The Best Songs of 2006

As is tradition on WSYA, I will post my list of best songs of the year. I have to say, this year it was more difficult than ever, as most of the songs that I've discovered and downloaded have been old stuff, from the 60s, 70s, and the glorious era of the mid-90s (grunge is going to make a comeback soon, I'm telling you). Here's the list:

15. "Sam's Town" - The Killers
14. "The Time of Times" - Badly Drawn Boy
13. "Chasing Cars" - Snow Patrol
12. "Morris Brown" - Outkast
11. "Ridin'" - Chamillionaire
10. "When You Were Young" - The Killers
9. "Promiscuous" - Nelly Furtado
8. "Strip My Mind" - Red Hot Chili Peppers
7. "Crazy" - Gnarls Barkley
6. "Mighty O" - Outkast
5. "My Love" - Justin Timberlake
4. "Skin and Bones" - Foo Fighters
3. "9 Crimes" - Damien Rice
2. "In My Head" - Queens of the Stone Age
1. "Read My Mind" - The Killers

 
Coming up: an all-new episode of Program

Is it just me, or have TV show titles become increasingly simplistic over the past several years? TV titles used to be more than uncreative explanations of the show premise. I suppose the trend started with ER, a title which was concise, yet punchy and memorable. However, in an apparent effort to market their programs to viewers with extremely short attention-spans and shallow memories, the networks just got lazy.

There were shows that simply, explicitly explained thier concepts: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Prison Break and Cold Case. Next, we were given shows that were simply named after their locations: The O.C., Hawaii and Las Vegas. Now, we currently have a spate of one-word titles that are simply nondescript nouns: Lost, Bones, House, Vanished, Numbers, Heroes, Medium, Justice, Girlfriends, Kidnapped, Scrubs, Shark, and Standoff.

Don't be shocked if the networks start shaving off 'the' prefixes as well. We could soon have to add Office, Unit, Class, Loop and Nine to the list.

 
Punched by ESPN's Iron Fist

As a serious sports fan, I have no choice but to consume ESPN. The TV network is the only place to turn for game coverage and extended highlights, while the website is the most comprehensive and up-to-date of its kind. Nobody holds a candle to Bill Simmons, the PTI guys, the ESPNNews network and the extremely helpful ESPN Motion online highlight player. So what's not to like about our all-providing mothership? ESPN has started to abuse it's status as a monopoly, becoming more obnoxious in its bluster. Here's my "Top 5 Reasons You Can Blame ESPN For Going Too Far":

* Blowhard talking heads: Why do we need a dozen commentators for every sport? Here's a partial roster of their NFL-specific on-air commentators: Clayton, Pasquerelli, Smith, Schlereth, Salisbury, Jaworski, Golic, Hoge, Irvin, Young, Woodson, Jackson, Theismann... and that's not even including the field reporters (like the ubiquitous Ed Werder) and website columnists (too many to list). Because all of of these hires, I guess the network feels the need to give them as much face-time as possible so that they can yell as loud as possible. The viewer is left with a cacophony of obvious soundbites and a splitting headache. Regardless of sport, no matter what time of year it is, Sportscenter viewers cannot avoid these ex-jocks howling in oversized, garishly-colored suits.

* Beating dead horses: It's bad enough that Terrell Owens is in the process of poisoning his third NFL team. But ESPN makes itself part of the story, fanning the flames with daily updates, conjecture passed as breaking news. Let's face it, it's in ESPN's best interest to make the story as sensationalistic and drawn-out as possible. Whether it's T.O., Barry Bonds, the Super Bowl, the Duke Lacrosse scandal or Alex Rodriguez, you can always count on ESPN to keep a plotline alive, regardless of an information void. Hey, who needs actual news to keep a story going?

* The insidious Insider: Over the past three years, ESPN has slowly and unflinchingly put nearly all of its original online content behind the "Insider" fence. Most of the relevant columns (except those on Page 2) are now given the "Insider" tag, forcing consumers to pay up for columnists who can't match the talented writers that SI.com offers for free.

* ESPN "the brand": It's bad enough that the ESPN logo often appears in three different parts of the screen during a game broadcast. But now the ESPN brand has seeped into content on other networks. The whole "ESPN on ABC" experiment requires a suspension of disbelief. I understand that Disney wants to re-brand , but must it be at the expense of logic? It's just "The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim" all over again.

* The hype machine: I knew that ESPN would bring it's usual bluster when they secured the rights to Monday Night Football. But I shook my head when I read about the network's plan for five and a half hours of pregame coverage-- every week. It's sad that sports fans were orignally drawn to the network for it's sports, but the network now thinks that ESPN itself is the star of the show.

 
Good Riddance to 2006's Summer Movie Season

I haven't written in a while, but yesterday I got some inspiration in the mail. My favorite Entertainment Weekly issue of the year arrived, the Fall Movie Preview. Unlike last year's underwhelming crop of Oscar contenders, this year there are a surpising number of upcoming films that have my interest piqued. The caveat is that at this time of year, it's easy to be seduced by movies that look prestigious on paper but end up disappointing once you get into the theater (see Munich, Cold Mountain, Ali). Let's call it the Jude Law Factor, named for the actor who always seems prestigious, but doesn't actually have any real substance. So taking the JLF into account, here are the twelve I'm most looking forward to:

12. Deja Vu. Denzel Washington plays--get this--a cop. Solving a crime using deja vu is highly questionable in the era of CSI, but what the heck, I'll go along for the ride.

11. This Film is Not Yet Rated. An indie documentary about the mysterious cabal that is the MPAA ratings board. This is too inside-Hollywood for the mainstream masses, but I always like a good expose.

10. Stranger than Fiction. There are shades of Charlie Kaufman here, as Will Ferrell plays a mild-mannered man who discovers he's the main character in a work-in-progress novel. If done right, this is the kind of high-concept movie that I really appreciate.

9. The Good German. Five years ago I would have easily picked Steven Soderbergh as my favorite director. He had just come off of an astoundingly prolific run of five terrific movies between 1998 and 2001. Then things started turning sour, bottoming out with the self-indulgent Ocean's Twelve. I'm hoping that The Good German is a return to the good Clooney collaboration (Out of Sight) rather than the bad Clooney collaboration (Solaris).

8. Little Children. I loved this novel about seedy suburban parents, so I'll go see the film version despite the fact that they chose no-name Patrick Wilson to play the lead.

7. The Good Shepherd. Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie star in Robert DeNiro's second directorial effort, a sprawling saga tracing the history of the CIA. Matt Damon sure to garner a massive campaign for Best Actor with this movie. This would be higher on my list, but Jude Law Factor knocks it down a few pegs.

6. Dreamgirls. I know the soundtrack well from my childhood, so there's a special attachment to this long-gestating project from Bill Condon, who wrote Chicago. There's perfect casting here too, with Jamie Foxx, Beyonce and Eddie Murphy.

5. Babel. From the director of Amores Perros and 21 Grams comes yet another split-narrative, time-shifting emotionally wrenching sprawl of a movie. It's time to take a deep breath and head straight to the theater.

4. Fast Food Nation. I really like Richard Linklater's films and I love the decision to fictionalize this non-fiction book that served as an indictment of the fast food industry. I'm hoping it will be like Traffic, but with comedy in place of drama and McDonalds in place of cocaine.

3. The Departed. It's got a desperate-for-an-Oscar Martin Scorsese directing. It's got a killer cast headlined by Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon. It's got a juicy plot in which a policeman infiltrates the mob while a mobster infiltrates the police. So why isn't this number one on my list? Simple- it's got JLF written all over it in bold black letters. So instead of expecting this to be an instant classic, I'm merely hoping that it'll be a serviceable way to pass time on a Saturday night.

2. Flags of our Fathers. The first of a two-part war epic about the soldiers who raised the flag on Iwo Jima. Barry Pepper's in the cast, hopefully reprising his sniper role from Saving Private Ryan. In any case, you simply cannot bet against Clint Eastwood and Paul Haggis right now.

1. For Your Consideration. Another mockumentary from Christopher Guest, this time a send up of awards-season hype. The usual cast is here, with Parker Posey as a snooty actress, Eugene Levy as a Hollywood agent, Fred Willard playing the host of an Access Hollywood-like show. But the cherry on top is that Ricky Gervais is on board, playing the head of the studio. I'm smiling already.

 
They Call it Madness for a Reason

Some random thoughts after four rounds of the NCAA tournament:

* I've long believed that nothing beats the first two rounds of the NCAA tourney, but in terms of drama, this was the rare year where the second weekend was actually better than the first.

* Lost in the craziness of the past four days is the fact that Kenton Paulino's trey was the first true buzzer-beater the tournament has had in three years. I hate when people throw the buzzer-beater label on shots that leave time on the clock. A true buzzer beater is when the buzzer sounds while the shot is still in the air. Paulino's shot on Thursday was the first since Drew Nicholas's shot in 2003.

* Where were Adam Morrison's coaches and teammates after the Gonzaga-UCLA game on Thursday? I don't know how they could just leave their heartbroken MVP writhing on the floor like that with only a camera man there with him.

* Let the debate begin: Where does George Mason's win rank on the list of all-time college basketball upsets? On the plus side, Mason was an 11th seed, a mid-major, had never won a tourney game before this year, the Huskies have at least 4 future pros and UConn was the consensus favorite for the title. But on the minus side, everyone agreed that UConn was vulnerable, Mason was good enough to earn an at large bid, and the team had already shown its mettle by beating Michigan St. and North Carolina.

In the end I think it's a bigger upset than Villanova over Georgetown, and from a pure basketball standpoint, bigger than Texas Western over Kentucky. But I still don't think it will unseat NC State over Houston for the top spot on the list.

* While Glen Davis and Tyrus Thomas have turned LSU into a dominant frontcourt team, but how good would the Tigers be if Brandon Bass hadn't left for the draft? Based on his stat line, Bass may wish he had returned for his junior year.

* Speaking of guys who left early, Charlie Villanueva picked an ironic day to post a career-high 48 points.

* This Final Four proves that all of the talk about conference strength is pure hot air. Year after year, pundits use the tourney results to make arguments about how the Big 10 was overrated or the Missouri Valley is underrated, etc. My hope is that people realize that the tournament is a crapshoot, "trends" are usually coincidences and individual teams do a poor job of representing an entire conference.

 
Return to March

After a long break, this blog is back with my annual NCAA tournament preview. Before I get to my picks, I'd first like to examine two flaws that I've been noticing with the tourney's conventional wisdom. The first has to do with the way that most of the experts are picking their Final Four darlings. There's a tendency to use a process of elimination, leaving your least-flawed team as your national champion. This happens every March, and as a result, many are suckered into taking the "safe" pick. But if you look at the most recent champions, none of them looked immune going into the tournament. Whether it's a supposed lack-of-depth or a few late-season losses, there's always something to dislike about every favorite. Instead of going with the team with the fewest weaknesses, it's better to go with the team with the most strengths.

The second thing that I've hearing is an overemphasis on seeding. People love to use the mantra that a #12 always beats a #5, or that an #11 is a risky pick to beat a #6. But in this age of parity, where mid-majors are often as talented (and even seeded higher) than majors, the seeding matters less than ever. For example, it's silly to think that Syracuse is vulnerable because it's a #5 going up against a #12. But the 'Cuse could just as easily have been a #6 or a #7-- would that have made them any less likely to lose? Trying to seek out seeding trends is pure folly.

MR. PREDICTO

While filling out my bracket, I once again consulted my tried-and-true cheat sheet of bracketology theories. I used Crown & Retrace to win my pool last year, so that theory will most definitely be put to use again. UConn is the conventional pick, the cliche pick, the groan-inducing pick... but it's the right pick to win the title. Starting with the Huskies as my champion, I then worked my way backwards. This year I'm also implementing a heavy dose of Go With the Gut. I must admit that this year I haven't followed college hoops as religiously as in year's past, so I don't know the nitty gritty details of many teams. So I used the "Blink" method- I sized up teams quickly and I went with the teams that felt right.

The only big early-round upsets I picked were Utah State, Wisconsin-Milwaukee and San Diego State. In the 2nd and 3rd rounds (where more upsets tend to occur) I fell in love with Georgetown, Pitt and Michigan State. In the regional finals I have UConn over MSU, Villanova over Georgetown, Texas over LSU, and UCLA over Pitt.

My national title game: UConn 80, UCLA 71.

 
Saturation Point

Today was Media Day in Detroit, which is supposed to be the pinnacle of Super Bowl week coverage. But the problem is that with every passing year, there are fewer and fewer reasons to warrant the existence of a Media Day. Athletes are more media-coached than ever, which means that they know better than to say anything that could be used as "bulletin-board material." That leaves us with canned answers, bland statements about respecting the opponent, and players generally masking what little personality they possess. This wouldn't be a problem, except for the fact that the Super Bowl now issues more press credentials than ever, as the NFL wants as much interest in the event as possible and the host cities are desperate for the added publicity. Now we have reporters, columnists, bloggers, radio hosts and TV talking heads flooding the streets of Detroit to provide us with "full coverage." But to what end? These media members constantly complain about how bad the host city is, how few stories there are, and how boring Media Day is. So why do these networks, newspapers and websites keep paying their employees to provide us with these non-stories? We aren't asking for sunny profiles on Polamalu's hair, Hasselbeck's lack of hair or about the hype about Bettis's homecoming (one of The Sports Guy's readers hits the nail on the head). There's a reason that you never hear fans say "man, I wish I could find out some more info about what's going on with the Super Bowl this year..."

 
BEST OF 2005: The Television

While much of my 2005 TV habits consisted on channel surfing, I did make a point of putting the remote down for these shows:

10. Extras (HBO)
Ricky Gervais's newest show isn't is good as BBC's The Office and the humour is verrry British, there are plenty of good laughs here.

9. Six Feet Under (HBO)
The show made a nice recovery to have a touching final season. I was pleased with how all of the storylines--even Nate's sudden death--wrapped up, and the final montage in the series finale is the gold standard for how to end a TV show.

8. Scrubs (NBC)
It's a crime that NBC held this show off of the fall schedule so that it could air tripe like Joey and E-Ring. Thank goodness Scrubs returns later this month.

7. The Comedy Central Roast of Pamela Anderson (Comedy Central)
These roast shows are so underappreciated; no other forum offers quality comedians taking nasty shots at one another in cold blood. You can watch most of the clips from the show here, and I still can't get over the bits from Greg Giraldo and Nick Di Paolo.

6. Entourage (HBO)
The show found its footing during the second season, as no other show makes such great use of its guest stars. While Jeremy Piven gives one of the best performances on TV, it's still a shame to see such wooden actors as Adrian Grenier and Kevin Connolly in the lead roles.

5. Lost (ABC)
Cheers to a show that never underestimates the intelligence of its audience! As long as the writers refocus on the original ensemble of terrific actors (instead of "The Tailies" on the other end of the island) this gimmick will continue to succeed.

4. The Colbert Report (Comedy Central)
A great premise, a great star and great execution. It's about time that someone skewered the Talking Head genre and Stephen Colbert has the fake gravitas to pull it off. Anyone still sitting through Leno and Letterman monologues ought to switch over to Colbert's "The Word" segment for a wakeup call.

3. Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO)
Oh, to live life as Larry David: frequent awkwarness, befuddling coincidence and the constant absorption of blame. Yet we still root for him each week- a testament to Larry David the writer and improv actor.

2. The Office (NBC)
Steve Carell doesn't get enough credit for this show. While he made a name for himself playing clueless newscasters (on The Daily Show, Bruce Almighty and Anchorman) his Michael Scott is a multilayered breed of buffoon. He's confident, yet wildly insecure, ambitious yet disillusioned. The supporting cast deserves its kudos too, with whipping boy Dwight serving as the villain and the Jim/Pam unconsumated flirtation serving as the show's heart. We're starting to see signs that NBC actually recognizes the potential of this show. Here's hoping that a Thursday night timeslot will lure more fans onto the bandwagon.

1. Pardon the Interruption (ESPN)
I've said it many times before, but nobody makes sports more enjoyable to follow than Wilbon and Kornheiser. As a gift to us diehards, this season they made the show 10 minutes longer each day, giving us more of the analysis, humor and thoughtfulness that we can't get anywhere else.