Somewhat Manly Nerd

I don’t have much to say. I just feel like I had to make this post. I haven’t had the time to do it, so I’ll get it out of the way now. Roger Federer is now only 3 Grand Slams behind Pete Sampras for 1st all-time. With his 5th Wimbledon title, he now has 11 overall. Like Sampras, he doesn’t have a French Open, and I’m not sure if I ever see him winning one. Federer is 25 and Rafael Nadal, at 21, has never lost a best-of-5-sets clay court match. And now he’s able to hold his own on grass, too.

The most pleasantly shocking thing about the final was how hard fought it was. Nadal played one of the greatest matches of his career to take Federer to the brink on the Centre Court grass. Unfortunately, I sleep way too late on the weekends and consequently missed everything but the last game. I couldn’t believe that Nadal had won two sets by a break each and had only lost two sets in tiebreaks. Apparently, the match was a classic, and I slept through it. Goddamn it.

If Nadal can do this well on grass against Federer, he just might have a shot at the U.S. Open. It’s just embarrassing how much better the two are than the rest of the tennis world. Between them, they’ve won the past 9 Grand Slam titles. The last guy to win one was Marat Safin. Who even remembers it? But damn, as much as I hate Federer for his brutal assault on Sampras’s record, he seems like a really nice guy.

It’s that time again. Time for Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal to face off in a Grand Slam final. But this match isn’t taking place on the clay of Roland Garros, it’s on the famous Wimbledon Centre Court. That means grass, the surface officially owned by Roger Federer. Nowadays, a player is lucky to take a set off of him on grass (it’s only happened once so far). I was looking forward to a Roddick-Federer semifinal match, but Andy Roddick likes to blow 2-set leads, apparently. Federer made quick work of Gasquet, the player who defeated Roddick.

Nadal’s path to the final hasn’t been as effortless, but his semifinal match ended after only 2 and a half sets due to injury. He should be in good condition for the final – and he’s going to need it. Federbot is going to be out for blood tomorrow. Because of Nadal, he still doesn’t own a French Open. Nadal is also the only man to have a winning record against him. Granted, most of those victories came on clay courts, but even on hard courts, it’s an even 2-2.

But like I said already, this is taking place on grass. They’ve only played one match on grass against each other before, and that was last year’s Wimbledon final. Nadal managed to win a set, but ultimately was destroyed by the Swiss machine. Nadal has only gotten better with his grass game, though, considering he still has only played 25 career matches on grass. And the Wimbledon grass has gotten slower as the years have gone on, an advantage to a quick mover like Nadal.

Now, there’s no way I’m going to bet against Federer tomorrow; it was pretty much a foregone conclusion before the tournament even started that he would win his 5th straight Wimbledon title, consequently tying Bjorn Borg’s record. Yet I can’t help imagine how awesome it would be if he lost tomorrow though.

…I’m still bitter at the fact that he ended Pete Sampras’s run for a 5th straight Wimbledon. GO NADAL!

We all know YouTube, it’s one of the most popular sites on the internet, and has been for a while. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite have the wealth of content it once did. One day I searched for an old Daily Show skit that I specifically remembered watching on YouTube only a couple of months before – it was gone, along with a shitload of other videos. YouTube had been Napstered. Of course, it’s still the most popular video hosting site out there, but competitors like Dailymotion and Stage6 have been gaining ground. YouTube is not under the radar anymore (obviously, considering it was bought out by Google), so all the rampant copyright infringement is a thing of the past.

Getting to Stage6… it rocks. Naturally, it doesn’t have nearly as much content as something like YouTube, but huge videos of amazing quality can be uploaded. There’s a damn good amount of entire movies, in good quality, on Joox, a site that uses the same system as Stage6. Live Free or Die Hard is on the site. I almost like watching it again right now.

I just want to tell people to start uploading stuff to Stage6 instead of Youtube. The latter is only good for people stuck with 56k…or shitty DSL like me. The former is what the broadband world should be moving towards. I took my personal steps towards making Stage6 awesome by uploading 3 concerts so far. Enjoy.

Muse – Live at Reading 2006

Muse – Live Glastonbury 2004

Nirvana – MTV Live and Loud

…at least that’s what the announcers said.

DOWN GOES KOBAYASHI!! DOWN GOES KOBAYASHI!!

The American hero Joey Chestnut defeated the Japanese eating monster Takeru Kobayashi 66 – 63 today in the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, possibly the perfect sporting(?) event for the 4th of July. The talk leading up to the showdown had revolved around Kobayashi’s jaw, and whether or not it would slow him down. He actually pulled out of the contest at one point, only to end up breaking the previous world record. Unfortunately for him, Joey Chestnut broke it by three more hot dogs. It was thrilling, it was incredible, it was disgusting. I loved every second.

U-S-A U-S-A U-S-A

Other choice quotes from the announcers:

“The entire world…the entire FREE world is focused on these two men”

“I didn’t think we could fit Paris Hilton into this broadcast.”

What an awesome way to start the 4th of July.

It’s incredibly lame to watch this video, yet I can’t help wishing I was one of them.

The Guitar Hero franchise might be in trouble.  The same people (Harmonix) that created it will be going head-to-head with it this holiday season with this beast of a game. The $200 price tag for the total bundle (game + guitar + drums + microphone) is a bit steep, but I can see groups of friends buying different instrument bundles, especially since the Xbox 360 GH2 X-plorer guitar works with Rock Band.  Harmonix really might be creating the ultimate party game. I’m not really sure what bundle I’m getting, but I know I’m still buying Guitar Hero III for PS2. I need to actually buy a next-gen system first anyway before I worry about this game.

Interpol – Pioneer to the Falls

It’s the opener to their new album, Our Love to Admire – unfortunately, the rest of the album does not compare. I’m pretty sure I’ve listened to this song more than the other 10 tracks combined.

Today, Juan Pablo Montoya became the first non-American to win a NASCAR race in over 30 years. And the other one was a Canadian, not a Columbian. The white South can’t be too happy right now. Beaners are invading NASCAR, the most popular redneck American sport (other than hate crimes against illegal immigrants). Hell, they probably think Juan Pablo Montoya is an illegal.

Granted, it was a road race, something Montoya has plenty of experience with due to his F1 pedigree, but it’s still NASCAR. If he starts winning on the left-turn-only tracks, alarms will be going off from Texas to the Carolinas. That border fence will be built so fast…

Ok, I can’t bring myself to write anymore about NASCAR, as it’s not even a sport. It’s hard for me to believe that it’s on par with MLB in popularity, considering I’ve never heard anyone mention NASCAR in anything but a negative tone. But I’m from New York, not Georgia.

Note: This post is the beginning of another list of 21 things. I already started my TV show list with Sliders. I gotta get rolling, considering I’ll only be 21 for another 10 months.

What can I say about this film that hasn’t been said already? It’s quite possibly the movie of the 90s (fuck Titanic). While arguably not as solid from start to finish as Tarantino’s debut Reservoir Dogs, it was the much more ambitious of the two and has some of the most memorable scenes in movie history (although the ear scene in RD is pretty infamous). It’s a roller coaster of a ride with amazing highs, unexpected moments, but admittedly, a few lulls. They don’t stop the film from being one of the most entertaining in recent history, though.

It’s the movie that revitalized John Travolta’s career, shot Samuel L. Jackson into stardom, and helped the career of every other actor involved. Many directors and films afterwards seemed to delve into the hyper-active, naturally cool mix of comedy and violence of Pulp Fiction due to its overwhelming success and praise, Guy Ritchie (Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch) probably being the biggest offender, even though those two films are great. The film totally shook up Hollywood and changed the perception of what a popular movie could be.

Unfortunately, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences is a complete joke. In 1994, Forrest Gump won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Now, I don’t hate Forrest Gump like many elite film snobs do, but it’s just a emotionally manipulative collection of pop culture told through a lovable, noble retard played by Tom Hanks. I’ll admit I get choked up when I watch it, and it’s a good movie, but it’s no masterpiece. The Academy doesn’t have the benefit on hindsight, but if they did, they would realize now that Pulp Fiction is possibly the most culturally significant movie of the 1990s.

For a counterpoint, one can say that the Academy would never give the award to such a violent, seemingly immoral film, but there was another deserving nominee that year: The Shawshank Redemption. One only has to look at the IMDB Top 250 to realize how beloved that film has become. (Hint: Only The Godfather is ranked higher. Also: Pulp Fiction is 5th) Surely, Forrest Gump did not deserve the Academy Award that year. At least Pulp Fiction won for Best Adapted Screenplay, though. Shawshank was shut out.

Getting back to the actual movie, its combination of frantic events, mundane dialogue in the vein of Seinfeld, innumerable memorable characters, and non-linear storytelling come together to make Pulp Fiction that masterful work of filmmaking it is. Not to mention the absolutely perfect soundtrack. And it’s not like many movies today where the film score and the released CD soundtrack are two completely different entities – Tarantino just knew exactly what preexisting song to pick for each scene. Because of him, the Dick Dale version of Misirlou became officially known as “the Pulp Fiction song.” Well, until the Black Eyed Peas FUCKING RUINED IT.

I really wish I was old enough to have seen and appreciated Pulp Fiction when it came out in theaters. Just watching the theatrical trailer on the DVD gives me chills. I would’ve been frothing at the mouth for it after seeing that 2 minute clip. The only movie in recent memory that I can think of giving me a similar vibe with such a stellar cast would be The Departed, but even its trailer wasn’t that memorable.

Basically, Pulp Fiction is the most quoted, spoofed, and homaged film of the past 15 years and for good reason. There’s a few scenes that drag, such as when Butch (Bruce Willis) is in the taxicab, and arguably the diner date, but the high moments more than make up for them. What other film has a single scene that comprises half of a celebrity soundboard? I had heard almost the entire apartment scene from the Samuel L. Jackson soundboard before I even saw the movie. Not to mention when Butch is selecting a weapon from the gun shop, or when he flips out when he finds out his lover forgot his watch, or when Vincent has to stab Mia in the chest with adrenaline, or the entire Marvin cleanup scene, or just about every single scene in the film. I could go on forever. It’s too bad that Tarantino has turned to shit.

Well, not exactly. My computer just starts locking up. But close enough.

We’ve all seen these signs. I was raised Catholic, so we didn’t have signs like this in front of our church, but every other type of Christian church seems to love their clever, holy catchphrases. There’s plenty of pictures of these types of church signs on the internet (like on the site that is watermarked on the picture right above), but I’m going to list some gems that the Methodist church in my hometown has had over the years. I would take pictures myself, but I don’t have one of those newfangled digital cameras.

3 NAILS
+ 1 CROSS
= 4 GIVEN

It’s hard to stumble
when you’re on your knees!

ETERNITY:
Smoking or
Non-Smoking?

Come see me after the game!
-GOD

Seven days without God
makes one WEAK!

Life is short
PRAY HARD.

Our COFFEE HOUR is happier
than most HAPPY HOURS!

God answers KNEE-MAIL.

I can’t think of anymore off the top of my head right now, but add comments if you think of any. I might actually make this a page, so it can be updated every time there’s a new one. I know there’s a couple of new ones up right now, but I can’t remember them perfectly.