Would you like me to call you a cab, or should I just whistle and have the flying monkeys bring the broom around?

Time to get a whole team of lawyers who will dine on Mustard flown in from the Orient.

So Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat. Seriously, isn’t that a little disturbing? I mean not only are we killing the bird for Christmas dinner we have to sing about it? Damn morbid Christmas carols. Moving on…

So the Grammy nominees were announced. Hey look at how many times Mariah Carey was nominated. Thus further cementing the pointlessness of the Grammys. Though perhaps if she doesn’t win anything she’ll have another meltdown. Is that horrible of me? Anyways…

Though I will say it was nice to see the Gorillaz get some recognition. They’re album Demon Days is excellent despite that really weird song with Dennis Hopper reading a fairy tale.

U2 got a helluva lot more than I expected. I mean I love U2 but their last album didn’t exactly flatten me.

If Rob Thomas’ “Lonely No More” beats out Jack Johnson’s “Sitting, Waiting, Wishing”, someone might need to be gravely gravely injured.

Can I get an explanation on how Maroon 5’s “This Love” gets nominated for this year’s awards? The song is like 10 years old.

Someone want to tell me how the ONLY Alternative music category is best alt album? This “Alternative” Field (basically meaning well hell, it’s not the Pop rock like the teeny bopper bands and it’s not rock music like Green Day and it’s not Kanye West so we have no idea where the hell to put it) has nominees of Arcade Fire’s Funeral which I’ve heard is great, Beck’s Guero (in my top 5 albums of the year list), Death Cab for Cutie’s Plans (number one in my top 5 albums of the year), Franz Ferdinand’s new album (Their Do You Wanna single is great) and the White Stripes’ Get Behind Me Satan (I don’t know if it’s in my top 5 but it’s got some great great songs. Oh wait, for some reason they nominated one of them, Doorbell, in the Rock performance category. How the hell does this work?). That’s a pretty good list. SO HOW THE HELL DOES THE EFF-ING POLKA FIELD HAVE MORE CATEGORIES IN IT!?!?!?

You know what, screw it. Ladies and Gentlemen

MY TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2005:

Death Cab for Cutie – Plans
Jack Johnson – In Between Dreams
Ben Folds – Songs for Silverman
Beck – Guero
Gorillaz – Demon Days
Weezer – Make Believe
Bloc Party – Silent Alarm
Bright Eyes – I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning
Shout Out Louds – Howl Howl Gaff Gaff
White Strips – Get Behind Me Satan

Note this list is only for albums that came out in 2005. Some songs got big in ’05 but came out last year (The Killers, Keane) so they’re don’t make the list.

So between Narnia and Syriana last week, King Kong and Geisha this week, Producers and Munich next week, I have crapload of movies I need to catch up on. King Kong is getting done this week. Seriously.

News and Notes:

The strip. Is coming. Along. Very. Slowly. I know. I’m averaging about a panel a day. But what can I say? It’s the holidays and we’re all suffering.

Latest rumors is Arrested Development is being courted by both ABC and Showtime. Damn you, don’t move to Showtime! I don’t have it!

Scrubs is almost back!

The Grinch was on the WB the other night. So good. Why did they have to ruin it in the Jim Carrey evil muppet edition by giving the Grinch a reason to hate Christmas?

Until next time:

“They're actually arresting someone for stealing pudding and toilet paper?”

“No. They found twenty bottles of Vicodin in his backpack. Did you steal pudding and toilet paper?”

“What? No! I hate pudding, and I don't use toilet...paper. I have one of those French things that shoots water up your butt.”

“Bidet?”

“Bidet to you, sir.”

This is how The Todd gets his self-esteem on

Hey hey, it’s the Mustard.

So tis the season, is it not? You can tell by the marked amount of HOLIDAY SUPER SALE spam I’ve been getting in my inbox. And all of it is pure crap. But the nip is in the air and the apartment is decorated up.

Erin and I celebrated the momentous occasion of getting our first tree (last year doesn’t count because the tree was under 6 feet). It was a wonderful Christmas Sunday involving a tree, a lot of my ornaments scaring Erin (yes, our tree has Darth Vader speaking when you plug the lights in), wine, Christmas Vacation and It’s a Wonderful Life, and a whole lot of sap. Life does not get any better.

It’s been too long since I’ve fully watched It’s a Wonderful Life. It’s really a phenomenal movie. Sure it’s a little saccharine, but it’s never pandering. And it’s not all about the final scene which can melt the heart of any cynic. It’s got some excellent performances and some great dialogue (see Mary yelling upstairs to her nosey mother that George is “making violent love to me”).

So the big TV news is: SCRUBS IS BACK!!!! Starting Tuesdays at 9 in January NBC is running back to back Scrubs episodes. It’s starting out as back to back new episodes though how long that will go remains to be seen. But by god newbie, it’s been way too long.

As far as new TV shows, this season has been pretty disappointing. The only ones I’ve actually gotten into have been Prison Break and HBO’s Rome. Well both of those are over for the season (Prison Break runs it’s 2^nd half starting March). I’ve starting catching My Name Is Earl which is definitely getting funnier as it goes along. Last night’s Christmas episode was classic though damn Brett Butler has gained some weight.

With the decline of the O.C., the only real remaining must see shows for me are Gilmore Girls and Lost (and the Simpsons and Family Guy but those are pretty much just permanent fixtures). I have been catching up on Veronica Mars which is again proving that UPN is run by a bunch of nimrods for putting on against Lost. This show could clean up on a weaker night. Joss Whedon’s cameo = hilarious.

News and Notes

Yeah, the Greece blog and the strip have fallen behind. Sorry people, I’ll get to them. Really.

Wow, was that painful watching the Caps beat the everloving hell out of the Rangers Saturday night.

Is it just me or should Congress have better things to do than getting involved with the BCS selection process.

Go Irish!

Until next time:

“Cliff, come on, you owe me.”
”I owe you? Who unconfiscated all your fake college IDs?”
”Who got the Lincoln out of your ex's name?”
”Well, who helped put that lien against Lee's Walk-In Donut?”
”And who proved that stripper was color-blind?”
”Okay, who am I calling and what am I giving them?”

The next time I shoot you, it won't be digitally. Unless I hit you in the finger and then we'll have a big laugh about it

M is for Mustard, that’s good enough for me.

Happy week after turkey day. Hope everyone went out and ate much more than was healthy for them. I know I did. It was good to see the family and Erin was introduced to our family tradition of yard football on Thanksgiving day. It used to be so much more fun to cover my brother before he grew 5 inches taller than me. Now it just causes me to be in extreme pain the next day. Our team was triumphantly taking down Erin’s when my little cousin going out for the game winning touchdown pass was chop blocked by a flower pot and ended up taking a nasty spill on the porch steps. That kinda killed the game quickly. But at least he’ll have a good story to tell.

So my blood pressure is still slowly settling from that ND game. Fiesta bowl here we come. Let all the ND bashing commence for them “not deserving” to get a bowl game. Life’s a bitch until the BCS works for you.

Good freakin’ gravy this was not my week for kickers. First Fitzpatrick misses an extra point and two field goals forcing Quinn to show his stuff and take the team down the field for a touchdown with under two minutes to go. Then the Giants lose in overtime to the Seahawks after Feely misses three freakin’ field goals at the end of regulation and overtime. What the hell man?

Well the Mets are making some hardcore moves. Piazza and Looper gone. Delgado and Wagner in. Bring in Molina as catcher and this team should suddenly jump to one of the favorites in the NL East.

Caught Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (midnight shows are all sorts of fun until work the next morning). I enjoyed it, probably more than the first 2 as far as the movies go. Yeah, there are a lot of glaring omissions from the book but then that’s how things are going to be for all the future movies. You just can’t fully adapt 700 page books to 2 hour movies without cutting a lot. The positive points though were the actors are really getting good at what they do. Daniel Radcliffe most especially had several scenes where I just noticed his acting ability has grown from kid trying his best to real full blown actor. Ray Fiennes, holy crap did he nail Voldemort. He plays him as subdued and menacing rather than over the top villainy and it’s excellent. The style of the movie falls somewhere in between the first 2nd and the 3^rd one. Not quite as stylized as Prisoner of Azkaban but also not as playing it safe as the first two. The more I watch the first two and then can compare them to the later ones, the less they hold up. I’m not saying I don’t like them, I’m just saying they don’t age as well. Sorcerer’s Stone has that magic of wow, they didn’t screw this up and Chamber of Secrets was made more interesting than the book. But as you watch them they just seem a little vanilla compared to the 2^nd two (and yes, the books are better but that’s just about always the case). I’m very interested to see how things go in the next one with relatively unknown (at least in the States) David Yates at the helm.

Slooooowly catching up with TV shows. Almost done with Prison Break which I just can’t help but get sucked into. It’s very 24-esque in that it’s completely preposterous that so many things could just fall so perfectly into place but damn if it’s not entertaining. Also need to catch the final episode of Rome. I love that whole period of ancient Roman history and they really do a great job of bringing it to life while adding a little soapiness to it all. Hell, it’s better than Gladiator (someone still wanna tell me how that won best picture?).

Also on DVD I’m plunging through OC Season 1 and Scrubs Season 2 while managing to add Entourage and Arrested Development Seasons 1 to the queue. And while I do all this, I like to whistle a jaunty tune.

News and notes:

New Years weekend begins one month from now. Get ready for some insanity.

Strip updates back on track.

Producers on Broadway was a great time though I personally still prefer the original Zero Mostel/Gene Wilder movie. But I can’t help but be intrigued by Will Ferrell playing Franz Liebkind in the new movie.

No I didn’t not go buy an Xbox 360. I’m not the kind of guy who rushes out and buys every new technology the second it comes out… especially when the price will drop a good hundred dollars in a few months when PS3 comes out.

Until next time:

“They never invited their priest over to try to talk you out of having sex.”

”Five times! And on the last one they triple teamed me with a Priest, a Rabbi, and a Morman Missionary. I made so many jokes that night I should have had a microphone and a brick wall behind me.”

Honey, animals don't feel death. That was proven by the scientists at Black Angus.

Mustard: the other burger condiment.

So I know I know, let the screaming begin. Dude, you took two months off, started the strip and now you haven’t updated in forever! What the hell man!? Well the hell man involves my laptop dying due to unforeseeable circumstances this weekend. Luckily I managed to grab all the strip stuff off the dead hard drive but I’ve been without my means to properly work the strip. I should be getting a new laptop today so I can continue the strip back up soon. Really, I will. I promise.

In totally BS news, it looks like Arrested Development is done. This is total crap and just destroys all my faith in humanity. Well at least their choice in television. 7^th *&%^#@ing Heaven!!!!! More of these nimrods are watching 7^th oops, the cute kid got too old so let’s replace them with another cute bleeping kid Heaven than Arrested Development?! And don’t even get me started that these morons made Wife Swap the highest rated show of the time slot. Honestly, anyone who watched Wife Swap over Arrested Development needs to be ejected from society and force to live a Gollum-like existence underground away from sunlight and electricity. And that’s my rant of the day. Thank you.

Honestly, I just hope that HBO picks it up as rumors are pointing to. That would be fantastic. Put Arrested Development and Curb Your Enthusiasm together? Funniest hour on TV by far.

In good news, Martha Stewarts Apprentice cash-in, oh sorry, “spin-off”, has not been renewed. Honestly, who the hell actually wanted to work for Martha Stewart in the first place? But the reason this is good news is that the more NBC shows that get canceled, the more spots open up for Scrubs to come back. C’mon NBC. Bring back your only comedy that was nominated for an Emmy. Will & Grace doesn’t count. It’s not funny.

Yeah, I still haven’t seen a movie in 2 months but that changes tomorrow when I’ll be at the midnight showing of Harry Potter and Goblet of Fire. Which will lead directly into Friday morning and my inability to function.

A funny thing I’ve started to notice is just how few people have actually seen the original King Kong. Oh, sure everyone knows who King Kong is and that he falls off the Empire State building, but it seems like very few have actually seen the movie. I noticed this when people starting talking about how the trailers for the new King Kong movie make it look like the movie is ripping off Jurassic Park cause there are dinosaurs in it. People, Jurassic Park ripped off King Kong. King Kong had dinosaurs surviving isolated on an island in modern times long before Michael Crichton was even born, let alone made a bazillion dollars on his novels/movies/toys/video games/breakfast cereals/etc. So I’m starting to think that with the upcoming release of the original Kong on DVD, I might have to catch people up and make a night of it. Yeah, the special effects are ridiculously primitive compared to even the most low budget special effects of today but back then it was a revolution. Plus the movie is pretty darn good too.

New and notes:

Really, the strip will be back up soon. I promise.

The Greece blog will also be updated with day 2 shortly.

Caught the Lighnting/Caps game last night. It’s amazing when the beer costs more than what I paid for the ticket.

Go Irish.

Until next time:

“I can't even go in my own kitchen. Bart's in there right now eating frosting off my egg beaters.”
”Don't worry dad, I'm saving one for you. I'll just leave it here in the dog's mouth.”
”No, Bart! That's a really bad storage area!”

Wow, Oliver Twist just asked for more gruel and you just kicked him right in the junk.

This Mustard is brought to you the by the letter “S” and may contain adult situations.

Do you hear that sound? It’s the sound of things calming down. It’s a beautiful sound. True, there’s still lots of things to be gotten for the apartment but this is the fun part. Spending money. And catching up on all those shows I’ve missed.

First off I can’t even remember when the last time this happened but all of my sports teams are doing well! The Giants are rocking as Eli is coming into his own. The Rangers are actually somehow in first place in the East. And Notre Dame continues to look like it may have something good going here. Now knowing I’ve just jinxed all three of these teams I plan on spending the next 3 minutes knocking on wood…………..done.

So I haven’t seen a movie in like 2 months and I’m starting to get antsy. There’s tons of them out right now I want to see (yes, I want to bloody see Chicken Little but only in the 3-D version. It’s supposed to be amazing new 3-D technology that we’ll be seeing a lot more of in the future) but I just never seem to find the time.

I have been catching up on my TV shows however. As we enjoy this month of sweeps I have a few thoughts:

Gilmore Girls has truly owned this season. I mean the last time I was laughing this hard at a show (see the title of this entry) that’s not really a comedy was during the Buffy/Angel heydays. That’s really the best compliment I can give.

Arrested Development just had one of the greatest shows ever where through the most ridiculously convoluted turn of events the family managed to piss off Japanese investors being mistakenly re-enacting a bad Godzilla movie complete with miniature city. You have to see it to believe it. Seriously, the writing on this show is pure genius.

I’m slowly catching up on Veronica Mars but this season is just getting even better than last years. Consider how highly I regard last season. Well the jump in quality this year is akin to the jump between season one and season two of Buffy. It’s that good.

Lost is just ridiculous now. I mean I seriously have no idea how the hell these writers are gonna keep pulling it off but this is either going to be the most ingenious show ever or the most spectacular trainwreck in the history of television. Either way, I can’t wait.

Then there’s the O.C. Wow. I mean, it’s just been painful. Thank God they’ve finished with that crust old Dean Bitterman bit. Seriously, I was just waiting for the damn bra bomb to go off and Seth to be made Secretary of Partying Down (nothing like an obscure Simpsons reference to confuse the crap out of everyone but Crowley. I’m proud of you Crowley).

Music You Should Be Listening To:

Eels – Shootenanny!

Great album that pretty much runs the gamut of musical styles. Saturday Morning is the big rocking out, windows down song of the album. The Good Old Days slow things down with a Pearl Jam-esque ballad. Love of the Loveless has this light-hearted funk beat to it that’ll get your head bobbing in time. And Lone Wolf just has a great, catchy, low tempo that just builds throughout the song.

Phantom Planet – The Guest

Good ol’ California rock. California naturally is the O.C. theme song and the big number on this album as well. Check out Lonely Day and Anthem. If you like sound of Rhett Miller or the Old 97’s less countrified albums, check this one out. Uptempo, good music.

News and Notes:

Since I realized it would be pretty big, I’ve created an entirely new Greece blog to detail all the events and craziness that happened through the week.

Well you asked for it and here it is. The Strip: Episode VI. The end is near. Sorry it took so long to get out but I think you’ll enjoy it.

New Years plans are set. Let’s get ready to party.

Alright people until next time:

“So, who's your favorite player?”
“Ummm..”.
“Tell him. Be honest.”
“It's Johnny Damon, isn't it?”
“He's so pretty.”

Glowing like the metal on the edge of knife

The Greek word for mustard is: μουστάρδα. And no, I have no idea how to prounouce it.

So holy cow, it’s been a while an in the meanwhile I managed to get married and spend a week in Greece and move into a new apartment and buy a new car battery. One of these things is not like the other.

Alright, well I’m going to be doing some different format here for the next few entries. To start with I’m tackling the wedding weekend with this one and then after that I think I’ll do a series of quick entries detailing the days in Greece. Cause there’s just a whole lot write about and if people ask how everything was I can just say, why don’t you check out the Mustard? Course people might look at me funny if they ask how Greece was and I say read the Mustard. Ah well.

Anyways:

THE BIG WEEKEND:

So I owe so many people for coming through for me for the wedding. The whole thing was absolutely fantastic and I hope everyone had as good a time as I did.

My Groomsman: You guys ruled. Great job keeping me all calm and collected. Crowley breaking out a bottle of whiskey at midnight the night before was almost as classic as Tom drinking it out of the mini coffee pot from the hotel room. Booter and Crowley did great getting me the flower petals even if they got back from McDonalds about 10 minutes before we needed to leave for the church. But then they wouldn’t be Booter and Crowley if they weren’t running in at the last minute.

Best Man: Tom you saved my ass. I would’ve probably had an aneurysm in the back room waiting for the wedding to start. But you got me through it while managing to take care of everything else that needed to be done.

Family/Friends: You all know how to party. And it’s amazing having such good family and friends to celebrate with.

So highlights of the night:

ND destroying BYU (oh, come on, if they had lost it would’ve been a bit of a bummer).

Borden grabbing a waiter’s tray and carrying the entire wedding parties drinks into the main room (and there were a helluva lot of drinks on that tray).

Me being right about Postal Service’s Such Great Heights being the perfect introduction music.

The fact that upon the introduction of Sean Griffin my entire family screamed out “Booter!”

The choice of Billy Joel’s To Make You Feel My Love setting off a huge debate over who’s song it was and my cousin Joey’s triumph in knowing.

Two amazing toasts by Ashley and Tom.

The food being amazing and Booter being able to eat it (seriously, watching people run around to be sure that he wasn’t allergic to it was pretty funny).

The total klutz that is me stepping on and ripping off Erin’s train.

The total klutz that is one of my uncles doing the exact same thing moments later.

Meatloaf’s Paradise By Dashboard Light being one of the best renditions ever.

Erin’s family not running screaming out of the room after my family’s rendition of said Meatloaf song.

An awesome Conga line through the hotel lobby and back through the kitchen.

One word: Journey.

Watching certain people get very very wasted.

Eerily hearing about how hot my brother was all night.

Leaving to room to the ND fight song.

Highlights of the morning:

Crowley’s voicemail on my wedding night asking for Lauren and Anne’s number as they got into a taxi with a sketchy blonde (who later turned out to be Chris Myers. That’s funny).

Borden naturally doing a knock knock run run at 2 am.

The next morning looking more awake and refreshed than anyone else.

Hearing who was passed out while watching Chris Rock and the noticable omissions therein.

Hearing who was “asked to leave” by the hotel bar.

The fact that Crowley spent the night telling my sister how I was up in the room doing “naughty naughty things”.

(See here for more quotes this weekend)

What a weekend folks. Thank you to everyone who was involved. I couldn’t have asked for a better wedding and reception.

Yes, and to my bride: I love you. You’re wonderful and I could not be happier being married to you.

And yes I fully plan on hearing it for the rest of my life for losing it during the ceremony. So all of you can just shut up.

He's Snarkastic

It’s like there’s a party in my mouth and everyone’s invited to another edition of the Mustard.

So much for the Yankees and the Red Sox. On the plus side, there goes two teams that I can’t stand and who will just make for a hilarious off season when they try to one up each other and spend millions more on “star” players until next year comes and they get beat again by lower salaried teams who just put together coherent, sturdy teams. On the negative side, there goes half the ratings for the rest of the playoffs. The sound you’re heard after the Yankees lost on Monday wasn’t George Steinbrenner but actually Fox execs screaming in anguish over the money they just lost. Ah well. It’s the White Sox turn. You figure it’s been about a century, they’re due.

So the conclusions drawn from catching the Caps/Rangers game on Monday:

1. The Caps suck with the sole bright spots of Olie the goalie and the rookie Ovechkin.

2. The Rangers sucks with the sole bright spot of Jaromir Jagr.

3. I’m freakin’ glad hockey’s back.

So finally my top summer movies are over so I present you with:

Mr. Snow’s Top 5 Most Anticipated Movies…for the rest of the year:

(In order of release)

Elizabethtown

Why? It’s done by Cameron Crowe who also did Jerry McGuire, Vanilla Sky and one of my all-time favorite movies, Almost Famous. Orlando Bloom finally gets a chance to do something non-historical epic-eqsue. Kirsten Dunst has been rising in my book since not sucking in Spider-man 2 and being pretty darn good in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The only thing slightly putting me off is the plot seems to be pretty similar to that of Garden State. Hopefully there’ll be enough of a differentiation once I actually see the movie.

Jarhead

Ok, this spot originally was going to V for Vendetta but since that movie got moved to the spring, this one has popped into the list. It’s the newest film by Sam Mendes of American Beauty and the underrated Road to Perdition fame. If nothing else the cast is terrific with Jake Gyllenhaal moving away from his whole Day After Tomorrow phase and back towards serious work, Peter Sarsgaard who is becoming the next Chris Cooper by being in seemingly every movie these days, and Jamie Foxx in his first true followup to Ray (we do NOT count Stealth). I’m interested as Sam Mendes usually makes some gorgeous looking movies and his Cinematographer here is Roger Deakins who has done pretty much all the Coen Brothers movies as well as some big movies such as Shawshank Redemption and Beautiful Mind (which while I hated that movie, even I admit it was beautifully shot).

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Oh, like this is a surprise. In my mind, these movies get better with each additional one. I know a lot of people did not like Prisoner of Azkaban as much as the other ones due to having to cut a lot of material for time but I loved it for being the best of the actual “movies”. Yes, the book is better but isn’t that always the case? Anyways, this one looks to continue in the POA vein of style which is fine with me. I love the casting of the new roles. Brendon Gleeson is gonna be a great Mad-Eye Moody. Miranda Richardson I know is going to nail Rita Skeeter. And how friggin’ awesome is the casting of Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort? I just hope with the director we’re getting Donnie Brasco Mike Newell, not Mona Lisa Smile Mike Newell.

Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Ok, this one I’m looking forward to in the same way I was looking forward to Fellowship of the Ring. Great book that I hope they nail and am terrified they won’t. So far things look good. Casting no-names as the kids was the right first step. More famous actors would’ve over shadowed the characters. The design looks great. WETA who did Lord of the Rings is the best at what they do so I know those beasts and creatures are gonna be excellent. And as for the names they did cast, I think they went the best route. Tilda Swinton definitely looks like the White Witch I envisioned while reading the books and while I would’ve loved it if Brian Cox had voiced Aslan as originally planned, I have no problems with Liam Neeson. So here’s hoping cause if they get this right, they’ve got a whole series that’s going to make them some serious money.

King Kong

It’s Peter Jackson making King Kong. This guy seriously just laughs in the face of impossibility. Impossible to make the Lord of the Rings while staying true to the books? Done. Impossible to remake one of the most iconic movies of all time? Well, he doesn’t look to be doing too shabby there either. One he’s got a great cast. Adrien Brody showed just a little bit of talent when he picked up that best actor Oscar for the Pianist. Naomi Watts floored me with her performance in Mulholland Drive. And then there’s Jack Black. Big question mark there as he’s always been a big goofball actor. Honestly though he has some skills as he showed in School of Rock and I think his manic, obsessive energy is going to pour perfectly into the role of Carl Denham, the manic, obsessed filmmaker. Andy Serkis is doing the Gollum thing again by being the motion capture performer for Kong himself as well as playing Lumpy the cook which really is just a great name. And the few shots we’ve seen of Kong? Well it doesn’t have the nostalgic feeling of the stop-motion original Kong but damn he looks pretty sweet. And yes the trailer shows a lot of dinosaurs in it. No one seems to remember that they were in the original movie too. The original Kong had the notion of people being terrorized by pre-historic creatures on an island long before Crichton ever came up with Jurassic Park. So here’s hoping Jackson has a winner with this one. I’ll damn sure be in line on opening day.

News and notes:

I’ve resigned myself to the fact that any “answer” Lost gives always just results in 3 new questions.

Yahoo for Notre Dame moving up to #9 in the polls without even playing last week. USC this Saturday is honestly the rest of the season in one game. We win, the sky’s the limit. We lose, we spend the rest of the year in the teen rankings. Stupid Crowley going to the game.

Bring back Scrubs. Damn you NBC!

Hey there’s this really good movie called Serenity out. Go see it.

Little over a week now. Let the insanity begin.

Until next time:

“What if show Lisa we can sleep in her room without being frightened.”

“Ok Marge, but don’t be surprise if a snuggle monster shows up.”

“Well I hope he’s accompanied by the ‘How was your day’ monster and the footrub monster and the ‘Let me just-‘”

“Don’t worry, he’s not showing up.”

Can we start with the part where Jayne gets knocked out by a 90 pound girl? Because that's never getting old.

It’s back, it’s beautiful, it’s better than ketchup, it’s the Mustard.

So let’s just jump right into it, shall we:

SERENITY

To put it bluntly this move rocked. I will go on record and say that it was better than any of the Star Wars prequels. Yes, I did like Episode III but let’s face it, to someone who watched the first two prequels thinking “George, what the hell are you doing?”, that didn’t take too much. But this movie had all the action, all the intrigue of Star Wars and oh, yeah, dialogue which was actually, you know, good. Not to mention that the movie is funny as hell. But that’s what I’ve come to expect from the guy who wrote all the jokes in Toy Story (quick bit of trivia there for ya). Ok, so what’s great: the characters are spot on. These actors are phenomenally talented and by now they’ve got all their characters down pat to the point where they just aren’t even acting anymore. It’s just natural. Nathan Fillion’s Mal is the best scoundrel with a heart of gold since, well, Harrison Ford. Alan Tudyk, after scoring big as Steve the Pirate in Dodgeball, still gets the best lines as Wash though Adam Baldwin’s ethically deficient tough guy Jayne comes in close second. The best line, however, definitely goes to Crowley’s crush, Jewel Staite during a big shootout at the movie’s climax. Summer Glau really shines through here and her River gets to suddenly be the badass of the group. Plus her random lines just are hilarious. Honestly, I could just go on about every cast member, but they all are just exceptional. The new addition of Chiwetel Ejiofor as the honorable in-his-own-way/mind assassin, the Operative, is an excellent villain, one of the best of Firefly Universe. Fans of the TV series get a whole lot of explanation on several points from the Firefly universe. The movie’s plot actually took several turns I wasn’t expecting and I loved that. And of course I will warn that this is Joss I’m-not-afraid-to-kill-off-anyone Whedon and there’s definitely death that I didn’t see coming. It makes quite an impact on fans of the show. Honestly, the only negative points are not negative but rather the fact that with the limited time frame of a movie, Ron Glass’s Shepard Book and Morena Baccarin’s Inara get a little short shifted with screen time. Which in Glass’s case is a shame as his character was always one of my favorites. But if the worst thing that happens is that I wanted more, that’s not too shabby. Now I have state that this review is coming after I’ve seen the whole TV series so I can’t speak for everyone. However, I went to see the movie with one person who like me had seen the whole series, one person who had only seen the pilot and one person who knew nothing about Firefly but was a big Joss Whedon fan. All of them loved it. In fact, once the movie was over the two people who hadn’t really seen the series both immediately said they now wanted to watch it. So that says something. Now, finish reading this blog entry and then go out and see the movie. See it!!!

Music You Should Be Listening To:

Jamie Cullum – Twentysomething

Ok, imagine the Jazz piano music of Norah Jones or Harry Connick Jr. Now instead of covering classic American tunes, like Harry, you cover Radiohead, Jimi Hendrix, the Neptunes and Jeff Buckley. That’s what this album is. Honestly, his cover of High & Dry is just something I want to put on repeat and listen to over and over again. And Cullum does cover some American songbook tunes but flips on their heads and makes them sound totally new. Singin’ In The Rain has this synth beat behind it which just makes me wait for the Postal Service to kick in. I Could Have Danced All Night is almost completely percussion and a low bass guitar punctuated occasional by strings. His original pieces are also mighty fine with Twentysomething and At the Sea standing out.

News and Notes:

Hockey’s back! Catching the Ranger/Caps game on Monday.

Tonight could be the beginning of a very long winter for Red Sox fans. I swear to God if I hear just one of them bitch about it, I’m dumping whatever drink I happen to be holding at the time over their heads. The Red Sox are lucky to even be in the playoffs after choking their division lead to the Yankees and barely squeezing past the Indians for the Wild Card. Plus the fact that THEY WON LAST FREAKING YEAR!!!!

The strip is written, just need to find time to actually do it. Time hasn’t been a plentiful commodity as of late.

Props to Booter for his casting in a local theater production. Just remember: Mine is an evil laugh. Do it!

Until next time:

"We've got a picture of you with Saddam Hussein."
"I thought that was the guy who played the Soup Nazi. I told him how much I liked his work!"

Everytime I meet more family members I have to restrain myself from asking where the Chocolate Factory is.

Hey and howdy, fair Mustard denizens. Another week come and gone and another entry into the blogosphere.

Do you think Major League Baseball is thanking Jesus, Allah and Buddha for the way that three out of the four American League playoff spots are going to be decided this weekend in the Red Sox/Yankee and White Sox/Indian series? The ratings are going to be through the roof. This is the most exciting season final weekend possibly ever. And baseball is gonna cash in.

So the NHL starts up soon and despite screwing their fans over last season and currently having absolutely no big star or even a halfway decent team, the Washington Capitols have not lowered the prices on any of their tickets. Are they @#$%ing kidding me?! How they hell do they think they’re gonna turn a profit by pissing off their fans even more by charging 50 freaking bucks for decent seats!?! Am I still gonna go to a few games? Yeah, cause I love hockey. But you think I’m gonna be as likely to just randomly catch a game on a weekend like with the Nats? Not bleeping likely. Wankers.

So Serenity is out in 2 days. Yes, I am freaking excited to see this. Hell, I’m even being good and avoiding as many spoilers as I can. By the way, props to Mr. Griffin for actually managing to convince his school to allow him to show Firefly in class as a “future of space exploration” unit. Now that’s funny. Go see this movie. Seriously, do it. I mean you know I’m just going to review it next week and then tell you to go see it, so why wait? Be proactive.

Music You Should Be Listening To:

Weezer – Make Believe

Beverly Hills is just one of the best windows down, sing at the top of your lungs songs to come out in a long time. Perfect Situation reminds me a lot of a Keene song, if it was done by Weezer, with its piano-lead verses before kicking into a pure guitar rockin’ chorus. This Is Such a Pity has a great little 80’s synth beat. Hold Me and The Damage In Your Heart is pure great old school Weezer. This a great album and the best since Weezer’s Blue Album in my humble opinion.

Beck – Guero

So you didn’t like the melancholy sadness of Sea Change? You long for the crazy, slightly off-beat Beck of Odelay? Here ya go. Enjoy. Combining just about every musical genre you can think of, this album is as far away away from Sea Change as you can get. Combing funk (E-pro), hip-hop (Hell Yes), techno (Summer Girl), indie rock (Scarecrow) and Spanish rap (Que Onda Guero) (Guero means white boy in Spanish. For more Spanish words for white boy, consult Sean Griffin), this album is another great driving/party album.

New and notes:

Did you watch Arrested Development on Monday? I have my bat standing by.

Veronica Mars premiere tonight. Why did those bastards at UPN schedule it at the same time as Lost? Thank God for Tivo.

Curb Your Enthusiam is back and hasn’t missed a beat. From the Ted Danson cameo to Richard Lewis “stealing” Larry’s sandwich name to the ticket scalper for Temple this show continues to be the Dark Seinfeld (wow, that just sound kind of evil, doesn't it?).

The only thing keeping me from swearing off watching the recent crapfest of O.C. episodes is that Erin borrowed season 1 on DVD and some of the early episodes are hilarious on so many levels. Peter Gallagher really was so effing funny the first season.

Something I missed in last week’s Emmy post: Scrubs ended up winning the best multi-camera editing Emmy for its spoof on the multi-camera sitcom episode. I find that infinitely hilarious. Also rumors abound that it could come back as soon as October. Do it NBC, do it!

Until next time:

“Who gets passed by a van full of nuns? Oh wait, who? Cohen does!”

“Well, they have God on their side ok, Summer? I’m not going to beat Jesus.”

Well, since no one submitted any nicknames I was forced to give one to myself. In retrospect choosing the nickname “Doobie” wasn’t the best choice.

“So let me walk these coals til you believe I can cut the Mustard well enough”

Seriously, the Shins albums have been sitting at the top of my favorites list for a year now and if you don’t have them, I say there’s something wrong with you. Personally I prefer the newer Chutes Too Narrow but Oh Inverted World has New Slang on it which is just one of the best songs ever. There. I said it. Moving on.

Tough ND game last weekend with the loss to Michigan St but honestly, I’ll say it right now, I think this might have even been a good thing for them. Before you kill me for daring to suggest a loss was a good thing, let me explain. In the past when the Irish, coming off a big win, have come out flat and fallen behind in a game, they usually have just been steamrolled. This time they fell 21 points behind and rather than roll over, Brady Quinn (who had been sucking up to that point) led the comeback with an astounding quick pass game to tie it up and send it into overtime. Yes, they lost in overtime and that sucks but they didn’t die and that is something to be happy about. Cause I’ll tell you right now USC is going to be unbelievably tough and if the Irish even want to have a chance, they’re gonna need to fight for every inch and not give up if the Trojan’s take an early lead. Hehehe….Trojans.

My Giants are 2-0. Sweeeeeeet. Eli actually looked good Monday against the Saints. Too bad the Saints weren’t looking too good. A home game in New York? Sorry NFL, as great as that may have been for publicity, there’s no such thing as giving another team a “home” game in New York. Or New Jersey as the case may be.

One month til the big day. And yes I know I owe Erin like everything in the world for everything she’s done to get this wedding together. She’s amazing and this is why I’m marrying her. Well that and the way she can beat up Booter. That’s just funny.

So Lost is back. I’m proud of all of you who have come around and started watching it. Holy crap was that a good season premiere and the more I think about it, it was also good for someone who wanted to just start watching it. Yeah, you won’t get all the in depth background of the characters but I think you could pick up enough to understand what’s going on and be not too much more confused than the rest of us who have been watching it from the beginning.

As for the new shows:

Bones – not bad, I enjoyed the offbeat characters and I think you’ll enjoy it if you like crime procedurals ala CSI or Law and Order.

My Name is Earl – Verdict is still out on this one. I love Jason Lee, I think he’s hysterical. The first 2/3 of the pilot was spent setting up the rest of the series so I’ll give it a chance to see if it takes off from here.

Kitchen Confidential – This was actually really really funny and I recommend checking it out. Again it’s tough cause the pilot spends it’s time setting up the rest of the series but I definitely laughed hard during some of the scenes. Plus the cast is terrific. Any series with Zack from Wedding Crashers, Xander from Buffy, Harold from Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle and Sam from Freaks and Geeks is definitely worth checking out.

News and Notes:

One week until Serenity! Ok, people last chance, I'm begging you, if you've never seen Firefly before, despite my pleas to check it out, now is the time. This is the best sci-fi show to come along in years, bar none. Please, at least do me the favor of just watching the first 2 part pilot episode. Run out and rent it, or I'll loan it to you or hell, I'll burn a copy of it and you can watch it on your computer. Just check it out and if it doesn't make you want to see Serenity, ok. But I guarantee you, if you see the first episode, it'll hook you.

Hey look, Everybody Loves Raymond took the Emmys. I believe I predicted just about all of that. Congrats to Monk. Yay Lost. Ha, kiss my ass Will & Grace, no emmys for you. William Shatner over Terry O’Quinn? The hell? I’d also like to point out that William Shatner is the comic relief on Boston Legal and yet won best supporting actor in a DRAMA!!! And hilarious acceptance speech from the Arrested Development guys: “I’d like to remind you that once again you’re honoring us something you will not watch.”

Speaking of Arrested Development, it’s back and now on Mondays. There is NOTHING else to watch on Mondays at 8 o’clock, people. Start watching the show. If you seriously watch 7^th Heaven, Wife Swap, Surface or the King of Queens over this show I will personally come to your house and smash your TV with a bat because you do not deserve to own one.

Ok, reason # 498754 you should be watching Veronica Mars: Joss Whedon is now guest starring as a used car salesman. That makes Charisma Carpenter as a MILF, Kevin Smith as a Clerk, and Joss Whedon doing the dance of joy* this season. Friggin’ watch this show.

Holy crap did the O.C. suck last week. I mean truly truly sucked. And I’m not talking it’s-the-O.C.-it’s-not-really-supposed-to-be-award-winning sucked. I’m talking Joey sucked. I seriously hope whoever wrote that was fired.

Still working on writing Episode 6 but between the wedding and the impending move in 2 weeks, time is a little tight. I will get it going though, I promise.

Until next time:

“I just went off my post partum medications”
“You’re still taking that? You had Buster thirty two years ago.”
“And that’s how long I’ve been depressed about it.”

* I have no idea if he’ll be doing the dance of joy. But it would be pretty damn funny if he did.

It's an illusion, Michael. A trick is something a whore does for money... or candy!

It's an Arrested Development quote. How would I know what a whore does for candy?

Sorry for the long period in between updates. The office has been getting a little crazy lately and with the moving coming up and the impending nuptials it’s been nuts trying to finish of the strip and write the blog. So here we go:

Go Irish. Let me preface this by saying I’m not dancing for joy as much as many other Irish fans seem to be as I do remember 3 years ago, Ty’s first year, when he went 8-0 to start the season including a win over a top-10 ranked Michigan. Luckily I do have faith in Charlie Weiss and know he’s not giving the Rockne comparisons a second thought. That being said, how freakin’ cool was that win over Michigan in the Big House? Sloppy second half but that first drive was the best thing I’ve seen the Irish do in years (yeah, maybe I’m exaggerating but it was pretty damn cool). So for now let’s just say I’m pretty impressed with the Charlie Weiss era this far.

Mets = done. Man, that was rough. They get a taste of the Wild Card and then bam! Lose 9 out of 10 to effectively put them out of the running. Well I’m still going to a game when they’re in town next week. While a disappointing finish, they far surpassed my expectations. Willie Randolph just became the best thing to happen to the franchise in the last decade. Things are looking good for next year though. Carlos Beltran is a solid foundation to build that team around. Yes, he’s overpaid but that’s not his fault. They gave him that money. Keeping him around is gonna pay off. Cliff Floyd, freaking amazing year. Helps when you’re not injured all the time. Cameron was flying high before getting hurt. Victor Diaz is gonna be a star but he’s still just 21 and need some experience. David Wright – holy crap, where did he come from? Suddenly he’s one of the best hitters in the league batting .313. Pedro more than did his fair share.

So things for the Mets to do next year: 1. Trade Piazza. He’s right now a glorified DH who can’t throw anyone out at catcher so why not trade him to some AL team looking for a DH and a good team leader? 2. Permanently promote their young starters. Jae Seo has proved by now that he should be full time rotation. Dump Ishii and Zambrano. Pedro, Seo, even Benson when he’s on are the ones that pulled their weight this season. 3. Get rid of Braden Looper as soon as humanly possible and pick up a real closer.

So that just about does it for my season of baseball other than random comments on the playoffs and WS.

Mark Messier retired from the NHL. It really is the end of an era with all these big names retiring. Damphousse, Stevens, MacInnis and Francis all saying good bye to the game. But from a Rangers fan stand point Messier’s retirement really is huge. His playoff win guarantee during the Rangers ‘94 run to the club is legendary. He’ll be missed.

Rather hefty sports entry I’ve noticed. Sorry bout that.

New and notes:

Jack Johnson concert = awesome. He’s friggin’ amazing in concert. Probably because the whole acoustic thing comes across just as good live as on an album. But man, he played like 2/3’s of his catalogue including a 6 song encore. Props for doing his cover of Jimmy Buffet’s Pirate Looks at 40 and mega-props for the awesome transition of Gone to the White Stripes Doorbell and back again.

Emmy’s coming up this weekend. Go Scrubs! Go Lost! Die Will & Grace!

Family Guy was in rare form for its premiere (“Reagan smash!”)

Arrested Development: next Monday! I love the fact that the Fonz left the show so they’re replacing him with Chachi. Brilliant!

Looking forward to My Name is Earl. If only because Jason Lee is one of the funniest actors alive.

Episode V is done. Figuring out when I’m going to start the final one. Writing it would also help.

Until next time:

“I'll be in the hospital bar.”
”Um, you know there isn't a hospital bar, mother.”
”Well, this is why people hate hospitals.”

You know, we're not the only ones destroying trees. What about beavers? You call yourself an environmentalist, why don't you go club a few beavers?

The answer is mustard. Mustard is made from mustard seeds.

Ok, so random obscure SNL Celebrity Jeopardy reference. Moving on…

After a lovely weekend up north during which Erin found out that it’s cold and windy on a mountain top no matter how warm a day it may be and I found out that every single one of my little cousins has no problem water skiing while I can’t do it to save my life, it’s back to the good ol’ workplace in D.C.

Woo hoo! Mets are now only a half game out of the wildcard. After this coming week we’ll pretty much know where they stand as it’s 3 series in a row again the Phillies, Marlins and Braves. That’s rough.

ND football vs. Pitt this Saturday! Still pissed they moved the DC alumni game watch out to Pentagon City. It was so nice being able to walk 5 minutes home and pass out on the couch. We’ll see how long this lasts. Especially cause the game on Saturday isn’t til 8 at night. Ouch.

So I have a few things I’m working on for the next couple entries but as I was thinking about the new TV season and how much I hate cliffhangers here’s a quick top 5 list for you:

TOP 5 BLEEPIN’ LAST SEASON CLIFFHANGERS I WANT ANSWERED:

5. How the bleep is Elliot going to be a major character on Scrubs now that she’s moved to a different hospital?

4. Who the bleep was that at the door on Veronica Mars?

3. How the bleep are those crazy kids on the O.C. getting out of the whole shooting Trey mess?

2. What is Luke gonna say to Lorelei’s proposal on Gilmore Girls and is Rory really bleepin’ dropping out?

1. What the bleep’ is in that bleepin’ hatch on Lost?

MUSIC YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING TO:

Death Cab For Cutie – Plans

So yeah, this just came out yesterday. I’ve already listened to it 3 times. I can’t even remember the last time I bought a CD the day it came out but after falling in love with this band from their Transatlanticism album and frontman Ben Gibbards lyrics and vocals on the Postal Service album, I was really looking forward to this. And it didn’t disappoint. It’s good. It’s really good. The opening track Marching in Manhattan is a great catchy number which sounds like it could’ve come right off Transatlanticism. Soul Meets Body is there first single which kicks things up a little bit. Summer Skin is classic Death Cab with the soulful piano and melancholy yet poetic lyrics. Different Names For The Same Thing sees a little Postal Service coming out in the album between the use of the synths and beat. I will Follow You Into The Dark is a totally acoustic guitar number with Gibbards voice jumping front and center with his depressing yet ultimately sweet lyrics. It reminds me a lot of Iron & Wine’s cover of Such Great Heights but with Gibbard singing his own song. I could keep going on but let’s just say Death Cab (or to be a total mark: DCFC) continues to impress me with they’re work and while I don’t know if this album surpasses Transatlanticism (nor should it have to) it definitely belongs up there in their catalogue. One thing is for sure, while this is their first album on a major label, the band isn’t changing their tone or “selling out” musically. Thank God for that.

News and Notes:

Saw the 2 hour premiere of Prison Break. Not too bad. Sure a whole lot of things happening dependent on pure luck but it’s TV. The show, if nothing else, is entertaining and as such it’s earned at least a couple more viewing.

Charlize Theron on Arrested Development this season? Dear God people why aren’t you watching this show?

Episode 5 getting a lot of love this week.

I really want to see the Constant Gardener. Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz in a movie by the guy who did City of God? Sweet.

Awesome new Harry Potter trailer here (trailer 2 in the trailer section). The music alone in this has me hugely excited to see it.

Until next time:

“Don't you always say "family first"?”

“Yes, but that is not a family. It's a bunch of greedy, selfish people who have our nose. And Aunt Lindsay”

“She's not really my aunt?”

“No, it's not a real nose. I have a picture of her when she was 14 in a bathing cap and she looks like a falcon.”

When I held that gun in my hand, I felt a surge of power ... like God must feel when he's holding a gun.

Irony: I actually don’t like mustard. Think about it.

Props to Tom for a great time this weekend even if I did actually end up watching Guess Who and did actually end up laughing at it. Even Ashton Kutcher isn’t enough to stop Bernie Mac from being funny as hell.

Ok, so strange double post today. I actually wrote the below post last week but then realized that very few of the 3 or 4 people who read this blog would actually care. So I figured I’d save it and just post another more general entry along with it this week. But should you care to read it I have one additional entry: the game Metroid Hunters for the Nintendo DS which was also supposed to be a HUGE launch for that system this fall/holiday season has also been delayed til 2006. Ouch.

Ok, no more video game stuff.

The Mets are rockin’ the suburbs these days having won 8 of 10 (including a CRUSHING of Arizona two nights in a row) and are now only 1.5 games out of the wildcard. Granted that puts them in with 4 other teams trying to win it but still, no one would have seen them at this point at the beginning of the season. Can’t wait to hit another game when they come into town at the end of September.

The Rangers have still yet to do anything big in the free agent market. Yeah, the signed Steve Rucchin which isn't a bad deal but they need some new blood. They don't need another superstar just a couple more solid players. At this rate the only team who will have done less will be the Washington Capitals. Good lord, nothing there. I’ll just have to make sure to go pick the Caps games I go to based on their opponent.

If you’re not watching Entourage, wow, you’re missing out. Caught a 4 episode marathon last week and then went back and watched every other episode this season (yay HBO on demand!). The show is hysterical and has jumped up to my new favorite show (yes, it’s summer where there’s not a whole lot of competition but still). I mean any show with the line: “Dude, did you just get cock-blocked by Bob Sagat?” is a show that has to be genius.

Two weeks til Fox premiere week. Prison Break, while seriously annoying the crap out of me with the commercials running every 5 minutes on Fox, is getting some really good buzz so I’m looking forward to checking it out. The Simpsons is premiering normally on the 11^th! No word yet on whether it’ll be the Treehouse of Horror kicking it off as usual or if they’ll have a normal episode and save that one for Halloween. O.C. is also returning and yeah, I’m now just a full on convert. It’s just too damn funny and I feel no guilt anymore over watching it. Speaking of the O.C….

Music You Should Be Listening To:

Music from the O.C. Volume 1 and 4:

Yeah, I know the 1 and 4 are random but I have half the songs on the 2^nd album (not that I wouldn’t recommend it, I just already have the Killers, Death Cab, the Thrills and Keane) and the 3^rd album is the Chrismakuh one which it’s just not the holiday season quite yet. But I recommend these albums for anyone who liked the Garden State or Scrubs soundtracks. Just great music on here you normally won’t here on the radio.

Volume One is little more straight forward. The Way We Get By by Spoon has a little bit of a funky early Ben Folds feel to it. We Used to Be Friends by the Dandy Warhols is actually theme song for Veronica Mars and is just really catchy. The beautifully acoustic Orange Sky was actually in the movie Garden State but was left off that soundtrack because it was already on this one. And of course the O.C. theme song California by Phantom Planet is the easiest song in the world to get stuck in your head.

Volume Four gets a little more eclectic starting off Decent Days and Nights by the Futureheads which has a Clash-esque feel to it. Goodnight and Go by Imogen Heap will remind you of Let Go by Frou Frou especially because Imogen Heap is in fact one half of Frou Frou. To Be Alone With You by Sufjan Stevens has a nice acoustic Iron & Wine sound. Things then ratchet up a notch with Scarecrow and The View off the latest Beck and Modest Mouse albums. Finally the album end on a great cover of Champagne Supernova by matt pond PA.

News and Notes:

We’ve hit the 2 month mark. Wow, October will be here before you know it. Then Greece!

Heading back up to NY this weekend and finally will have a little time at the lake. It’s been way too long.

ND football! One week!

Weekly shameless strip plug!

Until next time:

“This is where you should be living, Vince. In a kingdom, like a prince.”

“Don't you mean in a kingdom like a king, you idiot?”

“Nah, E. Everyone wants to kill the king. But the prince, he just sails along telling all the ladies, "One day I'm gonna be king."

Look, the thing about my family is there's five of us. Marge, Bart, Girl Bart, the one who doesn't talk, and the fat guy. How I loathe him!

And we’re back with another edition of that crazy, sexy, cool blog, the Mustard.

It’s rant time:

So Nintendo has officially screwed themselves. The announced today that the new Zelda game for the Gamecube which was supposed to be out in November for the Christmas season has been pushed back til at least the 2^nd quarter of ’06. This delay was necessary to make improvements to the game. Now while I’m all for high quality games and Zelda has never let me down before, this is next to death for Nintendo. Right now they don’t have a major holiday release to put out. Zelda was HUGE. Especially a realistic one which looked more in line with the Ocarina of Time of N64 (which was one of, if not the best game of all time) rather than the cartoony Wind Waker for Gamecube (which was still a good game but the cell shaded look turned a lot of people off). This Zelda game by itself could have held off the ridiculous onslaught that is going to be the release of the Xbox360. I’m not saying it would’ve stopped the success of the new Xbox. But it could have plugged a major leak in the Nintendo ship as people who are more than disappointed with the Gamecube jump onto the Xbox bandwagon. And I’m sure PS2 is gonna have some big games out in time for the holidays.

Nintendo has nothing left. Zelda was it. It was they’re last big hurrah before the new system comes out next year. As of now it, it may end up that this new Zelda game doesn’t come out until after both the Xbox360 and PS3 come out.

Nintendo has to get their arrogant heads out of their asses. They’re not infallible anymore. This isn’t the Nintendo of the SNES and early N64 age. They don’t have the market lead anymore. And all those loyal Nintendo fans are getting to their wits end, myself included. They’re sick and tired of sticking with a company who seems to believe that their users will never leave no matter how many times Nintendo drops the ball. They’re sick of seeing amazing games like Halo and Ninja Gaiden and God of War and Final Fantasy come out on other systems and having to settle for Mario Party 67 and a Mario title in every sport. We didn’t even get a real Mario game except for the early Mario Sunshine release which no one bought!!!

Zelda was going the only real thing we Nintendo fans could get really excited for especially considering how stingy the company has been about revealing details of the new system. We don’t know anything about why it’s going to be a “Revolution”. We do know that it won’t play HD DVD’s because Nintendo doesn’t think we want them. The same way they thought we wouldn’t want the Gamecube to play regular DVDs. The same way they thought we wouldn’t want the Gamecube to allow for online play (ironically now Nintendo is hailing the wi-fi capabilities that are going to included in the Revolution console and acting like online play was their idea to begin with). Nintendo just keeps saying oh, it’s going to be huge but right now we can’t tell you anything about it. That only works for so long before people get tired of waiting and instead look at the ridiculously cool looking games coming out for the other new consoles.

So it’s a little hard for a Nintendo fan to get excited for a new Zelda release when by that time all focus is going to be on the next generation consoles. What Nintendo should have done was develop this game for the new Revolution console and have it launch with that. That would’ve been amazing. Every Nintendo fan in the world would have waited for that. A new console AND a new Zelda game? Sign me up. But instead we’re going to be getting a Zelda game on an old system (albeit probably a great Zelda game) while everyone is oohing and awwing about the new Xbox and Playstation.

Right now Nintendo is a bad bad position and unless they’re going to pull out the Holy Grail with their new gaming system and blow everyone out of the water, we could be singing goodbye by the time the next generation consoles reach the end of their lives.

Ok, sorry. Ridiculously long rant there. To the new and notes:

Strip back and running. I’m trying to get those updates out as quick as possible to make up for my time off.

Looking forward to moving next month. The new place is looking very cool. I mean it has a view of the National Mall from the new gym built on the roof of the 20 story building. Right next to the rooftop pool. Sweeeeeeet.

Little over 2 weeks until Irish Football starts up. Damn DC alumni club moved the game watch. It was really nice having it like 4 blocks from my apartment. Now I’ll have to take the metro while being slightly inebriated. Let’s see if Charlie Weiss is the answer to all ND alumni prayers.

Anyone else think Terrell Owens just needs to have his legs broken? God, the whining never stops. You signed the damned contract!!!! Deal with it!!! I’m sure you’re family will be able to feed itself with the $7 million dollars you’re making this season. Somehow I manage to not go hungry. I’m confident in your ability to provide. Wanker.

Until next time:

"Lisa, would you like a donut?"
"No thanks. Do you have any fruit?"
"This has purple in it. Purple's a fruit."

It's so damn hot! Milk was a bad choice.

Wow, I remember this blog. Mustard something, right? Alright, so I took a little time off from both the blog and strip. I needed a little down time. Plus I wasn’t around for most of it thereby not allowing me any updates.

First off: Shout out to the L.A. boys (and Crowley) for making my bachelor weekend freakin’ terrific. You guys are awesome and despite the fact that I’ve been in detox for two weeks now, it was an incredible time that won’t soon be forgotten…. mostly cause Crowley posted up all the quotes on his blog. Read at your own peril. Or the peril of those who actually said the quotes. Snow’s been to L.A.!

Uber-quick trip up to Saratoga last weekend was also a fine time. I actually won money at the track! Go me! Granted the winnings were just enough to cover the tolls on the way home but positive gains are what really matter.

I’ll give this to the NHL: they’re making the pre-season pretty darn interesting. With the free-agent craze going on now there isn’t going to be one team that looks the same come October. As far as the Rangers go: will you do something already! I mean come on! Jagr isn’t someone who’s going to last forever. He’s already stated this might be his last year (yeah, it’s not going to be but still). They need to bring in someone to build a team around. I mean the Blackhawks at least went out and go Khabibulin and that’s the friggin’ Blackhawks!

Mets are only 3 games out of the wildcard right now. Not to shabby. Too bad the Nats are in a freefall. I mean they’ve lost 12 games by one run since the All-Star break. Where’s the clutch play?

Music You Should Be Listening To:

Ben Folds – Songs for Silverman

A little more laid back than his last album, Rockin’ The Suburbs (which criminally only had the title track as a single, the album was amazing.), Folds’ piano takes center stage even more so here. I don’t have a problem with that at all. Landed has an early Billy Joel-esque sound to it though the lyrics are total Ben Folds. Gracie is a beautifully sweet lullabye to his daughter. The emotional Late is Ben Folds goodbye to Elliot Smith and is absolutely heartbreaking to listen to. Honestly, I’m loving Ben Folds solo efforts more than his earlier group work.

Dispatch – Bang Bang

Like a combination of the simple yet catchy hooks of Guster and the ska beat of Sublime, this album is a little more focused in its sound than Silent Steeples. Bats in the Belfry is a catchy, high tempo number that’ll stick with you. The General has always been a favorite of mine, very simple number that’s just infinitely catchy. Two Coins is another standout number that’s completely acoustic, relying on the strength of the vocals to carry the song. It's really a shame this group didn't keep together as they had a whole lot of potential, at least a helluva lot more than the schlock you normally find on the radio these days.

New and Notes:

Booter hooked on Serenity. It was only a matter of time.

Scrubs Season 2: November 15^th. Sweet.

One month til the fall schedule starts up. The Simpsons is actually starting before November this year!!!

Until next time:

"What in the hell’s diversity?"

"Well, I could be wrong, but I believe diversity is an old wooden ship that was used during the civil war era."