George Lucas Can't Write Dialogue

Duh.
Everyone knows that.  The final 3 Star Wars movies proved it absolutely.
The 4th Indiana Jones movie also proved he's turned to the dark side of filmmaking.

I'm watching Star Wars: Episode 4 on Spike TV today.  It's pretty wild how I'm still seeing new things / thinking new things about a 33-year-old movie.  Today's thought:  Han Solo is pretty terrified that Jabba has a bounty on his head.  He meets Jabba and makes a deal for debt repayment.  He gets his reward for delivering the Princess and tells Chewie that it is more than enough to pay Jabba.  Then, in Empire Strikes Back, we find out that Jabba still has a bounty on Han.  Wait.  Why the hell didn't he go pay Jabba between movies?   

Seeing that awful "Greedo shoots first" scene made me think that someone with some CGI program needs to clumsily re-edit every scene in the trilogy where Han shoots first and make a mash-up video where everyone else shoots first.  Would be hilarious.

There is a strange truth that Star Wars fans are generational.  It goes something like this: 
If you first saw the original 3 Star Wars movies, then those are your favorites, and everything after is okay-to-crap.
If you first saw the last 3 Star Wars movies, then those are your favorites, and the original movies are campy-to-crap.
If you first saw the Clone Wars animated stuff, then those are your favorites, the final 3 movies are okay and the original movies are goofy-to-sucky.

What is interesting to me about all that is it also follows the arc of movie-making.
The Original trilogy came out at a time when special effects began to take a leap forward. However, well-received movies still needed to have compelling stories and a solid plot.  FX was icing on the cake.
The last trilogy came out at a time when special effects had run rampant in movies and the CGI dream had finally been realized.  Well-received movies did not need much plot, and blockbuster films tended have thin stories that were only deigned to deliver dazzling special effects to the audience.  Very little cake, tons of icing.
The Clone Wars animated show finally realizes a dream of many directors - making a film without those pesky actors.  Now everything on the screen can be controlled.  Worlds of imagination can be created and populated.  Stories are created for the sole purpose of exploring these worlds.  Just like the video games of today, screw the cake...have a bowl of icing.

The 4th Indiana Jones movie was also that kind of movie - CGI ideas first, plot as an afterthought.  Seriously - Indy inside a refrigerator during an atomic test?  Sorry, George...I'm going to have to ask you to turn in your filmmaker's card.

Rookie Pitcher Accomplishes Feat Few Cubs Starters Have

Last night in game number 107 of the season, the Cubs starter was 27-year-old rookie Thomas Diamond. For the past few years my only criticism of Lou Piniella was that he doesn’t leave his starters in long enough. Generally, that is borne out of the fact that Cubs relievers all suck ass. I have had several people defend Lou to me by suggesting that not everyone can be the CG monster Roy Halliday, and that you can’t let the pitch count get too high. The pitch count defense is ridiculous to me – and I am a research professional! Pitch counts are arbitrary and have no relation to how tired a pitcher’s arm might be or whether he’s lost his stuff. Ask Nolan Ryan about pitch counts.

Anyway...

Thomas Diamond has pitched 108.1 innings for Iowa this year. More innings in 2010 than all Cubs pitchers except Ryan Dempster Ted Lilly and Randy Wells. Twice as many innings as he pitched last year in the minors and the most innings in a season for him since 2006.

Thomas Diamond threw 122 pitches yesterday for the Cubs.
Oh, my God! His arm is going to fall off!

Thomas Diamond threw more pitches in a 2010 game than Ted Lilly, Tom Gorzelanny or Carlos Zambrano.
Only 5 other times have Cubs pitchers pitched 122+ pitches this year (Dempster 3x, Wells 1x, Silva 1x) – all in May & June.

Funny how in April and May, managers take pitchers out early because it’s early in the season. You would expect that as the season progresses and starters fall into their routines, they would stay in games longer. Yet, that doesn’t seem to be the case with Lou Piniella.

Still, props to Lou Piniella for letting his starter pitch last night. Considering the Cubs are at the top of the league in “quality starts’, one wonders if the team would have a few more wins had Lou left his pitchers in the game another inning or so past when he has the urge to take them out (Nolan Ryan’s dictate to Rangers manager Ron Washington). Why the hell not? I assume that unlike most rookies, the Cubs aren’t too worried about Diamond’s arm flying off. Why would they be more concerned with the arms flying off the more experienced pitching staff this season?

Meanwhile, let’s hope the next Cubs manager stops counting pitches and lets the starters pitch the 7th inning more frequently.

RUSH in Chicago July 5, 2010

RUSH is the greatest rock band ever!!!!!
Okay, so now that that is out of the way...

I am still pretty geeked over the RUSH concert last night at Meigs Field Arena.  RUSH may be a little older, but they blow nearly every touring band out of the water.  The show started just past 7:30 and ended at 10:45, with about a 20 minute intermission to give the guys a break.  They produced several hilarious video bits for before, during and after the show - including a long video at the end called "I Still Love You Man" with Paul Rudd and Jason Seigel.  However, the highlight was RUSH playing the album "Moving Pictures" all the way through.

RUSH ROCKED!

Here, for your listening enjoyment, is the set list (videos taken from various performances):

THE SPIRIT OF RADIO



TIME STAND STILL


PRESTO


STICK IT OUT


WORKIN’ THEM ANGELS


LEAVE THAT THING ALONE


FAITHLESS


BU2B (BROUGHT UP TO BELIEVE)


FREEWILL


MARATHON


SUBDIVISIONS


INTERMISSION

TOM SAWYER


RED BARCHETTA


YYZ


LIMELIGHT


THE CAMERA EYE


WITCH HUNT


VITAL SIGNS


CARAVAN


NEIL DRUM SOLO


CLOSER TO THE HEART


2110 OVERTURE / THE TEMPLES OF SYRINX


FAR CRY


ENCORE:

LA VILLA STRANGIATO


WORKING MAN

Sun-Times NHL Preview Sent To Penalty Box

Open up the print edition of today's Sun-Times and in the sports section there is an NHL Playoff Preview written by Adam Jahns. I can't be the only NHL fan that cringed when I saw the page - before even reading one word of the story.

7 of the 16 NHL team logos the Sun-Times used are horribly out-of-date!  Holy crap!!

The online edition of the story uses photos of players, which probably means they don't have electronic versions of the logos, right?
Check out the logos at Chris Creamer's Sports Logo page.
You can also check out the awesome NHL Uniforms website to see the current logos.

Here's what was printed:


SAN JOSE SHARKS

S-T USED: Triangle & black shark logo last used for 2006-2007 season.

CURRENT LOGO: Shark body completes the upper left corner of triangle shape, and also has dark teal coloring on its head.

LOS ANGELES KINGS

S-T USED: Shield & crossed sticks logo last used for the 2006-2007 season.

CURRENT LOGO: Single crown.

WASHINGTON CAPITALS

S-T USED: Flying eagle logo last used for the 2006-2007 season.

CURRENT LOGO: Capitals script with hockey stick or "W" eagle logo.

OTTAWA SENATORS

S-T USED: Used the logo with centurion looking to the right last used for the 2006-2007 season.

CURRENT LOGO: Centurion looking forward.

BOSTON BRUINS

S-T USED: Used the classic logo last used for the 2006-2007 season.

CURRENT LOGO: Serifs added to "B", spokes have darker outlines.

BUFFALO SABRES

S-T USED: Used the Buffalo head logo last used for the 2005-2006 season.

CURRENT LOGO: Buffaslug.

PITTSBURGH PENGUINS

S-T USED: Corporate-style penguin logo last used for the 2000-2001 season!!!

CURRENT LOGO: Classic cartoon penguin in triangle.

Is The Italic Institute Still Fighting With the ALL CAPS LEAGUE?

I thought I saw a typo in Bill Zwecker's column today, but no...it was just a word with dual meanings that make it sound funny (highlighting by me).

NO FAN OF 'DATE': Tina Fey and Steve Carell's new action romantic comedy ''Date Night'' snared mostly rave reviews (including from Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert), but the Italic Institute of America has blasted the movie for perpetuating the image of Italians as mobsters. In the film, Ray Liotta plays a gangster named Miletto out to have Fey and Carell's characters whacked, due to a case of mistaken identity. ''Yet the film's star, Carell, is an Italian American from Massachusetts,'' said the institute's chairman, Chicagoan Bill Dal Cerro. ''Steve Carell's talent -- indeed, his very existence -- exposes the Hollywood bigotry featured in the movie.''

So, of course my only thought was the legendary turf wars fought between the Italic Institute, the Bold Foundation, the ALL CAPS LEAGUE, the strikethru association and the Underline Academy!

Alas! Aside from being the name of a cursive typeface based on a stylized form of calligraphic handwriting, the term "Italic" also means "of or from Italy".  Who knew?  Especially since it is commonly used to refer to the people and languages of what is now Italy from the historic period before the Roman Empire.
That said, I will always consider the Italic Institute of America to be a hilarious name!