Wednesday, May 30, 2012

The Fix May or May Not Be In

The winner of the NBA Draft Lottery, and 100000% likely team to pick Kentucky freshman Anthony Davis with the #1 overall pick will be....


After the Break.

Monday, May 28, 2012

The Dark Knight Rises is Almost Here, New TV Spots Casually Reveal New Details

The first The Dark Knight Rises TV spots have aired and they all casually reveal new details unseen in the theatrical trailers. Here's the new info!

  • Catwoman pretends to be Bruce Wayne's wife to steal his Lamborghini Murcielago after the party where she and Wayne dance. Wayne voices credulousness that he even has a wife, confirming he's still a bachelor.
  • It is confirmed that Batman retired after the events of The Dark Knight.
  • Bruce Wayne now uses a cane. There was wild internet speculation that he would use a cane as a result of his fall at the end of The Dark Knight, but it appears to be fact now.
The "Bruce Wayne has a cane now" angle is very important because someone claimed to have full details on the entire film, posting several potential spoilers, including Wayne using a cane. If his other spoilers end up being fact, I'm not opposed to how the film turns out, including a major role for police officer John Blake.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

So DC Comics is Going to Add Yet Another Gay Character

As part of the "Second Wave" of titles in the New 52 to replace the cancelled titles, DC will be re-introducing an old character as a homosexual when they were previously straight. There is no word as to the gender of this character, nor how popular they were in the old DC Universe. I think this is a mistake. DC (and comics in general) doesn't have the greatest track record in its treatment of gay characters, the most notable exception being Batwoman, although she has largely been handled by the same people since she was introduced a few years ago. For those not in the know, Batwoman is handled very interestingly because as her secret identity of Kate Kane, she is a publicly out lesbian, kicked out of the military for its Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. As Batwoman, she purposely exudes sex and flirts with her enemies, despite the fact she isn't attracted to any of them.

That's one example out of all the gay characters that exist and have existed in DC Comics. Marvel's treatment is slightly better, what with Northstar recently getting married to his longtime boyfriend finally, but at the same time, Marvel also employed Orson Scott Card to write Ultimate Iron-Man stories. Card, most famous for writing Ender's Game and its sequels, is also known for being unbelievably homophobic and for making very incendiary comments about homosexuals.

The internet has been stupidly assuming that Batman is going to come out of the closet, but it must be remembered that the gay character will one that is not being featured in comics right now, although it is said that they are an "iconic" character, whatever that means. The entire Justice League has been introduced already, so who else could they add? Power Girl and Huntress have recently been reintroduced to the DC Universe, and I suppose it's possible to make Kara Zor-El or Helena Wayne a lesbian, but I don't see the purpose in that.

If you want to have a good read of gay characters in comics and their fates, I recommend you read WHO CARES ABOUT THE DEATH OF A GAY SUPERHERO ANYWAY?: A HISTORY OF GAYS IN COMIC BOOKS, by Perry Moore, author of Hero, a novel about a gay teen who becomes a superhero.

Sunday Night Football is the Highest Rated Primetime Program in America

This news is shocking for so many reasons. For starters, American Idol is no longer the most watched program in America for the first time in 8 years, after years of an increasingly blander format targeted towards teenage girls who refuse to vote for female talent. Secondly, the most watched program that replaces American Idol is not a drama program or a comedy, but a sports broadcast. It beat out NCIS, Dancing with the Stars, The Voice, Two and a Half Men, among many other shows. Thirdly, it doesn't even air a full "season" of shows, airing 18 regular season games, 2 wild card playoff games, and the Super Bowl, which was not accounted for in the ratings, all without a break that most TV shows have.


Sunday Night Football is without a doubt the gold standard in football broadcasts. The NFL on Fox and The NFL on CBS are both ok, with Fox being much better overall, but neither come close to NBC's coverage. Monday Night Football on ESPN is pretty bad all-around, although with the departure of Ron Jaworski, the show might improve in quality with less inane banter. Thursday Night Football on NFL Network is underrated with a great crew, which hopefully get more notoriety this season as more carriers will have the network at no additional cost and with more exposure thanks to all 32 teams having primetime games thanks to NFL Network.


This season figures to have great ratings for SNF, with an incredible slate of games. Here's their full schedule for a refresher, with subplots included:

  1. Dallas Cowboys vs New York Giants, NFC East Rivalry
  2. Pittsburgh Steelers vs Denver Broncos, Peyton Manning's Debut as a Bronco
  3. Detroit Lions vs San Francisco 49ers, Rematch of "The Handshake" from last year
  4. New England Patriots vs Baltimore Ravens, Rematch of 2012 AFC Championship
  5. New York Giants vs Philadelphia Eagles, NFC East Rivalry
  6. San Diego Chargers vs New Orleans Saints, Drew Brees faces former team
  7. Green Bay Packers vs Houston Texans
  8. Pittsburgh Steelers vs Cincinnati Bengals, AFC North Rivalry
  9. New Orleans Saints vs Denver Broncos, Brees vs Manning SB XLIV Rematch
  10. Dallas Cowboys vs Atlanta Falcons
  11. Houston Texans vs Chicago Bears
  12. Baltimore Ravens vs Pittsburgh Steelers, AFC North Rivalry
  13. New England Patriots vs New York Jets, AFC East Rivalry & Thanksgiving
  14. Green Bay Packers vs New York Giants, Rematch of NFC Divisional Playoffs
  15. Philadelphia Eagles vs Dallas Cowboys, NFC East Rivalry
  16. Detroit Lions vs Green Bay Packers, NFC North Rivalry
  17. San Francisco 49ers vs New England Patriots
  18. San Diego Chargers vs New York Jets
I have a strong feeling Sunday Night Football will repeat as the most watched program in America next season.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

So I Guess the Magic are Done.

I'm slow reporting this news because it took some time to analyze this. The Orlando Magic have fired coach Stan Van Gundy and general manager Otis Smith. SVG and Smith are responsible for assembling a team with the 4th highest winning percentage of the last 5 years, including an appearance in the NBA Finals 3 years ago, where they lost in 5 games to the Lakers. Dwight Howard reportedly wanted both men gone on condition of his staying in Orlando at the end of his contract and re-signing, but the latest reports from inside Howard's camp say that he still wants out, most likely because the Magic organization has made no effort to assemble a proper team around him. The Magic's loss in the NBA Finals can be directly pointed at SVG's insistence on playing the injured Jameer Nelson over Courtney Lee and Rafer Alston who had been instrumental in leading the team to the Finals, as well as refusal to double-team Kobe Bryant, a move that is seen as a no-brainer by the other 29 coaches in the league.


After the Finals loss, Otis Smith either traded away or did not re-sign every role player that got them to the Finals, including trading away Dwight Howard's backup center, Marcin Gortat and obtaining the incredibly questionable players Vince Carter and Gilbert Arenas. Since losing the NBA Finals, the Magics' strategy seemed to be assembling a 12-man rotation made up of Dwight Howard and 11 3-point shooters. The experiment has continued to fail, notoriously after Howard went down with a herniated disc before the playoffs this year.


If Dwight isn't satisfied with this, nothing will satisfy him. Although SVG isn't a great coach, there aren't many coaches out there with stellar resumes as free agents. Mike D'Antoni has become notorious as a coach who can't teach defense or command respect, and although Jerry Sloan has expressed interest in coaching the Magic, my gut says that he will coach the Bobcats as a favor to his friend, Michael Jordan. ESPN continues to talk nonsense that Phil Jackson will coach the Knicks, which I find hilarious since they are now in the final stages of signing Mike Woodson to a contract to remove the interim label on his head coaching position, but I bet ESPN will find some way to talk about how Phil will coach the Magic, because that's totally an ideal situation.


There is one coach out there that I'm surprised hasn't been mentioned, Don Nelson, the winningest coach in NBA history and infamous for his ability to handle volatile personalities. He isn't retired, the Warriors decided to fire him when they changed owners and no team has decided to pick him up yet.

Monday, May 21, 2012

The Warriors are Committed to Moving Back to the West Side of the Bay


The current logo of the Golden State Warriors
The final logo of the San Francisco Warriors
It is expected that later this week, the Golden State Warriors will announce that after 40 years of being located in Oakland, California, they will be returning to San Francisco in a new arena that will be built alongside Piers 30-32 in the Embarcadero area, in a move scheduled for the 2017-18 season, per reports made by Fox Sports and CSN Bay Area. This move comes as no surprise, considering the recent move to acknowledge the team's history as the 2nd West Coast NBA team and brief history in San Francisco with their new logo, a return to the logo of the San Francisco Warriors. The main difference in the logos is that the color scheme is reversed, but the other big difference is the new logo has the Bay Bridge rather than the Golden Gate Bridge, possibly a reference to the team's future return to the West Bay.


There were previous rumors that the Warriors were going to move to a new arena next door to AT&T Park where the San Francisco Giants play in the South Bay, but that was rejected due to a ridiculous increase in traffic, causing no shortage of traffic in the months with no baseball season and an increase in traffic during the late fall and early spring. I love the move. The Warriors haven't been relevant since Chris Mullin was on the team, although they did have a brief bit of notoriety when they knocked off the #1 seed Dallas Mavericks as the #8 seed a few years ago.


Update: The mayor of Oakland has sent a letter to the owners of the Warriors pleading them to stay, but the Warriors say nothing will change their minds about the move. Additionally, the new arena is located 16 miles away from Oracle Arena, which should create very little additional driving time for fans in the East Bay, and shorter travel for fans in the South Bay. For reference, the distance between The Forum and Staples Center is 10 miles.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Do I Really Have to Post a Review of The Avengers?

I don't need to explain at all why you need to see The Avengers. It's fucking amazing, every character is portrayed excellently, and director Joss Whedon has already explained any plot details purposely left unanswered just because he's an awesome guy. In addition to that, there's about a half hour of deleted scenes just waiting to be seen for the home video release, including further character development and fan service.


The Avengers has been an overwhelmingly success, which led Disney to greenlight a sequel after the opening weekend. This means we will have many more Marvel superhero movies to come, including The Amazing Spider-Man, Iron Man 3, Thor 2, Captain America 2, and The Avengers 2. Stan Lee also would like to see a big-screen Ant-Man adaptation, but the character has never been popular, even in the comics community.


Final Score: 5 Cosmic Cubes out of 5