BEARS: Week 1 - Bears (0-0) at Colts (0-0)

I'm not as huge on the NFL as I am baseball (its not that I completely dislike it, but I prefer college for football) but hey, it's the Bears and I have nothing better to do, so let's talk about the Bears. It's been extremely hard for me to get excited for the season given their 7-9 record last year, the apparent lack of any semblance of a an offense, and a pretty mediocre preseason, but if there's a league where team's can suddenly make huge improvements out of nowhere its the NFL. So, let's see what happens.

7:26 CT: Lance Briggs already shaken up. Inauspicious start.

7:28: Manning throws one just out of the hands of whoever he was throwing to on 3rd & 13. Colts punt from their own territory, which I'm pretty sure makes that defensive series for the Bears better than any of the series the first team defense had in the preseason. Hester had a return of like 25-30 yards. Nice.

7:34: In absolutely shocking news the Bears went 3 and out on their first drive.

7:41: Urlacher just got flagged for breathing on Peyton Manning. Colts driving. Briggs seems to be fine.

7:56: 3-0 Colts as the Bears held them to a field goal.

7:57: MATT FORTE! 7-3 Bears after a touchdown run from Matt Forte from near midfield. Did Cedric Benson even have 50 yards in a game last season?

8:03: A minute ago they showed a graphic showing that Walter Payton had 8 carries for 0 yards in his first game prompting Al Michaels to say, "So Forte has already had a better beginning than Walter, good luck having a better ending." I know what he meant, but probably not the best way to phrase that given that, you know, he's dead. Madden hasn't said anything dumb yet almost 12 minutes into the first quarter which has to be some kind of a record.

8:09: Matt Forte looks really good.

END OF 1ST QUARTER
BEARS 7, COLTS 3

8:12: Madden says the whole NFL is devastated that Brady's out for the year. Watching the coverage of this is probably going to be brutal. ESPN will probably have a mock funeral for him.

8:14: Kyle Orton flying high with 2.4 yards per pass attempt so far.

8:16: I wonder if Sarah Palin is qualified to be commissioner of the More Taste League, apparently she's qualified to be vice president.

8:22: Colts get another field goal. 7-6 Bears. Defense doesn't look spectacular, but they're keeping them out of the endzone to this point.

8:27: The new Spike Lee joint Miracle at St. Anna looks really good.

8:33: Orton finds Dallas Clark on a 3 step drop for 19 yards on a passing play that looked, dare I say, good.

8:36: Robbie Gould hits a field goal to make it 10-6 Bears. Bears have 143 yards of offense thus far which is a downright huge output by Bears standards.

8:39: 1st Bears sack of the year is by rookie Marcus Harrison. And a safety on the next play! 12-6 Bears. Maybe the Bears got all the mistakes out in the preseason, as they say.

8:50: Inside 2 minutes in the first half Orton finds Marty Booker down the field. Into Colts territory again. I'm starting to dare to dream of a W in this one. Matt Forte is up to 97 yards.

8:52: There's 100 yards for Forte. Bears on the edge of field goal range right now. Orton got sacked which hurt them.

8:53: Orton finds Greg Olsen down the sideline! Arg, almost managed to get in for the score, btu the Bears have to spike it with 4 seconds left. Gould comes on and kicks another FG.

HALFTIME
BEARS 15, COLTS 6

9:09: Okay, Devin Hester is great at what he does, but he's not too bright. He tried to act as if he was going to take a knee, stand around in the endzone for a couple seconds, and then run out. Didn't work. Got tripped up at the 3.

9:16: Orton update: 7-14, 91 yards, 0 TDs, 0 INTs, 1 sack. Not horrible.

9:17: The ref just called "Prior to the snap, illegal contact." Uhh... what? Colts driving again.

9:20: TD Manning to Wayne. D: I must reiterate that Hester is dumb. Switched over to Jeff Joniack and Tom Thayer on the radio and they're just ripping him for it. 15-13 Bears.

9:26: Forte gets his 2nd reception and makes a guy miss after the catch. He's really fast. 1st Bear with 100+ yards in his debut, sez NBC. Bears outgaining the Colts by some 50 yards at the moment.

9:33: Argh, Bears have to punt it away after Orton has the ball stripped out of his hands and he has to fall on it. Probably a step up from what would've happened had Grossman been in there though.

9:36: PEANUT! BRIGGS! After a Marvin Harrison catch, Peanut Tillman strips the ball from him, Briggs picks it up and takes it in for 6. They're reviewing the play now. I don't see any reason why it shouldn't be upheld. In the meantime I'm gonna watch Spiderman on Toon Disney. I don't remember this arc with Captain America.

9:40: UPHELD. 22-13 Bears. First big play from the Bears D this year. Getting big turnovers have been their MO since 2001, really. Too many commericals. Back to Spiderman.

9:45: Tom Thayer says the Colts are getting away with holding on Dusty Dvorchek.

9:47: Colts have used 2 timeouts in the 3rd. Could come back to bite them if the Bears can hold the lead until late.

END OF 3RD QUARTER
BEARS 22, COLTS 13

9:49: Nick Fury's in this Spiderman episode. This is pretty badass. Captain America just decked the Red Skull. I don't think I've heard Spiderman have a line of dialog let. This is like a Marvel crossover event in the guise of a Spiderman episode. Crap, Bears are back on. Reggie Wayne almost had a huge catch. Fortunately incomplete.

9:54: Colts going for it on 4th and 1 from midfield... STOPPED. Ogunleye destroyed Rhodes.

9:57: On 3rd and 2 with pressure coming, Orton finds Forte for a little dump off in the flat for the first down. Forte's doen everything he's had to. Nearly had another first down on the next play. Up near 120 yards now. 11:20 left to play...

10:01: 1st & Goal at the 2 after Orton finds Desmond Clark! Bears just ran a play out of the wishbone... that didn't work but.... next play Jason McKie finds the endzone. 29-13 Bears! If the Bears can do like 50% of what they've done tonight they'll actually have a pretty damn good season. I think the offense has actually outplayed the defense, though the defense certainly hasn't been bad at all. 8:56 to go.

10:13: Alex Brown sacks Manning, backing the Colts up after they meandered their way into Bears territory. Using a lot of flock though. About 5 minutes left.

10:14: Another 4th down attempt for the Colts, this is pretty much the game for them. No good! Manning's pass is low to some guy named Robinson who came in for Dallas Clark who got hurt. Bears ball with 4:19 to play.

10:17: Orton update: 13-21, 150 yards. Not gonna get anyone a huge fantasy performance (why would they start Orton anyway?), but certainly more than good enough on a night when Matt Forte was excellent.

10:22: Kevin Jones has 11 carries for 38 yards. Not bad.

10:29: Bears win!!

BEARS 29, COLTS 13

Batman Redux

The Dark Knight review that I started a long-ass time ago is finally completed. I don't know if I touched on everything there was to be touched on, but I touched on a lot. I haven't watched a new movie in a while now. I want to see Burn After Reading but that's still 10 days away. I'll see what I can fill up this blog with in the meantime. I never did review the end of Venture Brothers Season 2...

Mama Said There'd be Days Like These

The Cubs lost their 4th straight last night in 11 innings by a 9-7 score at home to the Astros. The 4 game losing streak ties their longest for the season. I haven't been paying much attention to sports radio as of late, but I'm going to venture a guess and say that a lot of Cubs fans are having Platoon style flashbacks of 1969 and are ready to jump off of a bridge. Meanwhile, however, the Brewers-- also losers in extra innings to the Mets last night--haven't really taken advantage of the Cubs' skid and still sit 4 1/2 back in the division. The Brewers themselves are maintaining a 4.5 game lead in the wild card. As much as people are going to play up the CUBS: Completely Useless by September and billy goat curse stuff, it really is nigh impossible for the Cubs to miss the playoffs. For the rest of the regular season there's no cause for alarm. Quote that. Bookmark that. Whatever. I'm quite confident in that.

Of actual cause for concern may be the health of Carlos Zambrano, who left after 5 innings and 86 pitches last night. Z had already been pushed back two days on what was initially just called a tired arm, but now it appears that a real physical problem is there. Zambrano was to see the doctor today, and to my knowledge there hasn't been any news yet on his prognosis. Lou, as you might expect, has been pretty matter-of-fact about it, but that's likely to do little to ease the worry of neurotic Cubs fans everywhere. As amazing as their offense has been, the prospect of a playoff rotation of Zambrano/Harden/Dempster or some combination thereof is perhaps the best thing the Cubs have going for them heading into the postseason. If Zambrano's injury is serious, it would certainly make the road to the World Series significantly tougher.

Bob Howry was awful last night, facing five batters and retiring none of them. He left several pitches out over the plate that got absolutely smoked into the outfield. The outing ballooned his ERA to 5.63, and its an even worse 8.50 after the All-Star break. Michael Wuertz, who was demoted earlier in the year, is back up with the September call-ups and has already pitched twice. I would personally much rather see Wuertz on the playoff roster than Howry, who just doesn't seem to have it this year.

Amidst the doom and gloom (at least relative to how the rest of the Cubs' best season since at least 1984 has gone to this point) there are still some individual guys performing well. Mark DeRosa homered again and got his 80th RBI on the year, and Geovany Soto homered as part of a 3-hit game as he continues to solidify his Rookie of the Year resume.

DeRo

The Cubs have won their last 8 series, and are now 30 games over .500 for what I'm pretty sure is the first time in my lifetime. Rich Harden won the rubber match against the Nationals yesterday, going 7 IP, allowing only 2 hits and picking up 11 Ks. Over his past 3 starts, Harden's allowed six hits TOTAL for a fairly ridiculous BAA (batting avg. against) of .097. Mark DeRosa has all of a sudden shown some power, homering in each of his last 4 games to give him 18 on the year. He now has 77 RBIs on the year, which is already over his career high and he might have a very outside shot at 100+ by year's end. DeRosa's 77 puts him 2nd in team leaders for RBI behind Aramis Ramirez's (91), and he's sort of become the, if not unsung, then "least-sung" hero of the team, especially with the continued struggles of Kosuke Fukudome. DeRosa's done what he has at the plate while playing 5 different positions in the field at least once during the season. I imagine the list of 100+ RBI players having played 5 different positions is pretty short. Also key to the team's recent success has been Jeff Samardzija, who continues to be used as a middle-to-late-innings guy with tremendous success. In fact, as I just discovered while messing around, as of right now the lowest ERA amongst Cubs first-year players with at least 15 IP is one Jeff Samardzija at 1.06 (source: Baseball Reference PI) There's probably going to be a lot of team history set this year.

Deep Thoughts Concerning Fantasy Football & D&D

Since its creation, Dungeons & Dragons has always sort of been perceived as something that has to be contained within its own little niche of acne-ridden, socially awkward guys playing in their parents' basement. Meanwhile, as it deals with the toughest and smash-mouthyest of all sports, fantasy football has always been a perfectly acceptable "everyman" activity. A bunch of guys sitting around drinking beer glued to ESPN News to see if the running back on their bench has been upgraded from Questionable to Probable yet doesn't really seem out of place at all. A fantasy football pool is almost a requisite for any guy with an office job to better bond with his fellow co-workers, whereas the idea of an inter-office D&D session is a preposterous notion.

I've actually dabbled in both D&D and fantasy football, and I think I'm in a tiny minority in that, for the most part, I enjoy doing both. Last night I stayed after work along with the 9 other guys in our office league for our live fantasy draft. I'm not sure exactly when it hit me. Perhaps it was upon the commissioner firing up the $30 draft software on his laptop--complete with a countdown clock for each pick--and projecting it on the screen in the meeting room we were in, or perhaps it was when I was watching a guy frantically switch between his complete 32-team depth chart sheet and his stat projections sheet, but at some point I realized that, once you reach a certain level of devotion, D&D players and fantasy football players are really pretty much indistinguishable. The only difference is that fantasy football is inherently tied to football. Never mind the fact that no actual football gets played amongst the participants.

I think I'm kicked out of the Man-law Council now, or whatever it was called in those Bud Light commercials with Burt Reynolds and HHH.

---------------------------------

Also, apparently in recent weeks Michael Goldfarb, a McCain campaign surrogate, has been making references to the "pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd" for reasons unbeknown to me. Since when is the die-hard D&D player demographic like a key part of Obama's constituency?

When You're Hot, You're Hot

When I last blogged about the Cubs they were in the midst of a 4 game series with the Brewers which they entered holding a 1 game lead in the division. As such, something of a mini-panic had seemed to be brewing amongst the more pessimistic portions of the fan base. All that has changed completely since the, as the Cubs swept the Brewers, won 2 of 3 in each of three series against the Pirates, Astros, and Cardinals, swept the Braves, and just tonight took game 1 against the Marlins on a Daryle Ward 3-run home run in the 9th. The hit was Ward's first in his last 14 at bats, one of many things that seems to have fallen in place in just the right way for the Cubs lately. Tonight's win was the 75th for the Cubs on the year. To put that in perspective, last year the Cubs won their 75th game on September 13th, in their 146th game of the year (this game aginst the Marlins was the 122nd for this year's Cubs).

Jeff Samardzija has allowed just 2 runs in his first 13 2/3 IP in the bigs, and will set up an interesting decision when Jon Lieber comes back from off of the DL (he's begun rehabbing in the minors). Lou has shown no hesitation in using Samardzija in close and late situations, and certainly seems to be set on using him for the duration of the season, and maybe even into the playoffs. Right now the weak link in the bullpen would probably be Bob Howry, whose ERA has risen to 5.53, and really has not seemed to have good stuff all year (he's allowed 12 HRs, which is one more than Ryan Dempster has in three times the amount of innings). I'm not sure if they'ed designate Howry for assignment having already DFA'd Scott Eyre, who they signed for big money the same year Howry joined the team. It's possible that they'll hold Lieber out until September 1st when the rosters expand, thus avoiding the entire headache. There's really no reason to rush Lieber back anyway, as outside of Howry the bullpen has been tremendous. At any rate, if these decisions are the most painful the Cubs are going to have to make down the stretch run, it's going to be a very fun end to the season. 100 wins is looking more and more like a real possibility and not a pipe dream.

[Venture Brothers] The Last Three Episodes

Yeah, I'm really behind on this. Let's try and fix that. Because I'm really late in writing these, this is going to make heavy use of the capsules from Mantis Eye Experiment, which is a fantastic site you should check out for all things Venture Bros.

Season 3, Episode 8: Tears of a Seacow

Once again, this episode wasn't very Venture-centric--and really the whole season has turned out to be relatively lacking in Rusty, the boys, and Brock in comparison to seasons 1 & 2--but "Tears of a Sea Cow" pretty much matches "What Comes Down, Must Come Up" just in terms of purely how funny it is. The beginning with Dr. Duodong was just inspired.

Episode rating: Like killing clean, not letting dames get in the way

Favorite Bits\Random Thoughts:

-The Monarch not at all impressed by Dr. Duodong's secret lair. "I'm absolutely terrified of your prop from an old Styx video!"

-"Give us the... cuddlefish... I can't do this."

-The Monarch, 21, and 24 reading Dean's newspaper. "This D. Viceroy guy is probably fictitious, or... one of you guys."

-The Murderous Moppets now going around as "The Pupae Twins" to fit in with the butterfly theme.

-21's whole "Highlander" exchange with Hank. "I've personally seen you die TWICE. I'm talking like, shotgun to the face!"

Season 3, Episode 9: Now Museum, Now You Don't

Firstly, amazing episode title. This episode took place entirely on Spider Skull Island, which Jonas Jr. is turning into a museum dedicated to his father. It took care of a whole bunch of story, including what's become of Richard Impossible (he's an alcoholic deadbeat), what the former ghost pirates are up to (wishing they were ghost pirates again), and how Rusty feels about Jonas Jr (still hates him). Even though it takes place entirely in one spot there's a lot going on and it feels pretty rushed. They still managed to fit some funny material in though.

Episode rating: Like when the Monarch Mobile looks like someone took it to Magic Mountain and did that Spin Art thing on it.

-The old Bond movie style opening with Jonas Venture infiltrating the Fraternity of Torment in an absoutlely awful Chinese guy disguise.

-I love the idea of the old heroes and villains signing autographs next to each other.

-Colonel Gentlemen's alive! I love his story of eating mallomars with a "Yoohoo chaser" until he goes into a coma.

-The pirate captain asking Richard "Fess up, you were just tryin' to kill yourself weren't ya?" Great ending.

Season 3, Episode 10: The Lepidopterists

For what its worth, from Wikipedia:

A lepidopterist is a person who catches and collects, studies, or simply observes (see butterfly watching) lepidopterans

Anyway, this was a great episode, a nice change of pace from "Now Museum, Now You Don't" not that it wasn't funny, but I thought it got a little too hung up in all the different character development stuff it was trying to tackle at once. This felt a little more like an episode that held up on its own.

Episode rating: Like having a Tekken 3 machine in the lounge

Favorite Bits/Random Thoughts:

-The whole sequence with Jonas Jr. and team forming the Voltron-type robot was brilliant. Reminded me a lot of the Mecha-Shiva scene from season 1. "It looks like a robot with an ice cream cone for one of its arms!" I loved Ned's constant interruptions as The Monarch tries to get into a dramatic exchange with Jonas. "Butterflies! Pretty!"

-"Poor Ned has three inches of skin. How do you think that makes him feel?"
"I dunno, itchy?"

-"Me and my associates here are amateur lepidopterists."
"You... wanna see my stamp collection?"

-Gotta love 21 and 24 referencing Tomb Raider

I'm still wating for one big Brock ass-kicking scene this season. Season 3 has given me a lot, but I need to see Brock flipping out and killing people.

Playoff preview?

I've neglected to make a Cubs post for almost three weeks now, and they've been a pretty eventful three weeks, so let's try and recap some of what's been happening. Firstly, the Cubs sit at 62-44, having struggled out of the gate after the All-Star break (they're 5-6 since then). Really, I don't think the slump quite warranted the panic that was ensuing from some fans, but it didn't help that the Brewers had gotten read hot during the same period of time, and actually spent a day tied with the Cubs for first. While the Cubs are still 1st in the NL in runs, BA and OBP, their bats--most notably Derrek Lee (.245 avg, 2 HR), and Aramis Ramirez (.156 avg., 1 HR)--have been relatively quiet since the break. That trend may now be turning around in a big way, however, as the Cubs have won their last two in the form of a come from behind 9-6 win over the Marlins, and a 6-4 victory at Milwaukee, the latter being the first loss for C.C. Sabathia as a Brewer.

Kerry Wood has been on the DL with a lingering blister issue. The fact that its not one of his recurring structural issues in his arm is obviously very good news, although, in a way, the fact that its a rather mundane injury makes me as a fan even more anxious for him to get back on the field. Roughly at the same time of Wood's injury, Carlos Marmol started a stretch in which he got absolutely rocked, and is currently looking at a 6.35 ERA for July (it was bad in June as well, after his ERA was under 2.00 in both April and May). Pinella's use of Marmol has been truly baffling at times, and is one of the few things I feel can be raised as a major complaint in regards to his managing. Marmol's on pace for almost 90 innings on the year. Yes, it's a fact that sometimes when you're in a pennant race and your team has a chance to win in just about every game, you have to keep running your best guys out there. There have been times, however, when Pinella has used Marmol in a game on no days rest when the Cubs have a lead of at least 4 or 5 runs and when there are other, more rested pitchers in the bullpen. Not everyone in the bullpen is lights out, but overall its good enough such that Lou should be able to feel that he can go to someone else in that situation. Lou does seem to put a lot of trust in Chad Gaudin, and his ERA is an excellent 1.69 since joining the Cubs, so its possible that his presence in the 'pen will give Marmol a break as we come down the stretch.

Jeff Samardzija made his major league debut last Friday against the Marlins, and then went two more innings on Sunday--a game that followed a 12 inning loss that wore down the bullpen--to get his first major league save. He already has 5 strikeouts in 4 innings and looks as if he has absolutely filthy stuff. He was throwing at 97 right out of the gate on Friday. Down the road he could have all the makings of a great back-end bullpen guy, although he may eventually be a starter as was his role in the minors.

As I mentioned earlier, the Cubs beat the Brewers last night 6-4, and in doing so took the first of four games at Miller Park in what is a crucial series. The Cubs currently hold a two game lead and therefore can guarantee that they'll remain first after this series is over with one more win. Tonight is going to be one of the best pitching matchups of the year: Carlos Zambrano vs. Ben Sheets.

Tale of the tape:

	W	L	ERA	WHIP	K
Carlos Zambrano	11	4	2.96	1.24	87
Ben Sheets	10	3	2.87	1.13	115

As per normal, all stats come from Baseball Reference.

The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight (****)

The Dark Knight is the best superhero movie ever made, surpassing its already excellent predecessor Batman Begins in just about every way. Its a movie that will be foremost remembered (with good reason) as Heath Ledger's final, and maybe best, performance before his death due to an accidental overdose. Ledger's performance, however, while every bit deserving of the attention its received, is but one aspect of a film that is all-around amazing and features great performances from just about everyone in its ensemble cast. As he did with Batman Begins, director Christopher Nolan uses on-location filming in Chicago to create a fantastic vision of Gotham City, dark and imposing enough to provide a suitable backdrop for Batman's crime fighting, but less abstract and expressionist than Tim Burton's Gotham. The story, however, is what really drives the film. With the origin story already told, Christopher Nolan, and his brother and co-writer Johnathan utilize Batman's ultimate nemesis and the ultimate tragic figure of Batman lore, and weave them into one deeply resonant storyline that reflects everything that Batman's always been about, while also exploring brand new facets of Batman's world.

After we catch a brief glimpse of the Joker during a heist of a mob-controlled bank, our first good look at the Joker comes when he shows up at a meeting of the same mobsters that he just stole from. The composition of the scene isn't all that dissimilar from the scene in which Jack Nicholson first appears as the Joker in Tim Burton's Batman and eventually burns a guy down to a charred skeleton with his variation on a novelty hand buzzer. When Heath Ledger enters as the Joker in The Dark Knight, he does his own "magic trick" of sorts that still has a bit of the macabre, "the joke's on you buddy!" sort of feeling that encapsulates what the Joker is all about, but at the same time is much more jarring and much more disturbing in its realism. As with the Jack Nicholson scene, one of the gangsters gathers around the table points out the obvious and says, "You're crazy." In Tim Burton's movie, Nicholson retorts with "Haven't you ever heard of the healing power of laughter? (cackles)." In Nolan's Dark Knight, the Joker give a harsh glare and replies "No, I'm not," in a voice that seems as though he's trying to convince himself of that fact as much as he's declaring it to anyone else. This scene is probably the best example of the genius of Heath Leger's performance. He keeps just enough of the essence of the Joker there, but gives him a whole new depth that isn't really in the comics at all.'

Even though two of the Joker's big trademarks are his cackling laugh and his incessant disturbingly black comedy, a lot of what Leger does in his performance is more subtle and non-verbal. When he crashes Bruce Wayne's party and spots Rachel Dawes (now played by Maggie Gyllinhall, who is a big step up from Katie Holmes) he remarks "Why hello beautiful!" and starts awkwardly parting his messy, matted hair and feeling his tongue around his mouth. The image of this is far creepier than any weird joke the Joker could've told in the scene. I don't think its hyperbole to say that Ledger's joker is going to be remembered the same way Anthony Hopkins is for Hannibal Lecter or, the other Joker, Jack Nicholson for what he did in The Shining.

To focus only on the Joker, though, is to ignore the rest of the performances, all of which are pretty much exactly what I'd want them to be. Aaron Eckhart's towheaded Harvey Dent doesn't really resemble how he's usually portrayed in the comics, but he plays the character with a hard to describe combination of a sort of stoic resolve but with a boyish charm on top of it that makes the tragic turn of the character that much more powerful when it happens, even though you're already expecting it if you're already indoctrinated in Batman lore. In their script, Nolan and his brother give him some powerful lines that make the character both more endearing and more meaningful than the over-the-top campy portrayal by Tommy Lee Jones in the god-awful Batman Forever. While a lot of the Joker's scenes were distributed liberally as the movie was being promoted, the studio did a damn good job of keeping the specifics of Harvey Dent's fate tightly under wraps, and as his part of the film's climax plays out his character is shockingly brutal in the best possible way.

Batman himself is more introspective in this second leg of the series, and actually has to be propped up by Alfred, (again played by Michael Caine) as the relative order he brought to the city begins to deteriorate as the Joker wreaks havoc. The idea of "escalation" between Batman and the Rogue's Gallery that he inspires originally brought up by Jim Gordon at the end of Begins continues in Dark Knight in full force. The movie also plays with the idea of a fatalism existing between Batman and the Joker, because Batman can never kill the Joker because of who he's trying to be and the Joker can never be reformed or controlled.

Even if you don't care about extracting big ideas from a superhero movie and just want to watch a superhero do superhero type stuff, you'll likely still find the The Dark Knight near perfect. The benefit of the on-location filming in Chicago is once again obvious to see, and the action sequences trump the best of those in Batman Begins. This is a masterpiece of the genre.

Hellboy II

Hellboy II (***1/2)

Writing this just over 24 hours before I plan on seeing The Dark Knight [yeah, it took me a while get around to finishing it], its sort of difficult to constrain my fanboyish hype long enough to think about any other movie, except in terms of how much less badass I'm anticipating it being in comparison to The Dark Knight. Nevertheless, I did see Hellboy II last weekend, and even though the timing of its release means its pretty much destined to be overshadowed, its a very good comic book movie in its own right. Like the original Hellboy film--which wasn't perfect and had some pacing and plothole issues, but was a movie that I nevertheless felt was underrated--the sequel was helmed by Guillermo Del Toro, who (very much deservedly) gained mainstream praise for his dark fantasy epic Pan's Labyrinth. Visually, this film is much closer to what Del Toro did in Pan's, and dark, fantastical, brooding atmosphere is one of its strongest points.

If you didn't see the first Hellboy movie and aren't familiar with the premise, here's the Cliff's Notes version: There's a secret government agency called the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD) that gets called in any time something shows up that looks too much like something out of an H.P. Lovecraft book for the normal feds to deal with. Its agents include Hellboy. a demon that was summoned through a portal into our world by Nazis during World War II, Abe Sapien, a "mer-man" type guy who can intuit stuff about people and objects by waving his hands around, and Liz, who can set stuff on fire though not always control it that well. This second iteration expands greatly upon the mythos of the series, introducing an entire underworld of elves, trolls, and other races that you may have encountered with your World of Warcraft character. As I said earlier, the visuals are the film's strength, and there are no better visuals in the film than the throne room of the elves, which kind of looks like Lothlorien from Lord of the Rings if it was crammed entirely within a sewer. There's also a troll market hidden away underneath a New York City bridge, that Roger Ebert beats me to the punch in comparing to Mos Eisley from the first Star Wars.

The villain is the prince of the elves, who's been alive for as long as mankind has existed and is pissed off at our penchant for clearing down forests to make way for strip malls. His plan for revenge involves the Golden Army, a legion of mechanical warriors created for his father the king thousands of years ago before the elves were exiled to the forest. The story of the army's creation is told in the form of a bedtime story that was told to Hellboy growing up and represented through stop motion animation with old world-looking wooden puppets. Back in the present, the prince is attempting to collect all the pieces of the crown that allows its bearer to command the Golden Army which have been scattered between the human and elven worlds as part of the truce that ended the war in ancient times.

Plots like that of Hellboy II are pretty much a dime a dozen in the realms of fantasy and science fiction. Aside from the visuals, what sets this movie apart is its wit, which is no more readily apparent in Ron Pearlman's performance as Hellboy. The appeal of Hellboy as a character is that he's not the stoic, emotionless figure you'd expect an otherworldly being to be, but rather a grumpy blue-collar guy who doesn't like work because it cuts into his drinking time. Ron Perlman encapsulates this perfectly. The voice of Abe has been switched from David Hyde Pearce to Doug Jones (who does the rest of Abe), which is fine with me because Jones seems much more into the part, whereas I imagine David Hyde Pierce opining about how he wishes Frasier didn't get canceled while in the recording studio. Abe has more to do in this movie, and seems more like a character on equal footing with Hellboy, rather than the bumbling sidekick. Added to the cast is an odd German scientist, voiced in the most stereotypical and exaggerated of accents possible by Seth McFarlane for Family Guy fame. The character is a little too cartoony, but does provide a great foil for Hellboy for some great comic relief.

As I said, Hellboy II's plot is somewhat derivative, and the ending may be something you see coming from midway through the movie, but the charm of Hellboy as a character is still there. Add to it Guillermo Del Toro's more Pan Labyirinth-esque visuals and some actually decent, not hit-you-over-the-head obvious social commentary, and you have a pretty good comic book movie. It's just not The Dark Knight.

This is a Sneaking Mission

Disclaimer: While I'm not going to walk through the entire plot of the game, this is probably going to have spoilers.

Despite the fact that I have Aeris and Kilik in the title image for this blog, I haven't really discussed video games at all here. I figure Metal Gear Solid 4, which I got about two weeks ago along with a Playstation 3 (the first system I've owned from this generation) is as good an opportunity as any to change that fact. There's a lot to talk about with regard to MGS4, party because there's a lot packed into the same, and party because the game has gotten a near preposterous amount of hype (IGN broke out the rarely seen 10.0 for the game, although they 10'd Grand Theft Auto 4 as well, so maybe their standards are just lower now), a lot of which I believe is deserved, though perhaps not all of it. While the game in many ways should be considered the new benchmark for what a video game can be, I certainly don't see it as having achieved perfection, and really, I'm not even 100% convinced yet that this is the best game of the series from purely a gameplay perspective.

It's impossible to explain what the Metal Gear Solid series is all about to someone who has never played it mainly because, well, its sometimes near-impossible to explain everything that's going on, period. And while MGS4 eventually more or less ties up most of the loose ends, there's still more a few moments throughout the game that'll have you saying "yeahbuhwhaa?" I've always found the basic premise interesting, and now that the 4th game in the series deals heavily with PMCs (like the real-life and somewhat infamous Blackwater) it seems a little more poignant now. Anyway, the overarching story of Metal Gear Solid, which stretches from the mid '60s to the near future, concerns the Patriots, the Illuminati like organization that controls all of world affairs through a complex system of AIs. MGS4 finally reveals who the Patriots are and how they came to be, and for the most part explains how the previously disjointed installments of the series are actually all interconnected. There's still a lot of heavy-handed melodrama, and sometimes the not-all-that-clever symbolism (expect to see the Garden of Eden alluded to in some way about a hundred times) gets out of control, but on the whole from a story perspective MGS4 is a satisfying conclusion.

A big reason why the story can succeed, despite a script that's less than stellar at times, is how amazing well done the presentation of the story is. Every cutscene in the game uses the in-game engine and they all look absolutely gorgeous. At any point during a cutscene, pressing up on the D-Pad and moving the analog around will allow you to zoom in anywhere. You zoom in on any characters face as they're speaking, and it will barely affect your suspension of disbelief. The textures still look almost flawless, characters each have their own mannerisms which don't look jerky or fake at all, and there's none of the weird Uncanny Valley stuff that happens sometimes. A criticism of the MGS series has always been that there are too many cutscenes and too often (I would certainly agree for MGS2, not as much for MGS3), and while MGS4 certainly has a lot as well, they're presented in a way such that they're not a chore to sit through at all. My only complaint would be that the cutscenes are pretty heavily back-loaded towards the last 3 of the 5 acts of the game. In the first two acts, the game seems to miss an opportunity to delve more into the circumstances surrounding the local militias, which you encounter fighting the Patriot-controlled PMC grounds. While in the final three acts, even though the story is compelling, the gameplay seems to take too much of a complete back seat.

Elaborating on that point, the first two acts of the game feel very open and unconstrained. It seems like there's always one way to approach a particular situation, be it tranquilizing enemies on sight, or avoiding contact with them all together, or creating some sort of a distraction. The open environments reminded me a lot of the jungles of Metal Gear Solid 3, a game that I had a ridiculous amount of fun playing. The Middle Eastern village and South American base that comprise the settings for the first two acts of MGS4 give the same degree of freedom in terms of how you can plan your route to your destination, only they're even more interactive and detailed. The settings are no less detailed in acts 3, 4, and, 5, but they feel much more on rails and, as I mentioned, they are much more overwhelmed by cutscenes. Act 3 puts you in a European city which is gorgeous to look at, but that you aren't necessarily able to explore because you're tasked with following one particular target. After that sequence there's a whole lot of story, a boss fight, and a chase sequence and that's the entire act. Act 4 returns you to a familiar locale from a previous installment of the series, but, other than another boss fight, pits you only against purely robotic enemies that you're actually rewarded for killing. Act 5 finally, is just sort of a big grand finale that throws the kitchen sink at you but, again, is very on-rails and is extremely short. The way these last 3 acts are set up is the one thing that really bothers me about MGS4.

Even with these fairly minor complaints, MGS4 is a landmark achievement for the PS3 and for Kojima Productions. Thus far I've played through it all the way once on Naked Normal and I'm about 3/4 of the way through a play through on Solid Normal (yeah, the difficulty names are weird). I don't anticipate tiring of playing it any time in the near future.

[Venture Brothers] What Goes Down, Must Come Up

Season 3, Episode 7: What Goes Down, Must Come Up

This is why I watch The Venture Bros. If you read through my reviews of season 3, you'll see that I haven't really disliked any of the episodes thus far, but still it seemed as if there was a certain je ne sais crois missing. I think this episode provided exactly what the season needed. As I said in the "Dr. Quymn" review, I appreciate that they're letting all of the characters grow and not letting them stay stagnant, but at the same time I feel like when they focused a lot of their efforts on this it detracted from the humor. This episode was absolutely hilarious through and through. Jefferson Twilight notably had some incredibly lines.

The episode was also one of the best of the show's many examples of deconstructing the mythos of cold-war era Johnny Quest type adventure shows. In this episode we're treated to a flashback of children on a field trip to see Jonas Venture's underground fallout shelter, only to have MUTHER, the scorned housewife of an A.I. release poison gas throughout the facility, leading to Jonas, The Action Man, Kano, and Colonel Gentlemen promptly rushing to action to save themselves and no one else. Just fantastic.

Episode rating: Like getting a free invisible mom

Favorite bits\random thoughts:

-Pretty much everything Jefferson Twilight said over the course of the episode was brilliant. "Aw man, now I got blue balls in my blood eye!" "They weren't taken by Blackulas, although I can't rule out Caucasian vampires." The entire running gag of Jefferson's lack of usefulness for the Order's particular situation was hilarious.

-There were some more music video references, with the guy in the Captain America-ish getup running through the sewer being coming straight out of this Prodigy video.

-Peter White sitting with a John 3:16 sign in one hand and a margarita in the other
as he's convinced that nuclear annihilation is imminent was kind of out of nowhere but made me laugh for some reason.

-MUTHER being referred to as "some Atari bitch," lol.

Rich Harden

Its been a little while since I posted about the Cubs, but there's no better time to start again than right now. Just a couple of days removed from the Brewers' acquisition of C. C. Sabathia from the Indians, the Cubs made a 6 player trade to nab Rich Harden from the A's. The complete trade is as follows:

A's Trade:

Rich Harden
Chad Gaudin

Cubs Trade:

Matt Murton
Sean Gallagher
Eric Patterson
(Single-A catcher) Josh Donaldson

Harden this year is 5-1 with a 2.34 ERA in 13 starts, which would put him 2nd in the AL in ERA behind teammate Justin Duchsherer were it not for the fact that he's just under the innings pitched requirement to qualify. The biggest concern with him has been injuries, as he's missed some time this year, and made only 13 combined starts in 2006 and 2007. Chad Gaudin has been used as a long reliever and spot starter and has a 3.59 ERA himself. The inclusion of Gaudin is nice as it sort of negates Gallagher's departure in the sense that the Cubs still have some depth if Harden or someone else gets injured.

Getting a pitcher like Rich Harden in a pennant race is a good thing, period, but what makes this truly a great trade is that, although they gave up four players, for the most part its not going to weaken the Cubs MLB club in other areas this season nor should it hinder the farm system much in the future. Obviously, Sean Gallagher is the biggest loss. Even though he was about to head back to the bullpen with the return from the DL of Carlos Zambrano and the emergence of Sean Marshall, he's had several good starts this year. It's possible that he develops into a very good pitcher, but really his is the only loss that really has you wondering "what if we're giving up more than we think?" Matt Murton is 26. He may turn into a viable everyday player in Oakland, but he's not going to get leaps and bounds better than what he is now. He can hit some home runs and he plays hard, but he's somewhat of a liability in the outfield, and doesn't really have the massive power numbers that you'd expect from a starting corner outfielder on a contending team. Murton's been the odd man out in the Cubs' outfield plans for a while now, and you'll recall he started the year in AAA Iowa. Eric Patterson is much younger than Murton and still has time to develop, but during his time in the majors, he has yet to show much evidence that he would be much better than his brother Corey who is currently wasting away on the bench with the Reds.

A playoff rotation of Zambrano/Harden/Dempster (with the added off days that they put in last year--which I hate--a 3-man rotation is really all you'll need) could be incredibly fearsome. This isn't even a "rent-a-player" type of situation, as Harden's contract has a club option for 2009. This is one of the best trades that Jim Hendry has made.

The Cubs beat the Reds at home last night in the opener of the series. They're coming off of a road trip that was shaky, as most of their road play has been to this point, but ended with the Cubs taking 2 out of 3 from the Cardinals at Busch.

[Venture Brothers] Doctor Quymn, Medicine Woman

Season 3 Episode 6: Doctor Quymn, Medicine Woman

Wow. A very hormone filled Venture Brothers this week. Even Dean almost got himself some, and from twins no less! Season 3 has definitely made a much more concerted effort than the last two season of furthering the development of the characters. As Dean says to Hank, "You're not used to be about 'Go Team Venture!", now you're all "Go Team... Boobies!" The kids are growing up, although who knows when the next time will be when they accidentally die and get reverted back to their 16th birthday again. This episode had some so-so parts but also some absolutely classic lines.

Episode rating: Like having a Quicktime of your minty fresh entrance on your Livejournal, even if you raided the wrong place

Favorite bits\random thoughts:

-The aforementioned "Go team boobies!" line, probably the single funniest thing from this season so far.

-Brock, Hank, and Dean teaching a gorilla to box on Dr. Venture's orders, then the monkey
subsequently fighting the "wereodile" at the end.

-I wasn't entirely sure what they were going for with the more-than-a-little-bit disturbing stuff between Ginnie, Dr. Quymn's bodyguard, and Brock. That was just odd. Although Dean yelling "The both of yous got jungle fever!" was amazing.

[Venture Brothers] The Buddy System

Season 3, Episode 5: The Buddy System

A pretty fantastic episode and maybe my favorite from this season. It took place entirely on the Venture compound, and it reminded me a lot of the yard sale episode from the first season. This season's had much more of a main overarching storyline than either of the last two. With Sargent Hatred now apparently done arching Venture, I kind of hope we get an episode that's just sort of self-contained and off the wall nuts like "Escape from the House of Mummies" from last season. Not that these episodes haven't been enjoyable, but I think its time for a reprieve from the storyline they've been working with.

Episode rating: Like a trip to Brisby World

Favorite bits/random thoughts:

-The Order of the Triad's safety song. Radon!

-Brock trying to hire the moppets to beat up the annoying teenage kid, only to realize that they're "pretty creepy"

I forget what else because I've had this saved as a draft for a week and forgot to finish it, but just take my word for it that this was a good episode.

The Friendly Confines

Last week, the Cubs got swept by the Rays on the road (still want to type Devil Rays) in a frustrating series, the last game of which saw the Rays score 7 runs in the 7th to win 8-3. Carlos Marmol failed to retire a batter while walking 2 and hitting another 2 guys. He appeared again in the White Sox series over the weekend, and while it was a less disastrous outing, he still didn't look quite right. Hopefully its not a result of him being overworked (and he has been worked A LOT in the first half of this season-- on pace for about 94 IP). The aforementioned White Sox series was at home and ended up in a sweep, running the Cubs' home winning streak to 14 games. They're an almost unfathomable 32-8 at Wrigley thus far, compared to 16-20 on the road.

Aramis Ramirez had a fantastic series, going 6-for-14 with 4 HRs. He's now one away from trying Derrek Lee and Alphonso Soriano for the team lead at 15. Ryan Dempster almost got his second complete game of the year, running his record to 9-2 with a 2.63 ERA. Dempster now leads the team in ERA, wins, winning percentage, WHIP, and hits per 9 IP. Right now Edinson Volquez is playing out of his mind, but its not inconceivable that Dempster could be in the discussion for Cy Young at the end of the year. With 16 starts under his belt, I think its certainly safe to say that his success isn't a flake and that the work he put in during the off-season made a huge difference in his pitching. He's certainly exceeded my expectations--and I suspect most everyone else's expectations--for how he would perform as a starter.

Carlos Zambrano left his start in Tampa Bay after feeling something in his shoulder. An MRI did not reveal any structural damage, which is great news. He has, however, been placed on the 15-day DL and will miss some time. Sean Marshall is expected to start Tuesday against the Orioles. Right now the Cubs are carrying 14 hitters so someone is going to be sent down. It seemed obvious that it would be Eric Patterson, but Patterson decided to have a huge series against the White Sox going 5-for-8 with a home run and 3 RBIs. Matt Murton, who was called up before the Tampa Bay series might get sent down, though he's had a few key hits as well. Another dilemma is going to present itself when Darryl Ward gets healthy, which Jim Hendry claimed over the weekend might happen as early as this week (I believe he's already on a rehab assignment). In his absense Micah Hoffpauir has been hitting .400 in 35 ABs, and I'm not convinced that Ward is necessarily better than him.

FYI, lest you think I pull these out of my ass, as always all the stats in this post are from Baseball Reference. I can't stress enough how amazing a resource the site is.

[Venture Brothers] Home is Where the Hate is

Season 3, Episode 4: Home is Where the Hate is

Funny episode. Probably not my favorite of the season thus far (gonna give that to "The Doctor is Sin", I think), but funny.

Episode rating: Like a guy with a fever yelling at your pants

Favorite bits & random thoughts:

-21, 24, Hank and Dean determining who could do the best Pac-Man noise. "No, it only sounded like that when you died! When you were just goin' along eating dots it was more like "Wakka-wakka-wakka-wakka..."

-Brock watching a PBS special on "giant crossbows." "I wanna see 'em fire this thing!"

-21 sending in Dean to play Patch Adams for 24, to which 24 can only reply, "I hate you!"

-The Monarch acknowledging that 24 sounds exactly like Ray Ramano

-The Monarch expressing his undying hatred for Dr. Venture, while Dr. Venture assumes that he's still playing the "guess the sign on your back" game. "Am I Hitler? Ohhh, Mariah Carey, of course!"

-Sargent Hatred with "ATRED" spelled down the length of his chest to go along with the "H" on his head.

A Sargent Hatred/Monarch feud has a lot of potential to be funny.

[Venture Brothers] The Invisible Hand of Fate

Season 3, Episode 3: The Invisible Hand of Fate

In a sharp departure from the previous two seasons, three episodes into season 3 of "The Venture Bros." we've already had two episodes that feature the main characters only very briefly. In this case, we learn more about the past of Master Billy Quizboy, namely how in the hell his hand ended up like that. The episode was funny, though it didn't have as many laugh-out-loud moments as the first two episodes. I'd say it was probably the weakest of the three episodes thus far. With that said, the episode is pretty cool in the way it ties up some of the remaining loose ends regarding how characters came to know each other and how they got in their current positions. Its amazing how much care Jackson Publik and Doc Hammer put into keeping the continuity of their show consistent, while still keeping the show fresh and funny.

Anyway, its been 2 weeks now since I've seen this episode so I'm not going to do a full list of bits that I liked, but I do want to point out the sequence at the end that's made up of a bunch of quick cuts with Brock bringing Billy back to Pete and then going off to start "Operation: Rusty's Blanket." It was actually oddly touching.

Sometimes things just go your way

The Cubs finished their west coast road swing against the Dodgers and Padres 4-3, and won their first game back at home against the Braves last night. Ted Lilly recovered after a rough 1st inning to get his 6th win, and the still-best-in-the-NL Cubs offense put up 10 more runs. The best news for the Cubs as far as their playoff chances are concerned may actually be what's happening with St. Louis. The Cardinals are currently the only team reasonably close to the Cubs at 2 1/2 games back (next is the Brewers at 7 1/2 back), and while it certainly seemed as if they were overachieving when they got off to a hot start, they're still 12 over .500 about 40% of the way through the season. If the Cardinals are going to fall of though, this may be the stretch in which it happens. Their top 2 pitchers in terms of ERA, Adam Wainwright and Todd Wellemeyer, have both missed starts with injury, although Wellemeyer's injury isn't believed to be serious at the moment. A much bigger blow may have happened last night, when Albert Pujols left after sustaining a calf injury running out of the box that was described as "pretty bad." The next team after the Cardinals is the Brewers at 33-31, who have not hit nearly as well as expected (they're currently 14th in the NL in batting average and OBP). Rickie Weeks is hitting .210, J.J. Hardy's hitting .242, and Prince Fielder has a good but not great OPS of .825 with 10 HRs. They'll probably finish out better offensively than they're playing now, but it certainly doesn't look like the team is going to have improved leaps and bounds from last year, as many thought. The Cubs's road to winning the division hasn't had too many bumps in it to this point.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (***)

It's been 19 years since we last saw our whip adept, ophidiophobic, archaeologist on an adventure containing giant rolling stones of death, melting Nazis, heart stealing witch doctors, Alfred Molina, or some combination thereof. When we see Indiana Jones now in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, he's a step or two slower and has a lot more gray hair, but the same basic formula is still in place, as Stephen Spielberg, George Lucas, and Harrison Ford reunite for one last installment of the franchise. There's still all manner of chase sequences on period accurate vehicles of all sorts, there's still ancient burial sites with deviously clever traps, and there's still villains everywhere trying to cramp Indy's style and claim the treasure for themselves. Yet, the synergy of all these radio serial adventure type elements don't really add up to as good a finished product this time around, although the movie is still certainly an entertaining watch.

The film begins in 1958 with Indy and "Mac", an old acquaintance he's known from World War II being held captive by Russians, who pose as U.S. army personnel and break into Area 51 in the Nevada Desert. They are led by Cate Blanchett, a completely stereotypical Russian villainess (think: "I will crush the American capitalist scum with my superior Russian intellect!", that sort of thing) who specializes in the paranormal and is researching artifacts that can be used for "psychic warfare". I suppose I shouldn't spoil it, but within the military warehouse she finds something of interest to her that ties into the plot later on. Indy meanwhile, uses a distraction to start whipping people like the good old days, and tries to escape, leading to what is probably the best of the myriad chase sequences throughout the movie. Harrison Ford's performance is probably at its best during these early scenes. He's old, he's grumpy, he seems to be sort of worn out of these strange situations he always gets himself into, and it adds up to being very funny.

After this relatively encouraging opening which ends with some of the most preposterous deus ex machinas of all time, we see that Dr. Jones is still a university professor, and so we get a few plot points to get him back out of the classroom. On a train out of town, Jones meets Mutt (Shia LaBueff), a high school drop out greaser and biker mechanic who tells Dr. Jones that one of his colleages, Dr. Oxley or "Ox" has gone missing in South America. Turns out Ox (who is played by John Hurt for some reason even though he doesn't have much to do other than act crazy) has been committed to a sanitarium after he sound a legendary crystal skull that is the source for the movie's subtitle and is the goal of the quest in this iteration. As it turns out, who'd have thunk it, but the same Russians from the movie's first sequence are going after the skull as well because its believed to have psychic powers. Indy and Mutt go tomb raiding and find the skull in its original resting place--Ox had returned it for yet to be revealed reasons--only to find that the Russians are waiting outside for them.

It's once Indy and Mutt head into the jungles of Peru with the Russians that my tolerance for some of the movie's cliches and over-the-top ridiculousness started to waver. I understand that the entire Indiana Jones franchise is based off of old serial adventure stories and indeed that's a big reason why the original trilogy was so fun, but there is a point when your suspension of disbelief is just shot and it's all too much. For me, this was somewhere around the time when Indy and company along with the Russians are riding in a convoy of trucks along the outskirts of the jungle, and monkeys come out of the trees and seemingly instinctively know to go bat shit crazy on the villains and leave the main characters alone completely.

There is more silliness when Marion (played by Karen Allen, as she was in Raiders) pops up in the film, coincidentally also captured by the Russians. There seems to be little point in her being in the movie, except to engage in completely unfunny banter with Indy every once in a while. There are multiple instances of the clichéd "let's have an argument about our relationship even though we're in extreme danger right now" bit that completely fall flat. Beyond that, she never really seems concerned at all about any of what's going on around her during the action sequences. There are times in which Mutt and Indy are literally under fire from a dozen Russian troops and this will be intercut with a shot of Karen Allen with a sort of contended half-smile on her face. I also thought the film had a few two many in-references and moments that were very self-aware of the fact that this was the big long-expected fourth Indiana Jones movie. In particular, there are a lot of moments where Indy is able to get his hat back at the last minute despite losing it while a crazy amount of stuff is happening to him. Sometimes its funny, sometimes its just too clever by half.

Once all these chase sequences are done with and the true nature of the skull, and why Oxley was going nuts, and all the other mysteries in the film are solved, there is a climactic sequence that's very much reminiscent of how Raiders or Last Crusade ended, and yet somehow isn't as satisfying. Maybe it's the heavy and obvious use of CGI, or the fact that the big reveal at the end is in some ways even more ambitious than the "oh shit, Judeo-Christian mythology is real and the Nazis are going to get what's coming to them!" moments from the previous films, but it just doesn't quite add up the way the endings to said films did.

Even with all this going against the movie, I do think it's worth viewing, if perhaps only after it leaves theaters and comes to DVD. While I think the script for this latest iteration was somewhat phoned in, and the action sequences are much more clichéd and uninspired than you would expect from Spielberg, some of the Indy allure is still there. Harrison Ford's performance is very good, and he does a great job of maintaining the quick wit and grittiness that's always been in the character, while making him more world-weary and more of a cynical old man sort. In no way is this movie destined to become a Spielberg classic, but its not a complete disaster.

[Venture Brothers] The Doctor is Sin

Season 3, Episode 2: The Doctor is Sin

After the Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend-centric season premiere, we get an episode that focuses again on the Venture family themselves first and foremost. We learn that ever since The Monarch stopped arching Dr. Venture, many a villain has attempted to take The Monarch's place only to get their asses handed to them by Brock (who gets a little tired of it after a while). Between this and the fact that the military doesn't seem to think too much of his new inventions (which seem to be mostly his father's old inventions) Rusty finds himself in rut. Enter: Dr. Henry Killinger, who shows his extensive resume and immediately begins to rejuvenate Venture Industries (but at what cost? dun dun dunnnn). Another episode, of which there were several last season, that doesn't really seem to be going anywhere in terms of story at first, but ends up not only having a satisfying conclusion, but is hilarious.

Episode Rating: Like having your own team of non-union, government paid Vench-men

Favorite bits & random thoughts:

-Brock gives pretty much the only appropriate answer to Dr. Venture's question "Am I a good person?": "Eh..." complete with the side-to-side hand wave thing.
-Apparently the magic murder bag actually is a magic murder bag. And a quite effective one at that.
-In the season 2 commentary they claimed that season 3 wouldn't have any Star Wars references. Well, I think in the 2nd episode there's already been one, as Dr. Killinger tells Rusty to enter the odd virtual world that apparently exists inside his bag and he answers Rusty's question of "What's in there" with "Only what you take with you." I'm pretty sure that's exactly what Yoda tells Luke when he goes into the cave and sees the bogus Darth Vader. At any rate, it was funny. If they want to continue to break their commitment to no Star Wars references that's fine with me.
-Dr. Orpheus leaving the building with his European business man costume on, then running in plain sight while taking off his costume and going to put on the next one was just fantastic.
-The Lion King-esque face in the clouds ending: completely random but also fantastic. "You can learn more about it in The Bible"
-The Alchemist is still around, but where's Jefferson Twilight?

Iron Man

Iron Man (***1/2)

I'm sort of late to the party on Iron Man, which came out in early May and immediately made tons of money and got tons of hype. Having finally seen it last weekend, I can confirm that the hype was very much justified, and that the movie proves that it is still possible to make a superhero movie that doesn't feel like a cookie-cutter re-branding of another movie, despite how many superhero movies are out there now. It's a very intelligently written movie, and it manages to maintain a certain degree of unpredictability, despite having the core "Guy becomes hero, hero discovers villain, hero beats up villain" plotline that most of these Marvel/DC movies are based around.

The movie begins by introducing us to Tony Stark, who is very much true to his character's portrayal in Marvel comics. He's a genius when it comes to engineering, but he's also a drinker, a womanizer, and in just about every other way someone who lives live with reckless abandon. This is how he's first presented to us as he's riding in a Humvee with U.S. soldiers on his way back from a weapons demonstration for his company, Stark Industries, somewhere in Afghanistan. Things hit a snag for him, to put it mildly, when the convoy of Humvees is the target of an attack and Tony finds himself in the hands of a terrorist organization (a fictional one, whose members are made up of many different nationalities, no doubt to stave off controversy). He has shrapnel lodged in his chest that would've pierced his heart and killed him, were it not for another scientist captured with him who keeps him alive with an electromagnet hooked up to a car battery (I strongly question the validity of the medicine behind all this but whatever, it's a comic book movie). In a cruel twist of fate, Stark realizes that he's being kept alive so he can build the very missile he just demonstrated for the U.S. military for his captors.

Stark, of course, has other ideas, and creates an early prototype of the Iron Man suit and uses it to escape. He also makes a breakthrough in "arc reactor" technology (no idea if this has a real world equivalent, be it actually functional or theoretical), which he uses to power the electromagnet in his chest without him having to be dragging a car battery along. Upon his return to the U.S. he has a sort of epiphany and decides that Stark Industries, despite being primary a weapons manufacturer, since the weapons keep ending up in the hands of the wrong people. This doesn't go over well with Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), who briefly headed the company after Tony's father died but before Tony was old enough to become CEO himself.

Much of the next section of the film tracks Tony's progress as he designs a new and improved Iron Man suit--without letting Obadiah or the rest of the company know--in the lab in his mansion. He does it with the help of Jarvis, the personality of the super-sophisticated AI that controls his entire house. In a movie in which everything that's not owned by Tony Stark basically resembles our, normal present day world, the fact that Jarvis seems to rival the computer from Star Trek: The Next Generation in intelligence is a little cartoonish, but I can forgive that because a. it's a comic book movie and b. it leads to some extremely funny exchanges between Tony and the various robotic appendages that Jarvis controls. Tony's near obsessive level of devotion to his new project concerns his devoted, if perhaps somewhat overwhelmed at times, assistant, Pepper Potts (Gweneth Paltrow). She doesn't have a huge role, but there are some very good scenes in which we see her doing the best she can to be a companion to the loner that is Tony Stark while not encouraging his more self-destructive habits. Their relationship has some vague sexual tension, but doesn't turn into a hokey love story which at times seem to be a prerequisite for any big Hollywood movie. This, along with the fact that the movie is more about Tony building the suit and taking on the identity of Iron Man than him endlessly fighting random guys as Iron Man makes the movie stand out amongst the cluster**** of big budget superhero movies, and hopefully will influence the myriad superhero movies that are still on the way.

The movie ends with the requisite hero vs. villain confutation, and has the much expected "greed is bad, selfless is good" morality tale woven in, but the movie is well-written enough and the performances by Downey Jr., Bridges, and Paltrow are good enough such that the movie feels like it has something unique to contribute to the genre and isn't just a cookie-cutter duplicate of other movies with a different guy in a different costume. It also sets itself up for sequel in a way that actually makes you believe that a sequel would actually branch out from what the original was, instead of just swapping villains and rehashing mostly the same plot. This is a superhero movie done right.

[Venture Brothers] Shadowman 9: In the Cradle of Destiny

Season 3, Episode 1: Shadowman 9: In the Cradle of Destiny

The Venture Bros. is one of my favorite shows currently airing on TV, animated or otherwise, and the almost 2 year wait for season 3 to start has been absolutely brutal. At long last its here, and if the first episode is any indication, co-creators Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer (yeah, those are their actual names) haven't missed a beat. If you've never seen the show it's nigh impossible for it to be fully explained to you, but my attempt at a one sentence summary is this: It's like Johnny Quest on crack. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend checking it out, but in the meantime here's some random thoughts on the season 3 premiere for those already indoctrinated.

Rating: Like two ninjas taped together to form one giant ninja

Favorite bits/quotes: (with aid from The Mantis Eye Experiment)

-The Monarch: Oh man, if that shows up on YouTube- I- I'm serious! What kind of torture is this? Couldn't you just drill my teeth, or shove bamboo under my nails or something.
Councilman: This is not a torture, Mr. Monarch.
Councilman: It is an interrogation!
Councilman: Or a trial of sorts!
Councilman: I always say, it's a crucible.
Councilman: Oh that's way cooler!

-The Henchmen rolling away a giant penny, referencing the one that's always shown in the Bat Cave.

-The Monarch tearing through Dr. Ventures lab with his early, crappy version of the Monarch mobile, pulling a lever up and down while he's driving to make the crudely attached wings on top flap.

-The Monarch: I would have taken him down then if Venture hadn't hired a private army of ex-Navy Seal ninja witches to protect him. Also my memory is a little foggy, but I'm pretty sure he had a fucking tank.

-The Monarch: Wait, wait, did that video have a wipe?
Councilman: Councilman 3 got Adobe Premiere.
Councilman 3: Was it too showy? I thought it would make the scene more lively.

Why I Never Want to See PNC Park Again

I don't think I can name any single stranger thing from the first 50 or so games of the Cubs' season than what's happened on the road against the Pirates. In their first 6 games at PNC park, they've played a total of 71 innings, as 4 games have gone into extra innings. After winning game 1 of the series over last weekend, the Cubs dropped the next two in extras after blowing 1 run leads in the 9th inning of each game. In the Sunday game, Alphonso Soriano lost a ball in the sun attempting to make what would've been the final out. He still hasn't looked 100% baserunning or playing defense.

Making up for the painfulness of the Pirates series, however, was a sweep which the Cubs just completed at the hands of the Dodgers. Every game of the series was close and low scoring, and got good performances from Ryan Dempster, Sean Gallagher, and Carlos Zambrano in their respective starts. The Cubs are now tied with the Devil Rays (!) for the best record in baseball, and are 1st in the NL in ERA, runs, and batting average. Keep up the good work, Cubs.

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And, as a side note, I decided to check out Google Analytics, which is a pretty damn cool free tool. For really the first time I can confirm that someone else out there reads this, (besides the people running scripts or whatever they are that keep leaving generic, "I like this site! Check out my site!" comments on some of my posts) as Google found at least 1 visitor from Canada, where I'm pretty sure I do not reside.

There Will Be Blood

There Will Be Blood (***1/2)

Drainage! Drainage, Eli, you boy. Drained dry. I'm so sorry. Here, if you have a milkshake, and I have a milkshake, and I have a straw. There it is, that's a straw, you see? You watching?. And my straw reaches acroooooooss the room, and starts to drink your milkshake... I... drink... your... milkshake! I drink it up!

There Will be Blood is a film that doesn't pull any punches, and frankly, to work within the same analogy, I think it keeps punching after the ref has already called for the bell. It's a gritty, bleak, nihilistic, character study of a character who seems to literally have no redeeming qualities (besides, perhaps a penchant for coming up with clever witticisms whilst verbally thrashing someone). As this essay from Alternate Takes describes more eloquently then I'll attempt to, even though the movie is a period piece and takes place over the course of almost 30 years, it doesn't really feel like an epic in that it doesn't really seem to have any grand revelations regarding the turn of the century oil industry, save the fact that a lot of people involved in it were extremely greedy. That's not to say that the movie isn't entertaining, because it is, in large part because of what Daniel Day Lewis does with his performance that, deservedly, won him an Oscar.

The film opens in 1898, with the aforementioned protagonist, Daniel Plainview, covered in soot working by himself to mine for gold and silver. The film then jumps four years ahead, where Plainview is now part of a small team working on a single oil derrick. When one of the workers is killed in an accident, Plainview takes his infant son and claims him as his own. This entire sequence probably lasts around 15 minutes and contains no dialogue whatsoever. During these scenes, the movie's score, composed by one of the members of Radiohead, begins with a grating dissonance that will continue throughout music of the film. It's the sort of music I imagine plays in Daniel Plainfield's mind constantly. The surrealist music, combined with the silent characters, and the numerous wide shots of a vast, empty, desert reminded me more of something like 2001 than any other turn of the century period piece.

After the scene in 1902, there is another time skip to 1911, a year in which the film settles in for most of its remainder. Daniel now travels throughout California with his sort-of-adopted son, H.W., giving the same sales pitch, in which he explains that he's not a contractor or a middleman, but has garnered success in the oil business because of his own individual efforts at the oil derricks: "When I say I'm an oil man, you'll agree." One night he is visited by Paul, a young man from a ranch in the middle of nowhere who claims that he's seen oil flowing up to the surface there. Plainview pays Paul for the tip, but not without threatening to do bad things to him if he's lying. Fortunately for Paul, Daniel and H.W. are able to confirm the truth of what he says, which they do by posing as quail hunters passing through the area. Plainview offers to buy the ranch from its old, world-weary owner, who is all to eager to sell the ranch, which produces nothing save a meager offering of potatoes.

A wrench is thrown in Daniel's plans, however, as Eli, son of the ranch owner and twin brother of Paul, announces that he's aware of the oil as well and warns his father of underestimating its value. A temporary truce is reached as Daniel increases his offer for the land, and throws in more money for Eli to use to build a church. Eli is in many ways the opposite of Plainview. Once he founds his church, Eli becomes a fiery faith-healer, while Plainview is an unabashed atheist, at times seemingly because he wishes he were God himself. Eli seems to be always looking for the larger meaning in something, while Plainview's focus is always "how do I make money, and how do I make it quickly?"

There are other events of all sorts as the film goes on that test Daniel's relationship with his son and, sometimes it seems, his very sanity. As time goes on, his business actually continues to blossom, though we never see him relish in his prosperity, instead seeing only his battles with his personal demons. While his emotional outbursts are some of the most overt you'll ever see in a movie, it is often times difficult to pinpoint exactly what makes the character tick. He admits openly that he detests most people, and seems to shy away from any close relationships that aren't for purposes of business, and yet simultaneously seems very concerned with how he is perceived by others.

Watching the character's self-destruction is incredibly gripping to watch because of how well Daniel Day Lewis embodies the character but, as I said before, it sometimes seems hard to tell what Paul Thomas Anderson wants us to take away from it all. At times, Daniel Plainview, a character which has been meticulously constructed to represent the ultimate level of contemptuousness and nihilism, doesn't seem to exist for a specific purpose, but merely seems to exist. Additionally, while I appreciate the bleak tone set by the score, which is often times allowed to take center stage as the characters remain quiet, I think the film requires you to pick up a little too much simply from context clues and brief glimpses. I like a film that's challenging, but not one that just feels like a chore to watch and understand. Like No Country for Old Men, this may be a film that requires more than one viewing to really "get" fully, but as of right now I'm calling this a not fully realized vision. We'll see.

P.S. I drink your mikshake. I drink it up.

Keep Rollin' Along

Roughly 1/4 of the way through the season, the Cubs find themselves 10 games over .500 (they were 8 games over .500 for all of 2007), in first place in the NL central, and leading the NL in batting average and on-base percentage. After winning 3 of 4 against a fairly awful Padres team, the Cubs won 2 of 3 over the weekend against another bad (though recently hot) Pirates team. Both series were played at Wrigley. The question then becomes, can the Cubs keep going at this pace (if I do the math right, they're on pace to go 99-63) for the entire season, or is this record a by-product of the fact that they've played 27 of 44 games at home, 9 games against the Pirates, and 6 against the Reds? The series that starts tonight may help to answer that question, as the Cubs head down to Houston to play the Astros. Unlike the Cubs, the Astros have spent the bulk of the first 2 months of the '08 season on the road, and even though they don't appear to be as good as the Cubs on paper, their record is only 2 1/2 games worse. They're read hot at the moment, going 12-4 thus far in May. Lance Berkman is quietly (at least I haven't seen him getting that much national attention) hitting .399 with 16 HRs and 44 RBIs, which puts him extremely close to being the NL leader in all 3 triple crown stats (Chipper Jones' .410 average beats him there). Again though, the Cubs would seem to be clearly better on paper, and so a series win in Houston to assert this fact might go a long way.

Concerns about Alfonso Soriano have quieted lately, as Soriano has hit nearly .400 since coming back, is now tied for the team lead in home runs with 10, and managed to put together a 5-for-5, 2 home run performance in a LOSS on Saturday. While I have been and remain critical of Soriano's patience at the plate and still don't want him leading off, its clear that the negative sentiment piled onto him earlier in the year was overblown.

Kerry Wood picked up his 10th save yesterday, and has now appeared in 22 games, equal to the amount of games he appeared in last year. It's good to see Kerry be able to stay on the field, and be fairly effective at the same time.

Dust off the brooms

After suffering through a 4-9 stretch, the Cubs got themselves right in a big way this weekend with a sweep, and against the Diamondbacks, who hold the best record in the NL, no less. In the process they got good outings from Ted Lilly and Ryan Dempster and a decent outing from Sean Gallagher, who pitched in place of Carlos Zambrano on Sunday because of the rain delayed start. Gallagher will apparently be moved to the rotation in place of Jon Lieber, who got absolutely rocked against the Reds last week, allowing 4 home runs in one inning, and lasting just 2 innings total. I suspect, however, that Rich Hill will be called back up before too long, as he has pitched well in his first 2 starts at AAA. Alfonso Soriano may be starting to heat up again after a 4-for-5 performance on Saturday, a game which also saw Kosuke Fukudome pick up his 2nd homer. Scott Eyre also made his '08 debut in the majors after a bunch of rehab outings, and managed to pick up the win pitching a scoreless inning.

There are a couple of things to still be concerned about. The Cubs are still running themselves out of some innings, notably on Saturday when they had two runners called out at the plate.
In one case, Reed Johnson was tagging up on a fly ball to right and was thrown out by an absolutely perfect throw from Justin Upton. With a lot of right fielders, that probably would've been a good send. Less forgivable was a gaffe by a Aramis Ramirez, who was on third when a ball was hit to short, held up initially, but then tried to make it towards home and was thrown out easily after the put-out was made at first. Failing to commit one way or the other on baserunning plays is something that has gotten the Cubs in trouble on a few occasions in recent years, and Aramis individually has not been known as a fantastic baserunner. It would be nice to see this corrected, but as long Aramis and others are swinging the bat as they are, they'll likely usually make up for it.

After a fantastic start, Reed Johnson has come back to earth somewhat, (though he hit his first home run of the year yesterday in the form of a 2-run shot that tied the game 4-4) and is now hitting .255 with an OPS of .662. Johnson has been playing almost everyday, and I think its time to start playing Felix Pie consistently against rightys and save Johnson for leftys. Pie's stats aren't anything to write home about currently, but he's currently not getting enough at-bats to get better. If Lou doesn't feel comfortable playing him more than he is now, I think he has to be sent back down to AAA where he can start every day. Next up is a 4 game set against the Padres, who have been abysmal as of late, showing almost no offense to speak of. Barring some unforeseen incident, Greg Maddux will start Thursday's game after winning his 350th career game in his last start.

Update:

Okay, the Padres offense is actually worse than I first thought it was. They're last in the league in runs, and by a pretty good margin, as well as last in average, OBP, and slugging.

Stat
Cubs
Padres
Runs
5.70
3.37
Avg
.281
.231
OBP
.371
.305
Slg
.438
.345

Frustration

The Cubs have run into a rough patch, losing 6 of their last 8. What's frustrating is that none of the losses have come by margins of more than 3 runs, whereas the wins were in games with scores of 7-0 and 19-5. Overall on the season, the Cubs have an expected win-loss record of 19-10, 2 games better than in actuality. The Cubs have been getting double-digit hit totals and drawing walks consistently, the difference, for the most part, is that they've been stranding runners on base in their losses.

The big story recently has been the return of Alfonso Soriano, who has not looked comfortable to say the least. Soriano couldn't get to a catchable fly ball in the series finale against the Brewers on Thursday which was part of a 9th inning Kerry Wood blown save, and then badly misplayed two balls in the same inning last night in St. Louis. He was hitless since returning until the 9th inning last night where he hit a game-tying home run off of Jason Isringhausen, which probably at least partially spared him from the wrath of the fans, which was already brewing on the sports radio airwaves after Thursdays game. Bob Brenley, whose criticisms of the team are usually pretty subtle, obviously thought Soriano had no business out there and criticized the team for not giving him some rehab starts in the minors. It'll be interesting to see if he's in the lineup today and if he gets subbed for defense late in the game if the Cubs are leading.

Despite Soriano's game tying home run, the Cubs lost 5-3 in 11 innings. The bullpen had to work 10 1/3 innings itself, as Pinella pulled Rich Hill after just 6 batters, 4 of which he walked. Taking the loss was Chad Fox, who pitched the 10th and 11th in his first appearance since he walked off the field in 2005 and was forced to undergo his 2nd Tommy John's operation. He was called up yesterday in favor of Kevin Hart, who wasn't exactly lights out, but, frankly, is probably better than Fox at this point in his career. Even in the 10th, Fox looked somewhat shaky. It was a 1-2-3 inning, but all three outs were on fairly deep fly balls to center. Fox making it back to the big leagues is a nice story, I guess, but I really don't see what he can do to help the team at this point. I don't know why he's a better option than Neal Cotts, who has a sub-2.00 ERA at AAA right now, and 28 is not going to get much of any benefit from remaining in the minors as far as development goes. Cotts would seem to be the logical option even moreso because the Cubs are currently carrying only left-hander in the form of Sean Marshall, although Scott Eyre is rehabbing as well and may return soon.

Ted Lilly takes the mound this afternoon in St. Louis, and needs to try and pitch deep into the game with a tired bullpen.

Update: So apparently Rich Hill got sent down to AAA and Sean Gallagher brought up.

Win Some, Lose Some

The Cubs won 3 more in a row after my last post to get to 15-6. That start is the best since 1907 or something like that for the Cubs. Along the way they also had a streak of winning 4 games in a row by 6 runs or more, which is the first time they've done that since 18-something (can't even remember what year it was according to Len Kasper). So dropping the next two to the Rockies and Nationals in close games certainly is not cause for panic, but wow, have they been frustrating nonetheless. Both games saw the Cubs strand a ton of runners. They didn't ground into many double plays or strike out a lot, they just didn't seem to get the timely hit as they have so often early on. Last night the Nationals won in walkoff fashion on a home-run by catcher Will Nieves off of Bob Howry. It was Nieves's first career home run on a ball that he reached way out of the zone to get and pulled it down the right field line. I have no idea what's going on with Howry. He's not looking comfortable at all right now. Howry's performance is one thing that worries me at the moment, as I don't think Wuertz or Hart could really excel in a set-up role, and I really don't want Carlos Marmol's arm to fall off from throwing 30 pitches a night. As I said though, it's only a 2 game skid at the moment, and with Carlos Zambrano facing a fairly awful Nationals offense tonight, you would certainly figure the odds to be in the Cubs' favor.

White Flag Time

Things have been going pretty well for the Cubs. They're currently sitting pretty at 12-6 after sweeping the Pirates for the second time this year, and are now in 1st place in the NL Central and a half game ahead of the Cardinals. This marks a huge shift from the way the Cubs started last year, when they were a mere 7-11 after their first 18 games and didn't get to 12 wins until May 2nd. They've also scored 28 more runs, drawn 31 more walks, and hit 7 more home runs in the first 18 games of this season as compared to last season. All of that is good enough for 1st in the NL in both average and OBP (all this is according to baseball-reference.com, as usual) The last couple of series against the Reds and Pirates have been particularly good for the Cubs' offense, as they've scored 9+ runs in 4 of the 6 games, despite Alphonso Soriano being played on the DL after the first game against the Reds.

Some people might be quick to dismiss the early success, because it's been mostly against bad teams (the Cubs have played the Brewers and Phillies, but are just 2-4 against them), but Cubs sweeps have been pretty rare in recent years against any team, and already sweeping the Pirates twice this year is extremely encouraging to me.

I was in attendance for the game on Wednesday against the Reds. I didn't get there until the game was already in the 3rd inning because I didn't leave until 6:00 and I-88 was packed and Josh Fogg was already being pulled from the game. Cubs ended up winning 12-3 on a gorgeous night. It was good times.

Update (4/22 ~2:00ish)

The Cubs kept the winning streak going last night, beating the Mets 7-1, getting 5 of their runs in the 8th inning, capitalizing off of a Jose Reyes error which began the inning. After loading the bases with no outs, Mark DeRosa struck out, and Geovany Soto popped out, seemingly setting up a huge wasted opportunity that were oh so common during the Dusty Baker era. But, lo and behond, Ronny Cedeno worked an at-bat that was something like 9 or 10 pitches before finally punching a single up the middle, then Felix Pie hit a 3-run pinch-hit home run. When things are going right, they're going right. Cedeno and Pie were two guys who weren't even guaranteed to be on the roster at the start of the year. Right now as I'm posting the Cubs are wrapping up the brief 2-game set with an afternoon game. Ted Lilly retired the first 9 guys in order, but has run into trouble in the 4th. It might end up being a repeat of his last start, where he looked much improved from the outset but then got roughed up the second time through the order. Let's hope not. 0-0 score for now...

Let's not play two, but play a really long one

I was visiting people I know who are still at college last weekend, so again I've left this idle for a few days. Basically, the Cubs swept the Pirates in an odd series that had 36 innings in 3 games, and then narrowly avoided a sweep at the hands of the Phillies, putting them at 7-5. Their hitting has still be fairly good, with Derrek Lee mostly notably on a tear, but the pitching has been very inconsistent. Ted Lilly has yet to last 5 innings in a start and doesn't look like the same guy as in 2007 thus far. The bullpen has struggled as well, especially Bob Howry. It doesn't help that, as I alluded to, they've had to pitch a ton of innings. 4 of the Cubs' first 12 games have gone into extra innings. Random fact of the day (courtesy of the super cool Play Index feature at Baseball Reference): the most extra inning games the Cubs have played in a season is 23 in 1992. Right now they're on pace for 54. A lot of the games thus far have had some very bizarre moments, and a lot o them-- certainly the 4 extra inning games-- could've had a different result with the change of only one or two plays. As such, it's hard to really get a read on the team thus far.

One thing I will say thus far that I think could potentially get the Cubs in a lot of trouble is Lou Pinella's penchant for announcing a batter, knowing the opposing manager will change pitchers to make it lefty-lefty or righty-righty, then pulling him back and announcing another batter who hits with the opposite hand. This effectively wastes the first batter in said sequence, since you're technically "in the game" as soon as you're announced. With the extra innings games early on, this has led to the Cubs running out of position players on more than one occasion, and as such, the likes of Carlos Zambrano have been batting in key situations. A notable example was Sunday, where in the 10th inning against the Phillies, there were runners on 1st and 2nd with 1 out with Zambrano hitting because the bench was already empty. Zambrano grounded to short, and it should have been an inning ending double-play, but Chase Utley made a horrible throw to first and the go-ahead run ended up scoring. While the Cubs ended up getting a break in that case, in about 99 out of 100 times, that play is going to be a double play, and while Zambrano is certainly a good hitter by pitcher standards, he's not who you want batting in a tie game late.

I get the mentality Lou is using: if you have your best hitter batting in the 7th or 8th, or whenever it is, there's a better chance that he can give you lead and you can close the game out in 9 innings and not have to worry about anything coming afterward. I feel however, that its more worth it to keep a hitter in the batter's box in a lefty-lefty or righty-righty situation-- even though he may be hitting like .250 vs. leftys as opposed to .280 vs. righties or vice vera-- than have a pitcher taking goofy looking hacks at the ball later on. There's probably a way to prove or disprove this statistically, but I'm not going to exert the effort to try and find out.

Cubs play the Reds (reunion with Dusty!) later on tonight at Wrigley.

Back to .500

Game 4: Astros 4, Cubs 3
Game 5: Cubs 9, Astros 7
Game 6: Cubs 3, Astros 2

Well, it didn't take long for me to lag behind on this, not that that should surprise me. Basically, long story short, the Cubs looked a little bit more like the team they should be (and I can legitimately say "looked" because I was actually able to watch some of the Saturday and Sunday games), taking 2 of 3 from the Astros. The Cubs, who hit a surprisingly few number of homers last year up until the stretch run in September, have wasted no time going deep this year, hitting 8 in their first 6 games. Derrek Lee leads the way with 3, and seems to have put his quiet spring behind him. Carlos Zambrano got his first win yesterday, lasting 7 cramp-free innings giving up just two runs. Meanwhile, Kerry Wood picked up his 3rd save and hasn't allowed a run since he got lit up in his first outing. The Cubs haven't been striking out much at all thus far, and managed to get through a Roy Oswalt start in which they scored 5 runs off of him without striking out at all. This is an encouraging sign and is certainly a sharp departure from the days of Dusty Baker.

A couple of continued causes for concern, though, are Bob Howry, who looked bad again on Saturday pitching in the 8th, and had to be taken down in favor of Carlos Marmol, who seems to be headed towards another year where he pitches a ton of innings out of the pen. Also, Alphonso Soriano continues to struggle, hitting just 2-for-26 thus far, although he hit a solo home run yesterday.

Friday: W - W. Wright (1-0) L - Lieber (0-1) S - Valverde (1)
Saturday: W - Hart (1-0) L - Oswalt (0-2) S - Wood (2)
Sunday: W - Zambrano (0-1) L - Villarreal (0-2) S - Wood (3)

Next up: Cubs go on their first road trip of the year, as they face the Pirates in their home opener Monday.

One in the win column

Game 3: Cubs 6, Brewers 3

The Cubs prevented an opening series sweep yesterday, as they jumped all over Dave Bush, who was kind of all over the place for the Brewers. Ryan Dempster made his first start since 2005, and had a rocky start but improved as he went along, getting the win and giving up 2 runs over 6 IP with only one of them earned. The unearned run came from a bad throw from Kosuke Fukudome trying to made a throw home and completely missing Geovany Soto. Hard to be angry at Fukudome for this though, as he had another very good day at the plate, picking up his 2nd double of the year and drawing 2 more walks. It seems to see a lot of pitches in every plate appearance, and thus far it looks like he's worth every bit of the money the Cubs threw at him. The Cubs start a weekend series with the Astros later today. Kerry Wood came on and recovered from his awful outing in the opener, getting his first save of the year. I'll be much more worried if the Cubs drop two of three to the Astros than the Brewers.

W - Dempster (1-0) L - Bush (0-1) S - Wood (1)

Try not to panic

Game 2: Brewers 8, Cubs 2

For whatever reason, a lot of people got really worked up, partly because of what was being said on TV and in the papers, about the fact that this is the 100th year since Cubs last won the World Series, as if the arbitrary milestone somehow increases their chances of winning this year. These people are probably on a ledge right now after the Cubs dropped to 0-2 in another mediocre game on offense. Two games does not a season make, however. Alphonso Soriano is not going to remain 0-for-the-season for much longer, nor is Aramis Ramirez. Losing the first two games to the team that will likely be your only serious rival for first place in the division is frustrating, but things will most certainly balance themselves out in the near future. Jeff Suppan held the Cubs to two runs over 6 1/3 innings, but only had 2 strikeouts along the way, so it's not like the Cubs couldn't make contact.

The Cubs got some baserunners today, finishing with 8 hits and 3 walks, but again couldn't get any home except by way of the home run (this time it was solo home runs by Derrek Lee and Geovany Soto). They made some gaffes along the way, namely a botched hit and run with Aramis Ramirez that wound up being a strike-em-out, throw-em-out double play. That's something that has been a problem in recent years and hopefully will get corrected. Ted Lilly's line looked pretty ugly, being charged with 4 runs in 4 2/3 innings, but wasn't really that bad. He allowed 5 hits and hit a batter, but didn't walk anyone. He only threw 70-some pitches so was apparently on a very short leash. Tomorrow will be another afternoon game (and thus another game I can't watch, rrrrrr...) with Ryan Dempster's return to the rotation.

W - Suppan (1-0) L - Lilly (0-1)