It's that time of year again...

About this time every year, I wish I had paid more attention to college basketball when I was instead focusing on things like the Super Bowl, the Olympics, the NBA, the NHL, spring training, and school. If I had made more of an effort to follow college hoops, I would probably be a little more educated when filling out my bracket. Instead, I just go by what teams are #1 seeds, pick three of them to advance to the final four, and pick a team that I remember doing pretty well last year and pick them as my fourth final four team. Is is a flawed system? Absolutely. Could I do any better? Maybe if i didn't have other sports commitments to follow (the great thing about Boston sports is that we have four professional teams that are perennial playoff contenders right now) and a life on top of that. If I had a TV, I might have seen more than two NCAA games all season and that might have helped.

2009 NCAA Mens Basketball Final Four Prediction:

Last year, I had watched a decent amount of college basketball and I thought I was educated enough to make good picks. I had North Carolina, Memphis, Louisville, and Pittsburgh in my bracket going to the Final Four.

2009 NCAA Mens Basketball Final Four Actual Outcome:

Lucky for me, the team I picked to go all the way (North Carolina) was the only one of my Final Four teams that made it. UConn, Villanova, and Michigan State made me very upset.

This Year, I have even less of a clue, but I am using my same flawed system to see where it gets me. This is a very different tournament than last year as ordinary powerhouses North Carolina, Arizona, Indiana, UConn, LSU, UCLA, and Indiana are not there. Kentucky, another historical powerhouse basketball school that did not make the tournament last year, is a #1 seed this time around.

Here are my Final Four Predictions for 2010:

Syracuse, Kansas, and Kentucky are my #1s and Villanova, I predict will be the fourth team instead of Duke. I also predict that Syracuse and Kentucky will advance to the National Championship Game with Syracuse winning it all.

I honestly have no clue what will really happen. Only time will. Feel free to comment and bash my picks and discuss your own predictions.

Community: Great show? Or the greatest show?

Season 1 of NBC's new sitcom Community has delivered big time and has exceeded my expectations. Regardless of the ratings (which don't really mean much anymore because people watch Hulu so much) Community has failed to disappoint me in every episode this season. Ever since the pilot episode, this show has gotten progressively better with each successive installment. Each week, the writers and performers seem to one-up their previously set standard of excellence and hilarity and has bolstered an already strong and intelligent Thursday night lineup of NBC which includes The Office, 30 Rock, and Parks and Recreation.

Some people I have talked to dismissed the show after its pilot episode because it was "insulting to community college students", but I have to disagree on this one. Community may be a comedy, but community college is not the joke. That is like saying that The Office is insulting to people who have desk jobs or that Cheers is insulting to people who go to bars or that Everybody Loves Raymond (or any other family sitcom for that matter) is insulting to families. Community is really about how students interact and how friendships are made. This show could just as easily take place in a high school or a four year college but the community college allows for a wider range of characters who come from more walks of life than just a bunch of kids from the same town or in the same age group.

The key to the success of any television sitcom or drama is the development of characters. Midway through the first season, I already feel like I now the characters and I am a part of their community.

There is the selfish arrogant ex-lawyer Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) who become more caring and empathetic as the season goes on once he finally makes real friends. There is Britta Perry (Gillian Jacobs), a twenty-something looking for direction in her life after dropping out of high school to "impress Radiohead" and serving in the Peace Corps. Britta and Jeff become one of the closer friendships within the study group and are looked up to by the others for being more sophisticated.

My personal favorite character on the show is Abed Nadir (Danny Pudi). Abed appears to be quiet and socially awkward but also has profound insight into human behavior and interaction patterns. An aspiring filmmaker, Abed makes movies about his friends at Greendale Community College that predict the future base on his observations of them. Abed compares nearly every situation in the show to references to pop-culture. Abed's best friend in the group is Troy Barnes (Donald Glover). Troy was a high school jock who lost his football scholarship when he dislocated both his shoulders doing a keg flip. He and Abed first became friends when they paired up on a Spanish project. Now they film videos together at the end of every episode often remaking famous pop culture duos like Ernie and Bert. Troy refers to Abed as his "other half".

Another character, Annie "Adderall" Edison (Alison Brie), had a crush on Troy in high school but has not been able to get him to notice her. She lost her college scholarship when she overdosed on pills and had to go to rehab. Annie is innocent and naive compared to the other characters. She also seems to be the most book smart of them all.

Shirley Bennett (Nicole Yvette Brown) and Pierce Hawthorne (Chevy Chase) are the two oldest members of the study group. Shirley is a recently divorced mother who is taking business classes. She is a devout Christian and tends to judge others based on her religious convictions. Although she seems caring and sweet most of the time, she has fits of rage and is a habitual gossiper. Pierce is a successful businessman in his sixties who has been married and divorced seven times. He started his own moist towelette company and is at Greendale to make friends and pursue popularity. He has difficulty achieving this because of his confusion towards youth culture and his clumsiness. This role basically sums up Chevy Chase's acting career and brilliantly puts the other characters into perspective.

To top it all off, perhaps the craziest character on the show is the eccentric Spanish teacher Senor Ben Chang (Ken Jeong). Chang, a self-proclaimed "Spanish genius" and refers to himself as "El Tigre" (The Tiger). He often belittles his students and pulls outrageous stunts to prove his points. On one occasion he goes out partying with Jeff to get over a bad breakup and in another episode, he joins Abed, Troy, Shirley and Pierce for "bad movie night" in Abed's dorm. Arrogant, angry, and egotistical, Chang often makes fun of other faculty to their faces, especially the Dean.

I hope this overview encourages you to watch what is currently the funniest show on television. Community is on Thursdays at 8 PM Eastern Time on NBC or anytime the next day on Hulu.com. I do not work for NBC or the General Electric Corporation, I am just suggesting a show that I thoroughly enjoy without any sort of business agenda of financial motive. Enjoy!

Alice in Wonderland

Last night, I actually made it out to a movie theater and saw a movie before it came out on DVD. This is unusual for me since I haven't been to the movies since last summer. Alice in Wonderland was a very well done movie production to say the least. Tim Burton really managed to capture the spirit of the story without it being all about Johnny Depp. Before seeing the film, the reports that I had heard were that it was "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe meets The Nightmare Before Christmas meets Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" but to me it seemed more like The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and The Wizard of Oz than any other Tim Burton movie.

Alice in Wonderland appeals to our sense of intrigue and fantasy. It is intriguing as children that there is a whole other world on the other side of the rabbit hole, or wardrobe, or train platform, or rainbow that is connected to our world but one does not know the existence of the other. That is what separated fantasy from other genres of fiction. All fiction relies on some degree of "What if?" but the "what" and the the "if" and the "?" are all much more inflated in fantasy than they are in more traditional realistic or historical fiction. Some may ask if there is any difference between science fiction and fantasy and at one time I read a pretty solid explanation. I cannot remember who it was that said it (it was either Arthur C. Clarke in a preface to a C.S. Lewis book or C.S. Lewis in a preface to an Arthur C. Clarke book) but the difference to them was that fantasy is something you wish could happen but cannot, and science fiction is something that could plausibly happen but we wish would not. In that case I am not sure where Star Wars fits because I would love to live in that galaxy but it is usually classified as sci-fi, but that is another discussion for another day.

If you like Tim Burton movies, go see this one. If you do not like Tim Burton movies, see it anyway. It is different from the others. If you like Johnny Depp, see this movie. If you do not like Johnny Depp, see it anyway. Alan Rickman, Helena Bonham Carter, Crispin Glover and Anne Hathaway are really good, too. If you like fantasy or if you ever liked fantasy, see this movie. The worst case scenario is that you get to complain that they don't make them like they used to and you will be more motivated to contribute to the blogosphere on this subject.

A Long Time Ago in a Blog Far Far Away...

First of all, I want to start off by saying that Star Wars is my favorite movie series of all time. Even thought the new trilogy was not as good as the original, I could not get enough of it. I could have a sixteen hour Star Wars marathon every weekend and it would still be awesome. George Lucas' creative mind and ability to tell these stories through film is why I first aspired to writing in the first place. If it were not for these movies, I probably would not have ever taken a theater class, I would probably not be enrolled in an astronomy class this semester, and I may never have decided to major in English with the dream of writing my own screenplays one day. They could make fifty more movies and I would still spend 8 bucks to see it in theaters over and over again. If they can make a million James Bond movies, then they can afford to make more Star Wars movies.

Here are a few ideas for new movies. It would be cool to see the story of the Star Wars universe told through different directors to provide different perspective.

Star Wars Origins: The Han Solo Story- Directed by Quentin Tarantino, this film would explain how Han met Chewie. To maintain accuracy in the dialog, large portions of the film would be spoken in Wookie with subtitles. This movie will also explore Han Solo's early life and his relationship with his veteran starfighter pilot father (played by Clint Eastwood). Samuel L. Jackson will reprise his role as Mace Windu since frequently collaborates with Tarantino anyway.

Star Wars Origins: Boba Fett- For a character with such an awesome mask, suit of armor, and combat accessories who appears in half of the movies, we know surprisingly little about him. We know he was an unaltered clone of the bounty hunter Jango Fett (whose genetic code was used for the Republic clonetroopers and the Imperial stormtroopers) who raised Boba as a son before he was killed by Mace Windu in the Clone Wars and he was hired by Vader to track down the Millennium Falcon, but that is about it. He is maybe ten years younger than Darth Vader and made a name for himself as a successful bounty hunter during the Galactic Civil War. How did he become the man he became without his father? This movie could have the Clone Wars as the backdrop of the story but Boba is not strictly part of either side. It would be sort of like the way the characters in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly are part of the Civil War but it is not their main motivation. He would also come in contact with Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Lando Calrissian as Han and Chewie were involved in the spice trade and Lando had a gambling problem before any of them joined the Rebel cause.

It's a Trap: The Untold Story of Admiral Ackbar- I want to know more about these minor characters who all of a sudden have big roles in the Rebel Alliance in Return of the Jedi. I would also be interested in a movie about Nien Nunb, Lando Calrissian's funny looking copilot from the Battle of Endor. Ackbar is intriguing because he is a high ranking officer in the Rebel Alliance but we never hear about him until the last movie. This opens the doors for many more movies to be made about the other things that were going on in that galaxy when the cameras were focused on Luke, Leia, Han and the gang. Maybe Ackbar led the liberation of his home planet, Mon Calamari. Maybe he has more importance than just being the guy who says "It's a trap!" Other characters may "have a bad feeling about this", but Ackbar knows when it is a trap.

The Tale of Two Planets: The Childhoods of Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa- We know that Luke grew up with his Aunt and Uncle on Tatooine and Leia with her adopted royal parents on Alderaan, but what was it like? What was Obi Wan Kenobi doing that made Uncle Owen think he was just a crazy old man? Did either of them show ability in the force at an early age? Shia Labeouf could play teenage Luke and Ellen Page could be teenage Leia. This film could also show the completion of the first Death Star and Han and Chewbacca's beginnings in the Kessel spice smuggling business. Liam Neeson could also reprise his role as Qui-Gon Jinn as he teaches Obi Wan and Yoda the art of becoming a ghost in the force after death.

Star Wars Episode VII: Attack on the New Republic- If none of my other ideas are good, this is still one to see ten times in Imax. With Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, and Billy Dee Williams reprising their original roles, this film will be about the struggles of the New Republic leadership struggling to maintain peace in the galaxy. Set thirty years after Return of the Jedi, Leia Organa Solo is the Chancellor of the Galactic Senate. Her husband, General Han Solo, is the highest ranking military officer who is not a Jedi. Luke Skywalker is the head of the Jedi Council. Chewbacca is the Senator for his home planet of Kashyyyk, Lando Calrissian is the Senator for Bespin City, Wedge Antilles is the Senator from Corellia, and C-3PO and R2-D2 are still around providing their useful (in R2's case) or annoying (in 3PO's case) service. One issue that needs to be addressed is the anarchy that has ensued after the death of Jabba the Hutt on the already chaotic planet of Tatooine. Another problem is that their are still legions of stormtroopers ordered to attack the Rebel Alliance as they have not received the message that Emperor Palpatine and Lord Vader have died. Even in their advanced years and rusting circuits, this ragtag band of rebels will be able to save democracy and the rights of all law abiding citizens even if the have to use less than democratic methods to do it.

George Lucas created a universe of possibilities when he created the Star Wars franchise. there are so many different things that could happen and so many characters to explore. They have been explored in novels, comic books, and fan-fiction, but the movies were always the best expression of the story and tradition. There is something intangible that is not there on paper. Perhaps it's the music of John Williams; perhaps it is the voice of Alec Guinness beckoning through deep space, providing sage advice when Luke needs him the most; perhaps it is the character development with the combination of A-List stars like Harrison Ford, Natalie Portman, Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, and Samuel L. Jackson along with those actors only famous for their Star Wars roles like Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Ian McDiarmid. Whatever the intangibles may be, I would still get excited to see more sequels and prequels and even non-related-spin-off-but-in-the-same-universe-quels. Other hard core Star Wars fans were disappointed with the prequels becasue they supposedly tarnished the integrity of the original trilogy, but I believe that it made them better. It opened the eyes of people who were not impressed with the originals because of the inferior special effects and the enthusiasm that the A-Listers cast in the new movies made them all the more exciting. Even Attack of the Clones which did not have as strong of a plot as the others, made up for it by showing us why Yoda was the greatest Jedi Master and pieced together the transition from Noble Republic to Evil Empire.

As creatures around the galaxy celebrated the fall of Emperor Palpatine and the second Death Star on worlds from Endor's moon to Bespin City, from Coruscant to Naboo, I could not help but wonder what was next. It is true that no movies have been made about after the Battle of Endor, but that cannot possibly be the end. Galactic infrastructure needs to be restored. The story of France does not end with the storming of the Bastille, and the story of America does not end with the Battle of Yorktown. Maybe it will never truly end. People come and go and live and die, but well made droids can last ages longer. Perhaps our grandchildren will still see movies about the future of that galaxy, with C-3PO and R2-D2 still caught in the middle of it all...

Slugs...

A slug is a peculiar creature. They are nature's ultimate slackers. When people are slow to get out of bed they are "sluggish". It is still a mystery to me where the term "slugging" comes from in reference to punching someone like Lucy threatened to do to Snoopy in the Peanuts' Christmas Special. (As a kid I didn't get it. After Snoopy was impersonating animals and then impersonating Lucy, he never once acted like a slug and punching a cartoon dog in uncharacteristic of slugs as well. Even back then, I was interested in the etymology of terms like this. I guess I was doomed to be an English major.)

Slugs always had a negative connatation in my mind. That is probably because they are mostly around when it is damp and rainy out and there are mosquitos around as well. I don't really have anything against them, though. They are really just homeless snails. Maybe the governments in snail societies should have more public programs to get slugs employed and have them find affordable shells with reasonable mortgage plans. They should also pass legislation to reduce the salting of roads in the winter to further protect those on the streets. If snails had an economic plan similar to FDR's New Deal, and Snail War II eventually got them out of the sluggish depression, then that would be really awesome.

Monday Morning Peyton: Priceless

Peyton Manning just missed an opportunity of a lifetime. He had the chance to cross the threshold that separates Hall of Fame caliber quarterbacks. There are those quarterbacks who hold all the major records, people like Brett Favre and Dan Marino, and there are those who win multiple championships, people like Otto Graham, Bart Starr, Roger Staubach, Tom Brady, Terry Bradshaw, Troy Aikman, John Elway, and Joe Montana, and Peyton Manning had the chance to be both. Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints had different ideas though.

Don't worry, I'm not just talking about football. If that does not interest you, I will also be discussing the halftime show and the commercials.

It was great to see Drew Brees, the Saints QB who is five inches shorter than his Indianapolis counterpart and has spent most of his career overshadowed by other talent around the NFL. It was great to see the city of New Orleans with something to cheer about. After Hurricane Katrina and forty-four mostly forgettable years of Saints football, there is finally something to celebrate on Bourbon Street before Mardi Gras. Manning had a great season, one of the best in history, but his only critical mistake was in the biggest game of the year at the most crucial time. Tracey Porter's interception showed the world that even Peyton Manning, the four time MVP, considered by many to be the greatest QB in football history, is human.

Now, back to the other stuff.

The Who in the halftime show:

I know that they have been trying to get older musicians because they are more tame and family friendly ever since the Janet Jackson incident, but this is starting to get bad. Sixty-Five year old men should not be the headline event in the halftime show. Since Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake in 2004, they have had Paul McCartney (pretty good), The Rolling Stones (pretty bad), Prince (can't remember), Tom Petty (the Pats were in the Super Bowl so I ate during halftime and didn't see it), Bruce Springsteen (awesome), and The Who last night. For the most part, these older guys can't really bring a whole lot of excitement to the event especially when the games themselves this past decade have been better than usual. A lot of the people who listen to classic rock will be watching the game anyway. The NFL could appeal to a larger audience if they got more relevant musicians. They had an Arcade Fire song in the NFL Network commercials last night. I think Arcade Fire would be a really cool halftime show. The Who came across as old and tired. Their best concerts are a few decades behind them. It is time for something new.

Commercials:

I really liked the McDonalds commercial with Lebron James and Dwight Howard. The best part was when Larry Bird came in at the end. It was a great tribute to a classic commercial that starred Larry Bird and Michael Jordan. I had no idea that today's NBA stars were too ignorant to know who Larry Legend is. It's a shame.

The Budweiser human bridge commercial was great. They always do good work on Super Bowl Sunday. The Bud Light ads on the desert island and the asteroid lab were also funny.

It was great to see the Griswolds going on vacation again.

The Super Bowl shuffle remake was a bit of a disappointment. It just isn't the same without Walter Payton and Mike Singletary. Ditka's cameo was good but they, like The Who, just looked old and tired.

The Etrade babies are starting to get boring.

The commercial that really bothered me was the ad for the Late Show with Dave Letterman. It just seemed forced and awkward (I get that that is what they were going for but it didn't make me want to watch the show) to see Leno and Letterman on the same couch with Oprah keeping the peace. It didn't help either of them. I do not understand why Jay Leno agreed to be in the commercial. Oprah seemed like the only one who has any sense of empathy or humanity anymore. Clearly, these two old talk show hosts only care about themselves and "their" network rivalry. They think that everything is about them just because of the Tonight Show replacement controversy 17 years ago. It is unfortunate that a classy guy like Conan O'Brien is off the air and America still has to see these tired old timers battling it out for a few more years. What do I know? I guess I am not the typical viewer seeing as all my favorite shows are on 4th place NBC.

All in all, Super Bowl XLIV was a good night of football surrounded by an okay night of ads and a bad night of music. It will be interesting to see what the next Super Bowl will bring.

Has Family Guy Jumped the Shark?

For years Family Guy has been a staple of Fox Network's "Animation Domination" lineup along with The Simpsons and King of the Hill. In recent years, with the addition of American Dad! to the lineup and more recently the addition of The Cleveland Show to Fox's Sunday night programming, Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane has truly dominated "Animation Domination" time slot wise. The Simpsons now remains as the only show on the network on that night that was not created by MacFarlane. To me, it has become apparent as Matt Groening's Simpsons celebrate their twentieth anniversary on the air, that they still have what it takes to make people laugh. How much longer can Peter Griffin keep making us laugh before enough is enough and the eventual decline in ratings followed by cancellation?

Family Guy had a good run. That run may continue, but I have a feeling that the show has reached the point where it will not get any better than it was before. I realize that cartoon shows rely on ridiculous story lines but since the second half of last season, Family Guy has gone off the deep end. It is starting to show signs of running low on new ideas. Let's see, first Joe's wife Bonnie finally gives birth after being pregnant for the show's entire run. It would have been clever if the developed the newborn Susie Swanson into a new character as a talking foil to Stewie, but that has not happened yet. They had Cleveland move to Virginia and start his own show. The Cleveland Show is a dull, unoriginal rehash of The Brady Bunch with elements of Family Guy only with the spotlight on Peter's slow talking sidekick and it also leaves a void back in Quahog. In an attempt to make things interesting, they had Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd move into Cleveland's old house and it turns out that they are spies for the U.S. government but even that did not live up to Family Guy's former glory. Other recent crazy plots include Lois finding out that she is actually Jewish, Peter being injected with the gay gene, and Peter developing amnesia and having to relearn everything, including "Surfing Bird". Perhaps the worst change made recently to the show is Quagmire's sudden development of moral fiber. All of a sudden, he volunteers in soup kitchens and chews Brian out for his intellectual phoniness. Brian had always been the voice of reason on the show, but it was Quagmire, of all people, who tarnished Brian's integrity as a character.

In the most recent episode, Meg exacts revenge on the world. After years of being pushed around by her parents, her dog, and her classmates, Meg goes to jail for three months for harboring an escaped convict that she fell in love with through a school pen pal program. Prison hardens her, she curb stomps Peter and get's suspended for breaking her class mates skulls. Before she is able to rob a drug store and leave town, Brian reminds her that he used to care about her and that she doesn't have to live her life like this. And just like that, she goes back to normal. This puts the show's future in a tough situation. If the characters keep ragging on Meg like they have since the show began, nothing will ever happen because she has already snapped. They can't have her snap again and it still be quality entertainment. If they treat Meg with more respect, a big part of the humor on the show will be lost.

Part of the problem Family Guy has is its desire to be better than The Simpsons. No matter how long either of those shows last, they will always be compared to one another. For Family Guy, that is a fight that you will never win. The Simpsons have been on television for twenty years now and they have been consistently good. The key to their success has been character development in both quality and quantity. While Family Guy has maybe twenty regularly occurring characters, The Simpsons has a whole town of identifiable characters. Besides the Simpson family, there is Moe the bartender, Principal Skinner, Comic Book Guy, Ned Flanders, Mr. Burns, Smithers, Reverend Lovejoy, Groundskeeper Willie, Krusty the Clown, Sideshow Bob, Sideshow Mel, Apu, Ralph Wiggum, Milhouse, Nelson, Lenny, Carl, Barney, and many many more. Some fans may say they The Simpsons is not as good as it used to be, but it still provides quality laughs and social commentary. It also has not had to rely on irrelevant pop culture references and grown men falling out of bathtubs over and over again to get people to laugh.

Only time will tell if Family Guy has peaked or if The Simpsons will ever truly plummet in quality but based on my observations, I have a feeling that Family Guy has lost a step in the game that is television. If Meg snaps again or if I hear "Surfing Bird" again, I will know that it's over.