MVPapi

Whiffleball goes to Hollywood

My buddy John and I finished the script for Whiffleball. He's in L.A. and he already has a couple of industry people interested in reading it, including one story that is so bizarre and "out there" that I'm not even going to write about it here yet. But I'm going to keep a running journal of our experiences shopping the script and I'll post stuff about it later on, when the time is right.

Don't even get me started on the Red Sox. I'm not sleeping well. Let's leave it at that.

ASU vs. USC on Saturday. Yeah...I'll say that we have a chance. I don't feel as well as I did the last time we had such a huge regular season match up like this, which was vs. Nebraska in '96 when we were 26 point underdogs and I told everyone I knew that not only would we definitely cover, but that we'd probably win the game outright. Of course people dismissed me as a blatantly home-rooting crackpot. Which I basically am, but I also don't go around making huge calls like that too often, and I'm not making one this week. Right now USC is probably the best college offense I've ever seen, and I really don't know if we can stop them or contain them. But there's a chance that we can make it interesting, and it should be a hell of a game to watch.

Angst...a good thing

The Boston Red Sox won the World Series last year. Sometimes I have to type that sentence, or at least say it in my head, because it still hasn't fully sunk in. It's something I had waited for my whole life, and it happened in insane fashion after an incredible ride. But it did have one long-term effect (or so I thought) that I didn't expect: it changed the way I would root as a fan in 2005. It made me more relaxed. For the majority of this season, being the World Champs changed the way I felt about things, muting both the highs and the lows. We were in first place for much of the season, and that was great, but I didn't get too fired up over it. And when bad things did happen, things that would have had me cursing or breaking things in prior years, I maintained an even keel, a shocking level of calmness. Is it possible that winning a championship changed the way I watch the game? Was Dan Shaughnessy actually right...do Red Sox fans really define themselves by losing?

I am happy to admit that the answer is a resounding "no." As of last week, all of the Red Sox Angst came rushing back, as if we'd never won anything...and in the best way possible. That blown game in Tampa Bay had me swearing loud enough that one of the dogs was huddling in front of me on the couch, unsure of what to do. We're still the 2004 World Champs, and that's something that can never be taken away. But now 2005 feels like any other year and I'm rooting accordingly, and ecstatic about it. If we blow it this year, I'll be just as pissed as I was in any pre-'04 year, and that's great. Seven games left. Tied with the Yankees. The season ends with three Sox-Yanks games at Fenway. I live for this.

And no, I'm not bitter that I had tickets to the Friday Sox-Yanks game but sold them. Nope. Not at all. *sigh*...

Quick good stuff

With so much bad stuff happening lately at seemingly every level, I thought I'd take a moment to reveal a few great (but minor) things going on:

The season premiere of Lost was excellent. They actually showed something meaningful inside the hatch! I had my doubts about how season two would begin but they really opened things up well.

Have A Nice Day by Bon Jovi is probably the best new song I've heard in at least a year. It's one of those songs that's so catchy that you want to sing along with it even when you don't know the words. Well, you don't. I do. I love it. I also really enjoy the fact that in 2005 Bon Jovi can release a song that works as well for me now as Livin' On A Prayer did in '87.

Joey on NBC was absolutely hilarious Thursday night. I watched all of last season, basically out of blind loyalty because I was such a huge Friends fan, but a lot of Joey's first season was really mediocre. Tonight's ep was literally funnier than all of last year combined. I hope they keep it up. Nice Kevin Smith cameo, too.

Right now the Sox and the Pats, sadly, don't belong in a "good stuff" piece. I really hope that changes this weekend.

Death and Life

My father-in-law passed away on Labor Day and my nephew was born three days later. I don't really feel like rehashing everything about Jim Bob's death in the blog because it was just so draining for everyone for a while. He had a heart attack and basically died instantly. It is horrible for the whole Hillis family and I just did the best I could to support everyone in any way I could during the aftermath. He was only 60 years old.

On a much lighter note, my nephew Logan is adorable. We just got back from Memphis where we got to see him for the first time at just shy of a week old. It's pretty amazing how tiny he is.

Anyway, I don't really have a ton to add but I'm sure I'll come up with some random material later this week. I hope everyone is doing well.

New Orleans

Thanks to everyone who has passed along their best wishes, inquiries about friends in New Orleans, or a simple statement of "I'm glad you don't live there any more!" I'm not really in touch with anyone that still lives there either. Most of our friends have left so the only others there are acquaintances I made in school or co-workers from the restaurant and I don't have any phone numbers or e-mail addresses to get in touch with anyone. I just hope they got out, because the situation for those that stayed looks simply despicable. Leave it to a legitimate natural disaster to bring out the absolute worst displays in certain people. Why is that any catostrophic event now gives specific segments of the population a license to behave as if life is Lord of the Flies? I don't get it. I'm not talking about grabbing some food or water from a store, but rather the rampant occurences of gangs brandishing guns, stealing absurd things like jewelry and TVs, and actually opening fire on people that are trying to help. It's inexplicable to me. For any volunteer/cop/National Guardsmen/soldier/etc./ that finds him or herself in such a predicament, I know that I speak for many of us when I simply say: shoot back. Any criminal taking advantage of such a deplorable event deserves whatever they get. Sorry to rant, but hearing about it really, really pisses me off.

On to lighter things.

I finished the Murder One DVDs. Brilliant. I was actually sad when it ended because it was so good and I had becomes so invested in the characters and the story. Okay. I'm done babbling about Murder One for now.

Random list of the day: The last five CDs I listened to in their entirety:

5. Mix CD that I made in March, 2004. The mixes that I make for The Loop March trips usually rock and are always staples of my collection.
4. Mix CD that I made in October, 2001, that features not one, but two tracks by Steel Dragon, the fictional metal band from Rock Star.
3. Appetite for Destruction. It's easy to forget how great this whole album is when you only ever hear three songs on the radio. And speaking of that, exactly when was it decided that all classic rock stations would play "Paradise City" about twelve times a day in 2005? Not that I'm complaining.
2. Disc two of the Van Halen: Best of Both Worlds greatest hits compilation.
1. A mix CD that I made in January, 2002, before heading to Vegas to watch the Pats win their first Super Bowl. It was a disc that somehow had slipped through the cracks of my collection, one that I thought was lost for good. I was preparing to make my best attempt to re-create it, mainly due to the fact that I have owed a copy of it to a friend of mine for a long time. I put him off because I didn't have the heart to tell him it was gone. Then I found not one, but two copies of it just the other day. Bizarre...

We're off to Memphis for the long weekend. Mom and Dad just drove down a couple of days ago so it will be great to see them, plus Laurie could give birth to the little guy any day now. Everyone have a great weekend!