My prediction:
Titans 24
Jaguars 17
Line: Titans -3
I'm no good at predicting NFL games. In the past I had some success with college basketball and football, but with the NFL it was ugly. Of course I knew it was foolish before betting... I just didn't have the discipline to stick with what I knew. The same thing happens with poker: I grind out some winnings only to blow it in one epic bout of stupidity. Oh well.
I do like the Titans in this one. They have been a much better team so far, despite the identical 3-2 record with Jacksonville. Having said that, I'm more of a baseball fan so I'll probably be flipping back and forth with Yanks-Rangers.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
House Keeping
Were a blogging 10 Commandments to exist, surely deleting posts would make the list. But I committed this very sin with respect to my 2nd and 3rd ever blog posts. I figured I should note and explain this since posts can float around the internet after death. I wish I could say they were deleted for an interesting reason, but in fact I changed my mind on what I should blog about.
Initially I thought I would focus on politics, particularly since there are elections fast approaching. It didn't take long to realize the folly of this approach. For one thing, I don't think politics mixes too well with the other things I have interest in. People have strong opinions, divide themselves into camps, and become ill-tempered. Plus, at times not much political is really going on. I am knowledgeable about it, but that doesn't necessarily translate into good blogging.
I do like to make predictions, despite being at least temporarily retired from betting, and politics will figure into that some. I still will make predictions with respect to the upcoming mid-terms, though probably less specifically than I was planning.
I'm in the process of adding links, which I'll have more to say on later.
985QNJUJU9JC
Initially I thought I would focus on politics, particularly since there are elections fast approaching. It didn't take long to realize the folly of this approach. For one thing, I don't think politics mixes too well with the other things I have interest in. People have strong opinions, divide themselves into camps, and become ill-tempered. Plus, at times not much political is really going on. I am knowledgeable about it, but that doesn't necessarily translate into good blogging.
I do like to make predictions, despite being at least temporarily retired from betting, and politics will figure into that some. I still will make predictions with respect to the upcoming mid-terms, though probably less specifically than I was planning.
I'm in the process of adding links, which I'll have more to say on later.
985QNJUJU9JC
On "The Town"
The Town has been out for a while, so it isn't being advertised much at this point, but the ad campaign to promote it struck me as very odd. At least one of them openly compared it to Heat, which a couple other movies have done recently. Now, I really like Heat, but it came out 15 years ago. A lot of younger moviegoers have never seen it, and many others have probably forgotten it.
But I was particularly confused after seeing The Town, because that movie has a little too much in common with Heat. Like Heat, The Town follows a 4-man crew who rob armored cars, banks and the like. The leading men in both meet a regular woman, who initially is unaware of their criminal activities. Their crews gear up for one last big job, which will allow the leading men to leave for greener pastures.
In both cases, the job is compromised and a shoot-out results. In Heat, 2 of the 4 are killed, while in The Town all three of Affleck's pals die. The FBI gets to Affleck's girlfriend in the hopes of nabbing him, while in Heat the same happens with (De Niro buddy) Val Kilmer's wife. In both cases, the women use a signal to indicate there is a trap, though in the Town Affleck already knows.
I know I should use their character names, but I don't remember them all and am too lazy to look it up. Anyway, the similarities are pretty significant and go beyond the ones I describe above. That doesn't mean The Town is without merit- I enjoyed it. But to advertise it as being 'the new Heat' seems strange as that is arguably the most obvious criticism of The Town: it draws excessively from Heat.
Most of the differences stem from Heat being much longer, though The Town is pretty lengthy itself. The extra screen time allows for a lot of additional character development; Dennis Haysbert (aka President Palmer) gets several scenes despite having an extremely minimal role in the actual plot. The law enforcement antagonist in Heat (Al Pacino) is basically a co-lead with De Niro, with a lot of screen time devoted to his personal life. His counterpart in The Town (an actor from Mad Men- which I don't watch even though everyone raves over it) is completely flat.
In comparison to what is playing in movie theatres these days, The Town comes off very well. Viewers who prefer brevity may even like it more than Heat. Still, the similarities are a bit jarring at times.
But I was particularly confused after seeing The Town, because that movie has a little too much in common with Heat. Like Heat, The Town follows a 4-man crew who rob armored cars, banks and the like. The leading men in both meet a regular woman, who initially is unaware of their criminal activities. Their crews gear up for one last big job, which will allow the leading men to leave for greener pastures.
In both cases, the job is compromised and a shoot-out results. In Heat, 2 of the 4 are killed, while in The Town all three of Affleck's pals die. The FBI gets to Affleck's girlfriend in the hopes of nabbing him, while in Heat the same happens with (De Niro buddy) Val Kilmer's wife. In both cases, the women use a signal to indicate there is a trap, though in the Town Affleck already knows.
I know I should use their character names, but I don't remember them all and am too lazy to look it up. Anyway, the similarities are pretty significant and go beyond the ones I describe above. That doesn't mean The Town is without merit- I enjoyed it. But to advertise it as being 'the new Heat' seems strange as that is arguably the most obvious criticism of The Town: it draws excessively from Heat.
Most of the differences stem from Heat being much longer, though The Town is pretty lengthy itself. The extra screen time allows for a lot of additional character development; Dennis Haysbert (aka President Palmer) gets several scenes despite having an extremely minimal role in the actual plot. The law enforcement antagonist in Heat (Al Pacino) is basically a co-lead with De Niro, with a lot of screen time devoted to his personal life. His counterpart in The Town (an actor from Mad Men- which I don't watch even though everyone raves over it) is completely flat.
In comparison to what is playing in movie theatres these days, The Town comes off very well. Viewers who prefer brevity may even like it more than Heat. Still, the similarities are a bit jarring at times.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
What's a Couple Months... Rating Music
I'm not a terribly good blogger, of this there can be little doubt. I may however be among the laziest (though whether a couple blog posts makes one a 'blogger' is arguable).
Anyway, does anyone else use the rating feature on their iTunes/computer music player? Most people I've asked apparently don't... many are however obsessive over having all the album covers. I like to rate the songs (1 through 5 stars - happily I'm using MusicBee which permits half-star increments, unlike iTunes). What bothers me about my ratings is that the cumulative ratings of the songs often does not match what I would subjectively rate the album they are on. Well it doesn't really bother me per se, but I wonder what it means for how an album should be rated. Critical reviews often seem to convey a degree of specifity: Pitchfork has a 10-point scale but uses tenths of a point (e.g., 6.2). One website, I'm too lazy to check (AllMusic?), uses a 1-100 scale.
What does this represent? How good the songs are? Is there an originality multiplier? With art there is always a degree of subjectivity, but that doesn't stop critics from rating movies, TV, plays, and so forth. Even if the individual rating is largely subjective, it seems pointless unless there is some method behind it. While critical reception may be less important with music than other avenues, I'm sure artists prefer good reviews to bad ones. Taking into account the wide variance in preferences among music listeners, prominent reviewers probably tend to err on the side of caution. Still, I haven't seen any that use a truly simplified approach (e.g., 'highly recommended,' 'recommended,' 'not recommended').
Anyway, does anyone else use the rating feature on their iTunes/computer music player? Most people I've asked apparently don't... many are however obsessive over having all the album covers. I like to rate the songs (1 through 5 stars - happily I'm using MusicBee which permits half-star increments, unlike iTunes). What bothers me about my ratings is that the cumulative ratings of the songs often does not match what I would subjectively rate the album they are on. Well it doesn't really bother me per se, but I wonder what it means for how an album should be rated. Critical reviews often seem to convey a degree of specifity: Pitchfork has a 10-point scale but uses tenths of a point (e.g., 6.2). One website, I'm too lazy to check (AllMusic?), uses a 1-100 scale.
What does this represent? How good the songs are? Is there an originality multiplier? With art there is always a degree of subjectivity, but that doesn't stop critics from rating movies, TV, plays, and so forth. Even if the individual rating is largely subjective, it seems pointless unless there is some method behind it. While critical reception may be less important with music than other avenues, I'm sure artists prefer good reviews to bad ones. Taking into account the wide variance in preferences among music listeners, prominent reviewers probably tend to err on the side of caution. Still, I haven't seen any that use a truly simplified approach (e.g., 'highly recommended,' 'recommended,' 'not recommended').
Friday, August 13, 2010
First Post
I've thought about blogging before, but finally decided to take the plunge. My main blogging interests will be those that the web is already saturated with, such as politics, sports, music, etc. Hopefully I can contribute some original thoughts, however.
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