly I got tickets to this Thursday evening game against Arizona and also the Saturday game against the Mets! As it turns out, the Yankees won every game I went to this summer.

First time I've been in the bleachers in a while. Johnny Damon was really close to us!

KFB Flashback - 6/10/07 Pittsburgh Pirates at New York Yankees

This is a game I went to a while back. I took a photo of Luis Vizcaino at the time because he was so horrible and I was going to complain about him. He improved significantly over the course of the season. Now I can complain about how Joe Torre has overused him this year, and had to have an MRI on his right shoulder the other day.

#19 is Tyler Clippard. Remember him? He was one of the 13 rookies that the Yankees have trotted out this year as a starter. Times were really bleak back in June - I can't believe the Yankees are now in the wild card lead!

KFB Flashback - 5/16/07 - Yankee Stadium Tour

Back on May 16, I went on a tour of Yankee Stadium. Here are some of the highlights.


Construction of the new Yankee Stadium has begun.


That's Brian Cashman, playing basketball with local kids during lunchtime. One of the tour guides told me that this is pretty common.


View from the press box.


View of the press box.


I think this is where "Cotton Eye Joe" of the 8th inning fame works.


This is the Yankee dugout.


View from center field.


Monument park.


More monument park.


Yankee bullpen.


The bat. Before the game - meet me at the bat.


This is the hallway from the Yankee clubhouse to the dugout.

Tiki

Has any professional athlete become less likeable following his retirement than Tiki Barber? Maybe Jose Canseco?

I was already down on Tiki before retirement - he seemed like such a self-promoter, willing to say anything to please the media - but he's constantly criticized current Giants personnel including QB Eli Manning and coach Tom Coughlin since his retirement. Why not talk to these guys while you were on the same team? Maybe then the team wouldn't have done poorly in the playoffs. By the way - Tiki's best years? Under Coach Coughlin.

Omen?

Tom Brady's kid has the initials "JET"

John Edward Thomas Moynahan

Poor Miss Teen South Carolina

Hate to laugh at the poor kid but... just watch:

Not to be a pessimistic Jets fan but...

I am still a Jets fan, so I have to be entitled to a little worrying.

I'm worried about the offensive line and how they traded LG Pete Kendall with no other options. This seems like a bad move. Chad Pennington has less protection and there's no stand-out player to take Kendall's place.

Things are made worse with the injury to Thomas Jones. Nobody knows how long he'll be out and he was their major acquisition in the off season.

Finally the secondary, which was supposed to be better with Darelle Revis is still weak due to injuries to Andre Dyson and Justin Miller.

The expectations are high for this team this season. Before training camp started, I was pretty optimistic, but these early bumps in the road have me very worried, especially with the first game of the year coming against the Patriots.

In the News...

Since there is not a lot of new programming on television in the summertime, I have been watching news and sports programming. Here are some of the more ridiculous stories I have seen. Some credit must go to the Daily Show and Colbert Report as well.

Florida State Representative Bob Allen was arrested for offering oral sex to a police department. Why was Allen do it? He was scared the undercover cop (an African-American) was going to hurt him! Nice alibi.

Moving over to the Garden State - poor Miss New Jersey. Someone was trying to blackmail her with photos from her facebook account. Who would do such a thing? Maybe, Miss New Jersey, you shouldn't have posted photos of you making out with all these random dudes. Check out the clip from Today. It's hilarious. How does Matt Lauer keep a straight face through the interview? Especially when she shows the photo of her boyfriend with his mouth over her (fully clothed) breast and says, "Oh but he's VERY intelligent."

In Iowa, Mitt Romney committed a faux pax when he was asked about how his sons would serve the war on terror. How can they help? By traveling around the country and supporting their father's bid for Presidency. What a sacrifice!

Over in Thailand, police officers who break the rules must wear a pink Hello Kitty armband for shame and punishment. Is this to encourage petty crooks to snicker at the cops trying to arrest them? I'm imagining a Thai police officer trying to arrest this teenager for graffiti and having difficulty because the kid is just cracking up.

Finally, Bill O'Reilly has been comparing the website dailykos.com to the Nazi party and the KKK. Since the website has people post comments on it that, for example, suggest that some individuals in the Bush Administration would be better off dead, he feels the hate is similar to that displayed on Nazi websites. Seems a little far-fetched to me. You can decide for yourself.

I must say, watching the news lately has been more entertaining than "Who Wants to be a Super Hero?"

The Jets Now Have Cheerleaders

It's almost time for football, a favorite topic on this blog. Guess what? This year the Jets are adding cheerleaders. That's right, welcome to the "Jets Flight Crew."

On the one hand, it's surprising that neither New York team had cheerleaders. On the other hand, I'm a bit surprised the Jets have decided to start having them now. Seems old-fashioned or something. Not to mention the name "Flight Crew" is so corny. Wait until you watch the the "Flight Crew" through this link. In particular, check out the video with the ridiculous Jets song.

Are You Listed?

I wish I knew more people who lived or worked in Washington DC. There's a search tool for the recently released phone records of escort Deborah Jeane Palfrey at www.dcphonelist.com.

Rickey

Ricky Henderson was just announced as the new hitting coach of the NY Mets. Briefly, isn't it funny how quickly coaches get the blame and credit for a baseball team's hitting and pitching? As I recall, Rick Down, the previous hitting coach got a lot of credit last year for Mets hitting. Looks like he gets the blame this year, even though the team is virtually the same. Of course, Down is probably used to this as he was also previously the Yankees hitting coach.

Henderson was really known as a great runner. I didn't know he had a reputation as a great technical hitter, although he is often considered one of the best leadoff hitters ever. Maybe they brought him in to be a mentor for SS Jose Reyes?

Also, this photo of him from the Red Sox days was posted with the ESPN story announcing his hiring. I couldn't even think of him as a member of the Red Sox, and yet when I looked it up on baseball-reference.com, there it was - 72 games in '02!

This is the 700th post to this blog. Hooray.

Superbad

This movie looks hilarious. I was on their website and it said, "Click here to put this widget on your social networking site." About three years ago, that sentence wouldn't have made sense to anyone! Here's the widget on my social networking site. Enjoy.

Two items

The blog is due for a massive update - almost no updates in June so far. I do have a ton of Yankee updates. Before this, I can't let these two brief stories pass by.

First item
As seen on the Daily Show, Barack Obama ringtones. Ringtones?? Yes, they are soundbytes of Obama speeches mixed to techno music!

Second item
Larry King had the Beatles on the other night and called Ringo "George."

I saw the original article on Rollingstone.com, but here is the transcript as well.

KING: Where were you when — when John passed?
MCCARTNEY: When John passed I was in Sussex, at my home in Sussex. That’s where I was.
KING: Did somebody call you?
MCCARTNEY: Yes, my manager at the time called me. And it was just the shock of all shocks, you know?
KING: George, where were you?
MCCARTNEY: George!
KING: Ringo.
MCCARTNEY: No, this is Ringo here.
KING: Ringo, where were you?
STARR: I was in the Bahamas.
KING: I was getting to (INAUDIBLE) George.
STARR: I was…
MCCARTNEY: No, you weren’t, Larry. You said his name wrong.
STARR: Shut up, it’s my turn.
MCCARTNEY: I know, but he got your name wrong, Ringo, on national television.
STARR: I know. Give him a break.
MCCARTNEY: We can’t cut it. It’s live.
STARR: Anyway, I was in the Bahamas and the kids called and they said we’ve heard something, like John has been hurt.

Bill Richardson on Meet the Press

I thought this exchange was pretty funny on Meet the Press last weekend.
-----
MR. RUSSERT: You spent a lot of time in, in Massachusetts. Are you a Red Sox fan?

GOV. RICHARDSON: I’m a Red Sox fan, but I got into trouble in New Hampshire. You know why? Because I said...

MR. RUSSERT: Luis Tiant, the fund-raiser. But, now, governor, this is very serious. In your book on page 18 it says...

GOV. RICHARDSON: No, about Mickey Mantle?

MR. RUSSERT: You said you’re a Yankee fan!

GOV. RICHARDSON: No, no, no. I said—no, no, no.

MR. RUSSERT: I mean, you can, you can...

GOV. RICHARDSON: No, no, no, no.

MR. RUSSERT: ...you can have different views on immigration, assault weapons...

GOV. RICHARDSON: I, no no no no. No, what I said...

MR. RUSSERT: But when it comes to Red Sox, Yankees.

GOV. RICHARDSON: What I said, the Associated Press asked me, “If you weren’t running for president, if you weren’t running for president, what would you rather be?” I’ve always been a Red Sox fan, but I said if I weren’t running for president I would like to be number seven, Mickey Mantle, playing center field for the New York Yankees.

MR. RUSSERT: “Because of Mickey Mantle, I became a Yankee fan.”

GOV. RICHARDSON: I, my favorite team has always been the Red Sox.

MR. RUSSERT: You’re a Red Sox fan.

GOV. RICHARDSON: I’m a Red Sox fan.

MR. RUSSERT: End of subject.

GOV. RICHARDSON: End of subject.

MR. RUSSERT: You better get rid of this book.

GOV. RICHARDSON: Oh, no! I’m also a Yankee fan. I also like...

MR. RUSSERT: Oh, now, wait a minute!

GOV. RICHARDSON: You can—Tim...

MR. RUSSERT: I guarantee...

GOV. RICHARDSON: No, I know, I got in trouble...

MR. RUSSERT: ...if you go—if you go to Yankee Stadium or Fenway, you cannot be both.

GOV. RICHARDSON: But I like—Mickey Mantle was my hero. If I weren’t running for president, and the Associated Press asked me, I’d play center field for the New York—I wanted to be number seven. And—but I still love the Red Sox as a team. I mean, this is the thing about me, Tim. I can bring people together. I can unify people.

MR. RUSSERT: Yankee fans and Red Sox fans?

GOV. RICHARDSON: Yes.

MR. RUSSERT: Not a chance.

GOV. RICHARDSON: Well, I bet you I can.

Politicians on MySpace

I was never interested in the social networking websites, and I find it even funnier when major celebrities or corporations even have pages on websites like Myspace.com. Yesterday I saw something even more ridiculous - each candidate for President has a MySpace page. Even more absurd is that when I clicked on the profile for Rudy Giuliani, I was told that "This profile is private. This user must add you as a friend to see his/her profile." Rudy Giuliani's profile is private? Really? Isn't this going against using the MySpace page as a political ad / fund raising tool?

The humor of each of these candidates having a MySpace page is also pretty good, I suspect none of them have ever used MySpace before or even have direct participation in maintaining the pages. I'm surprised they don't link to each other in the "friends" section.

MLB Draft

Hey! The MLB Draft is going to be televised on ESPN2!

Isn't that... the most boring thing you could ever think of?

Let's see -- nobody follows amateur baseball the way they follow amateur football or basketball. The teams are not able to trade draft picks. The draft order is set randomly. Players who are drafted get to report to the A ball affiliates.

Who will be the MLB version of Mel Kiper, Jr?

While this is a good idea to bring attention to the MLB draft, I have the feeling that this will be very very boring. The NFL draft has so much chatter and balderdash to begin with, can you imagine what the 50 round, 30 team MLB draft will be like?

5/6/07 - Seattle Mariners vs New York Yankees

I forgot to bring my camera to the game today, but it was quite a game!

First off, the fielding of the Mariners was horrible. LF Raul Ibanez lost at least two fly balls in the sun, with them dropping in for hits / scoring plays. They had at least one or two additional fielding muffs such as the catcher dropping a foul pop up and the third baseman throwing away a ground ball.

SP Darrell Rasner was pretty good today, much better than when I saw him last month. I was a little bummed out when I realized Phillip Hughes would have pitched today were it not for the pulled hamstring. It was also too bad I missed Chien-Ming Wang's near perfect game yesterday.

Josh Phelps ran into the catcher unnecessarily at one point in the game and got hit by a pitch his next time up. Both teams were warned. Later in the game, reliever Scott Proctor threw an inside pitch to a Seattle player who went crazy, pointing and yelling. There was some back and forth but no fight. It was pretty ridiculous, the pitch didn't even hit the Seattle player! Even more ridiculous was the sight of both bullpens emptying. The players came out and there was nothing going on. It was kind of funny I suppose, but the last thing the Yankees need is another pulled hamstring because of jogging out from the bullpen.

Finally in the seventh inning stretch, the biggest news of the day. After they played "God Bless America," they began to play "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" as usual. Suddenly after the first line of the song, public address announcer Bob Sheppard says, "Please direct your attention to the owner's box and the jumbotron screen for an important announcement." At this point, I thought something awful had happened outside. Instead, it's Roger Clemens from the owners box, and he said something like, "...got me out of Texas" and "see you guys real soon." It doesn't really matter, we all knew it meant he was coming back. Totally ridiculous, theatrical and awesome! I have tickets to a game in June and am secretly hoping he will be back that day.

Extended Edition DVD's

I've been noticing that a number of the comic book movies that have come out lately have had "new" releases on DVD that act as "extended" versions. I think the trend started with "X-Men 1.5" which incorporated deleted scenes into the original cut. Most recently there was also a "Spider-Man 2.1" cut released as well. I can understand that these films are popular and that the movie studios are trying to maximize their money from the DVD's, but films like Daredevil, Ghost Rider and even Fantastic Four are also having extended cuts produced. This is pretty frustrating, as these movies were not even that good, and it seems like the movie studios are specifically targeting the comic fans for "double dipping" with DVD's. I wish that the movie studios could just produce a high quality, DVD that contained a ton of features definitively, but I think considering how many times the Star Wars saga has been re-released, I will just have to dream.

Spider-Man 3 Premiere - Spoiler Free Review

I was lucky enough to get the chance to see Spider-Man 3 tonight as part of the Tribeca Film Festival. Here is a spoiler free review.

First off, the setting: The film debuted at the UA Kaufman Theater in Astoria Queens. It was closer to get to from Manhattan than I had expected (just off the R train). They had 14 screens with each showing Spider-Man. It was a mob scene around the theater. We entered through a back entrance, so we didn't get to see the red carpet entrances of the stars. I was in theater 1, but did not see any stars or celebrities in the theater.

On to the movie: To start, I thought this movie was a pretty good film. Anyone who goes to see it should have fun for the most part. If you were a fan of either of the first two films, you should enjoy this one. The performances by all the leads were very good, including Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Topher Grace and Thomas Hayden Church. At times the story suffers from "too-many-characters-itis" that makes the storytelling choppy, but as in the first two movies, they use Peter's personal dilemmas to be the outline for the rest of the Spider-Man action sequences. There are some funny lines, and I think some of the humor is a little more over the top than in the first two movies. The story has heart, however, and the action, while too heavy in computer graphics at times, is pretty good for the most part.

For a third outing in a franchise, Spider-Man 3 is a strong movie. It's certainly better than X-Men 3 was, and will probably be well received at the box office and by critics. There is no doubt that a Spider-Man 4 will follow, the only question will be who will be behind them.

Moss to Patriots

What????

A fourth-round pick to the Raiders gives the New England Patriots WR Randy Moss. Sure, Moss has had all sorts of problems in the past, but I can't imagine there will be any trouble integrating him into the New England system. Now the Pats have an amazing receiver, huge deep threat, and it cost them hardly anything. This just seems unfair. With Indianapolis dismantled after the Super Bowl, it seems to me that the Pats are the team to beat once again by a long shot.

Meanwhile, the Jets have been rumored to be shopping WR Justin McCairens for a fourth round pick. I wonder if the Moss trade will have any impact on this. I think McCairens was a solid player, but for whatever reason has not done well under coach Eric Mangini. Will other teams demand less from the Jets for McCairens seeing that Moss went for a fourth rounder?

Aquapod

I recently saw these Aquapod containers of Poland Spring at CVS and couldn't help but laugh. Especially at the balloon that says, "Orbtastic shape!"

Orbtastic, huh? What does that even mean?

Why is water bottle shaped this way? Was there something wrong with the shape of normal water bottles? This orb shape doesn't seem to be any more useful, convenient or fun than the usual shape.

Is This Related?

4/24 - Hunter's champagne gift violated baseball rule
Twins OF Torii Hunter gave the KC Royals four bottles of champagne after they swept the Detroit Tigers last year, helping the Twins pass the Tigers in the standings and win the AL Central. According to MLB rules, personnel cannot give gifts to other teams for beating another team. The champagne was returned.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2847416


4/26 - Hunter taken to hospital after being hit in mouth
Twins OF Torii Hunter was hit in the mouth by KC Royals pitcher Zack Greinke.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2850281

Probably not related, but funnier if they were related.

Fashion Police (or Red is the New Black)

I noticed that the Diamondbacks changed their uniforms this season from purple and green to this red and black scheme. It's no surprise that they wanted to change their uniforms from the purple and green, but why choose red and black as the new colors? Their new uniforms are nearly indistinguishable from the Reds, Angels, Nationals and Phillies. In addition the Braves and Red Sox also feature red alternate jerseys from time to time. Is red that fashionable these days? There must have been another color scheme they could have chosen.

4/8/07 - Baltimore Orioles at New York Yankees

The last few years I have tried to make it out for an early weekend game at Yankee Stadium. Typically for these games tickets are a little easier to come by and the weather isn't terribly hot.

When I bought the tickets for the Easter Sunday game at the Stadium, I had hoped Andy Pettitte would be starting. A rainout changed these plans until Darrell Rasner had a bad outing, and Andy Pettitte came in for a relief inning. It snowed during the gmae. Also of note, it was calendar day. Enjoy the photos from Tier 15.

For a loss, the game was pretty entertaining, as the Yankees had a few chances late to win the game or tie, but they didn't win in the end.



A-Rod, who one week later, is still on fire.
Meeting at the mound.
Andy Pettitte in a surprise relief appearance.
Yes. It snowed on April 8 at the ballgame.


I think this was the first game I've seen with Bobby Abreu.
Darrell Rasner
Jason Giambi
Derek Jeter
Johnny Damon didn't start but made a pinch hit appearance when it got closer.


Same for Jorge Posada.

Manny Being Manny?

There's a recent article in the New Yorker by Ben McGrath with some funny notes on Red Sox LF Manny Ramirez. Here are some of the highlights. This stuff is good.

1) He has five driver's licenses and two social security numbers
2) He has two sons named "Manny, Jr."
3) He once requested a trade to Pawtucket, the Red Sox AAA affiliate

A-Rod Walk-off Grand Slam

Alex Rodriguez hit a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth inning today with two outs, winning the game for the New York Yankees against the Baltimore Orioles. So will it be minutes, hours or days before his critics decide that this home run "wasn't clutch enough" or that since he did it in the regular season against Baltimore "it still didn't happen when it matters."

I'm guessing minutes to hours.

President Clinton

I saw President Clinton by the Time Warner Center one week ago. He was shaking people's hands, but I was trying to "play it cool" and not go up to him. Instead, I tried to quickly snap some photos. I should have just gawked because these photos are crappy. In case you couldn't tell, he's the gray haired blur.

Tempted

I was in the store the other day and saw a big tub of cheese balls. It took all my willpower not to buy it. I can't resist their bright orange glow!

More Knicks

The Knicks are on the verge of making it into the NBA playoffs, with a 30-36 record. Their "improvement" this year has already gotten Isiah Thomas a contract extension. I have to wonder, however, can a fan be excited for the team making the playoffs if their record isn't so hot? They're not exactly a great team. They are incredibly inconsistent, thus their under .500 record. I am impressed by the fact that they lost Jamal Crawford and David Lee and continue to play well, but I can't help but think the only reason they're even thinking about playoffs is that their division and the conference are just not very good this year.

Questions... Part 2

Why is the GI Joe theme song in my head?

He'll fight for freedom, wherever there's trouble
GI Joe is there

It's GI Joe against Cobra the enemy, fighting to save the day
He never gives up he's always there
Fighting for freedom over land and air!

GI Joe (A real American hero)
Fighting to save the day
GI Joe (A real American hero)
GI Joe is there

Questions...

Feeling philosophical today.

1) If you put a brain into a new body, would that be a brain transplant or a body transplant?

2) When Ben Franklin helped organize the United States Postal Service, do you think he knew he was creating a place that would be the source of untold misery? Have you ever been to a post office? There is no other place where 100% of the people are angry and miserable. From the customers to the people working, the whole joint is full of negative energy. It isn't specific to any one post office either. What is it about that place?

Comics Wrap-up

Lately there have been a few big comic book conventions, and a bunch of comic book related news. There's a few things that have been bugging me and I figured this was as good a time as any to talk about them.

First, we'll start with Marvel Comics, who just wrapped up their huge Civil War event. I've grown up following Marvel, and for the most part have been very happy with things. But lately I've been falling off the Marvel bandwagon, and I don't know exactly why. The first signs were when J. Michael Straczynski did a story in Amazing Spider-Man where it turned out that Peter Parker's late girlfriend Gwen Stacy had sex with Norman Osborn, aka the Green Goblin, because of a moment of weakness. Around that time I had also started to become disillusioned with Brian Michael Bendis's writing as well, and stopped reading titles Ultimate Spider-Man. I found Avengers Disassembled somewhat ridiculous and never got interested in New Avengers, the best selling Marvel comic. That should have been another sign that my relationship with Marvel was going downhill.

I still continued on with the books that got me into comics in the first place, the X-Men family and Wolverine, followed a few other heroes such as Daredevil and Captain America, and kept with most of the Ultimate line (Ultimates, Ultimate FF and Ultimate X-Men).

The next phase of disappointment came with the House of M and Decimation events that followed. These events were supposed to have all sorts of lasting effects and implications but I haven't really noticed it in the storytelling. The only difference seems to be that the X-Men are under "house arrest" by Sentinels, yet still manage to find their ways out of the mansion to do things.

Now there's this Civil War business. The art was great. I've always liked Mark Millar's writing, but there's just not much of a story to the main Civil War book. I didn't read the associated books such as Frontline or any additional crossover titles. There were too many gaps in the story that just didn't make sense. From reading the main title alone, nobody would know that Captain Marvel had come back to life, or why Spider-Man wears his black costume during the epilogue or why Johnny and Susan Storm needed to be arrested once they left Tony Stark's group (after all, they were registered!). I appreciate that the book has changed the way the Marvel U will operate - there will be 50 super teams, one for each state, and every super hero will need to be trained and monitored by the US Government. Fine. But I'm not interested. One reason is that I've realized I don't care about the non X-Men heroes in the Marvel Universe. I couldn't even recognize half the people involved in the fighting in Civil War. When I see the Marvel solicitations for future books, I just don't care about most of the books. I don't know why that is.

The Ultimate universe has also gone south for me. Ultimate X-Men has floundered under Robert Kirkman, with stories that I just haven't enjoyed and seem inconsequential. So I've stopped getting that book. I stopped reading Ultimate FF once Mark Millar left. The Ultimates will conclude later this year, but I don't expect to be on board for volumes 3 or 4. The Ultimate universe has lost its simplicity and excitement and become as convoluted as the Marvel U.

Meanwhile in the land of X, the X-Men title with the "best" X-Men, Astonishing X-Men, comes out on the least regular basis. The other two X-titles are pretty good, but not amazing. Wolverine has two titles, and in one he's fighting Sabretooth for about 5 issues, and in the other it turns out he has a son with claws. Doesn't he already have offspring with claws named X-23? I'm not interested.

By the way, all the mutants except for 198 of them got de-powered. Not a single of member of the X-Men lost his or her powers in that event. How can an event be significant and not have any of the X-Men lose their powers? Also, I understand the need to decrease the number of mutants, but turning them into just 198 makes them totally irrelevant. Who cares now? It does make sense that the Marvel U would then focus on general super-powered beings since they now outnumber mutants.

Coming soon, more crossovers, with "World War Hulk" and a "huge X-Men event." The X-Men event might be good, but I'll be steering clear of the Hulk stuff.

So the bottom line with Marvel Comics, here's what I'm reading and here's what I've dropped in the last year.

Still Reading:
Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, Astonishing X-Men, Wolverine, Wolverine: Origins, Runaways, Ultimates vol 2, Captain America

Dropped:
Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate FF, Daredevil

On the other side of the fence, I've been really enjoying DC Comics, at least, when they come out. Infinite Crisis was a good series, although the ending seemed a bit rushed with some sloppy art. They have been moving from event to event to event, which is a bit daunting. The biggest disappointment at DC has been their horrible shipping schedule. I picked up a bunch of DC titles over the past year, but some of them hardly come out.

The Superman family, Action Comics and Superman have both been plagued by delays. Superman had some nice art by Carlos Pacheco, but I just haven't gotten into the "alternate future" storyline that they started, and now that the book has been delayed, I've decided to stop getting it. Meanwhile, I've really enjoyed Action Comics by Geoff Johns and Richard Donner, but they've only produced three issues in the last year. With both series there are fill-in stories coming out but I'm just not interested in them as they seem irrelevant to the main stories.

The Batman books have also been delayed, with Grant Morrison taking a few months off, and Paul Dini also getting a breather. Again, I'm not interested in the fill-ins. Paul Dini is taking up the next big DC event as well, so I'd imagine there will be more delays.

Wonder Woman was the worst case of delays. Writer Allan Heinberg fell behind with his schedule and this monthly title has been completely off track, with 4 issues in the last 9-10 months.

Then there's any book that Jim Lee touches. This includes Wildcats and All-Star Batman and Robin. All-Star Batman and Robin #1 came out in July 2005. The last issue was issue 4! This was supposed to be a sort of answer to Ultimate Spider-Man, and it's been a total failure. That's before even discussing the strange story within. Meanwhile, Wildcats, which was supposed to be the re-launch of the Wildstorm line has had 6 months off between issues.

There are some good things being done at DC. 52 has been pretty good for more weeks than not, and Justice Society might be the best book available at all. Their next weekly book, Countdown, sounds pretty promising, although I'm a bit intimidated price wise by picking up another weekly. Justice League with Brad Meltzer has been pretty good, although it took 3 months for Wonder Woman, Superman and Batman to get up from a table. I'm a bit ticked off that there's another mini-event, "World War III" but if the story's good then it will bother me less.

So the state of DC is pretty good, but with way too many delays, and I'd prefer fewer crossovers. But the universe is more cohesive and I'm enjoying the characters a bit more.

Reading:
52, Detective Comics, Batman, Action Comics (w/Johns/Donner), Justice League of America, Justice Society of America, Ex-Machina

When it comes out:
Planetary, Wildcats, All-Star Batman and Robin, Authority v4, Heinberg's Wonder Woman

Dropped:
Superman/Batman

Started then dropped:
Superman

Dollar Coins

As if the US wasn't trying to confuse foreign tourists enough with the 50 state quarters, now we get to add another variation on the dollar coin to our currency mix. Instead of Sacagawea, now 4 dollar coins per year will feature Presidents of the United States on the back. Sounds great, right? Makes you want to start using dollar coins, doesn't it? Interestingly the last President planned for this program is Richard Nixon. Why stop at Nixon? Aren't Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton worthy of this program as well? If Watergate isn't enough to prevent you from having a dollar coin, what is? Also, by the time their quarters would be available it will be 2016, 30 years since Reagan was in office. That should be enough time, right? Another fun fact, Grover Cleveland will get 2 coins for his 2 nonconsecutive terms. I don't know if I can wait until 2014 to get my Warren Harding coins!

Taxi Fare Estimator

To someone who has the time:

I think it would be very useful to develop a taxi cab fare estimator for NYC where you could plug in an origin and destination and a rough estimate of the taxi fare would be spit out. The taxi fare is formulaic anyways (flat rate + distance), with the biggest wildcard being traffic. If you could sync the estimator with traffic reports, then it would be even better. This would also help with making offers to non-yellow cabs (the so-called gypsy cabs). It could be in the same vein as hopstop.com, the great subway route resource.

If someone has already come up with this, then I apologize but I wasn't able to find anything on my google searches.

Heroes - Primatech Paper

I was watching this past week's episode of Heroes and thought I was really clever when I looked up a website that the episode referenced - www.primatechpaper.com. Of course, the website led to a fake site that was set up by people on the show. But it turns out I'm not as clever as I had thought. I went to the official Heroes website and there's this huge banner ad for their fictitious site there. The first time I had heard of something like this was a few years ago on 24, when someone got a cell phone number, and if you called it, the phone answered and said something like, "You have reached Jack Bauer's cell phone." As it turns out you can call the Primatech Paper company as well. There are some "secret codes" you need to enter, and no doubt that future episodes will have those secret codes for people to try out.

Wacky Blog

Check out http://wackychinaman.blogspot.com

Apparently the Wacky Chinaman was not content posting to other people's blogs and he started his own. It's very nice. I should have mentioned this months ago, but I guess better late than never.

Quiz

Try these two quizzes:

http://www.thesuperheroquiz.com/

http://www.thesuperheroquiz.com/villain/

I was 70% Superman and 55% Dr. Doom. I was really hoping for Batman but apparently I'm not dark and brooding enough.

Dining in the City - Two Weekends

The last two weekends have been a flurry of new dining experiences for me in NYC. Here is a quick recap:

Friday 1/12
Le Miu - 107 Ave A, near 7th St
Friday night's dinner was a selection we had been meaning to try for quite some time. This modern Japanese restaurant seemed a little too trendy for alphabet city the first few times we've passed it by, but the dishes sounded interesting, and later, we found out that the chefs had previously worked at places such as Nobu and Megu. The setting was nice and the service was pretty good. We got seated immediately (around 9-10pm). We ordered as appetizers the soft shell crab, and rock shrimp, and for entrees miso cod and king crab fried rice. The two fried appetizers were pretty good, and the miso cod was also delicious (although it's been a while since I've had that dish at pricier places). The king crab fried rice was not what I expected -- it came in a sort of a casserole dish and was a little bit more like a soup. But still very good. It's a nice little find in alphabet city.

Saturday 1/13
Katz's Delicatessen - 205 E Houston St and Ludlow St
I've been craving potato pancakes and corned beef for quite some time. So when it was my turn to pick a dinner location on Saturday night in the Lower East Side, I decided to go with Katz's Delicatessen. We ended up ordering a corned beef / pastrami combination sandwich, and a plate of potato pancakes. The sandwich was great but it wasn't as huge as I had expected. I can remember times I've been to Stage Deli or Carnegie Deli near Times Square where I couldn't even fit my mouth around the sandwich. Despite the warning that "it would be hard to finish," my Katz's Deli sandwich was not as big. It was still very very tasty. The potato pancakes were also good - much better than the last potato pancakes I had at the Ukranian joint, Veselka. I still can't figure out why they have this silly ticket system at Katz's that involves getting a ticket when you come in and then showing it when you leave, or else you have to pay $50. Of course, they only take cash. There was a cool letter on the back wall from a soldier during the Vietnam War requesting a salami be mailed to him. The signs say the hot dogs are great but at $2.75 a pop I'm hesitant to try. Anyway for hot dogs I want to check out Crif Dogs in the East Village.

Sunday 1/14
Cafe Gitane - 242 Mott St, between Prince and Houston
Brunch on Sunday at Cafe Gitane. I had never been here before but my lady friend said it was a great place for brunch. She was right. Sometimes I get intimidated by French places because I'm afraid of mispronouncing the names of the dishes since I don't speak French. We ordered the Tuna spread, toasted baguette with cherry tomato and endive salad, along with the roasted chicken sandwich (with chipotle mayo, parmesan and roasted tomato on a baguette). Both dishes were delicious. I was very impressed with the sandwich, although I wish it was a little bigger. They only took cash also. We had to wait about 10 minutes for a table for 5.

Friday 1/19
I Coppi - 432 E 9th St, between 1st and A
The next weekend took us to I Coppi, an East Village Italian joint that again, my lady friend had been eyeing. The front has a nice, cute look to it, but the back was even nicer with an indoor garden. It reminded us of another restaurant, August, that had a smaller but similar back room. Our meal started with the Carpaccio con Rucola e Grana, which I really liked. Rare meat plus hard shaved cheese equals tasty in my book. For entrees we shared Tagliatelle alla Boscaiola - a great al dente ribbon shaped pasta with a "spicy meat sauce" and Gallello al Mattone, a grilled, brick oven roasted chicken. The pasta was great, and probably homemade. The chicken was not as good in my opinion, as it could have used a little more meat and was a little dry from the brick oven. Everything was good here, and the slow service I had heard about was nowhere to be seen. To get nitpicky, the bread they brought didn't taste that good. I easily made a reservation for a Friday night about one week in advance.

Room 4 Dessert - 17 Cleveland Pl, between Spring and Kenmare
After eating dinner at I Coppi, we went across town to Room 4 Dessert, which is an all-dessert bar. I had heard about it the day before in New York Magazine as a "must eat" for 2007. They compared it to the East Village joint, Chikalicious, also a dessert bar. Chikalicious serves a prix fixe, three course dessert in a small, bright bar setting. We got to Room 4 Dessert at 11pm, and while I had made a reservation, we didn't seem to need it. There were enough seats at the bar. It was nice they took reservations (Chikalicious does not). The setting was dark and the bar is configured as a long bar. The menu is a little different. We had a "Dessert glass" to start, which is a small glass with a bunch of dessert elements mixed together. Ours had a cola ice cream, cracker jacks and some other sweets. I forgot its name but it was very good. Then we shared two Dessert "Tastings" which are long plates with four dessert elements. The first was called Apple in Various States, which featured four different apple-ish variations (and all were quite good), and the name of the second escapes me but it included a great brioche and a rich chocolate setting. We didn't get drinks but they have a nice menu system that pairs the drinks with each dish.

Saturday 1/20
Krunch Pizza Bar - 980 2nd Ave at 52nd St
In a quest for something new, my brother suggested Krunch Pizza Bar. It's sort of a trendy pizza place, and slices were close to $3 a pop for a square piece of pizza, but they had some nice variations. We tried the BBQ Pollo, Pizza agli Spinaci (mozzarella and spinach), Krunch Zucca (zucchini, onion, garlic and parmesan - no tomato) Chorizo and Cheeseburger pizza. All of them were good. The pizzas had a very crispy crust and fresh toppings. I would eat here a lot, except that the price per slice is pretty high. Two slices and a drink = 8.75!

New Green Bo - 66 Bayard St between Mott and Elizabeth
For dinner, I had been craving some Shanghai delicacies. Unfortunately, we heard that a friend had been to our favorite, Yeah Shanghai Deluxe and saw roaches crawling on the tables!! So we decided to try somewhere new. There was another Shanghai restaurant on Bayard near Elizabeth but we nixed it for having too many white people in it. Instead we headed to New Green Bo, which we had heard was good but had never been. We ordered soup dumplings (xiao luom bao), pork shoulder (ti pang), a casserole and some shanghai noodles with mixed meat/seafood. The meal overall was a bit greasy, the pork shoulder was drier than it should have been, but the sauce was good. We didn't wait long and we didn't have to share a table (around 7:30pm). The dumplings were great. A little disappointing but the dishes still cured my craving.

Sunday 1/21
Bondi Road - 153 Rivington between Suffolk and Clinton
We walked by this place one night and it looked cool. Then we saw that they had a brunch special that included all-you-can-drink and we were sold. It's sort of a barebones place but the waitress is Australian and according to my brother, who studied in Australia, they tried to keep the menu pretty authentic. It was pretty empty at about 1pm on Sunday -- I think the crowd here tends to come later in the afternoon and for dinner. Unfortunately a lot of the dinner menu items weren't available, but what we had was still very good. We got fish and chips, and a variation of eggs benedict that was on two crabcakes. I absolutely loved the french fries; they were some of the best fries I've had in a while. The eggs were good too, and the crabcakes weren't bad but now I compare every crabcake to G and M in Maryland, which just isn't fair. But I'm curious about the chicken schnitzel and burger with the lot on the dinner menu. We'll have to come back to this place, which sounds like a lot of fun at night.

Sugar Sweet Sunshine - 126 Rivington between Essex and Norfolk
After brunch, we had to make a quick stop at Sugar Sweet Sunshine, a place my lady friend likes to call "Magnolia of the LES." She's right, too. They have an eclectic set of furniture for seating, sort of out of a hipster's room. But the desserts are delicious, and we had a yellow cake with yellow frosting that was so buttery and sweet, and oh so good. Not a bad way to cap off a fatty lunch of aussie fish and chips, and just down the street.

Brief Notes on the Yankees

The Yankees are trading Randy Johnson back to Arizona. I think we can say that Johnson's time in NY was unsuccessful - he was expected to be an ace and win a World Series. He did neither. I don't really hold it against him, however, as he was so old. It's too bad it has to end like this. The Yankees gave up a lot to get him and aren't getting nearly the same value in return. I wonder if they should have ever made the trade in the first place.

They also signed Doug Mientkiewicz, and I think it's a big mistake. I know that Mientkiewicz's defense is supposed to be superb, but I don't think it outweighs his terrible bat and the fact that he's old. I get the feeling he might not make it through the season with the team. It's nice to have a 1B for defensive purposes but he's left handed, old and a poor hitter. The Yankees could use someone young and right handed.

It looks like Bernie Williams will not be back with the team, and that's also too bad. Mike Francesa of WFAN suggested that the Yankees should have tried to train Bernie last year to play 1B and then he would have had some value with the team. Sounds like a reasonable idea, but I wonder if it could have even been done.

Resolutions

Happy New Year.

I resolve to post more on this blog but like most New Year's resolutions, I won't be able to pull it off after about two days.