Shameless Self-Promotion: "Honeymoon"

Mr. de Armendi would like you to know that he directed this piece.

About Fucking Time

By my count, he should have won at least three by now (Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Last Tempation - shit, he wasn't even nominated for Taxi Driver!!), but Martin Scorsese finally got off the schneid last night and collected his first (sigh) Oscar for Best Director. I did have a brief moment of trepidation when I saw that the producers of last night's telecast made the not-so-subtle move to have Coppola, Lucas, and Spielberg present the Best Director award last night (those three are old buddies of Scorsese's from their days as the "New Hollywood" auteurs of the 1970's - check out Peter Biskind's Easy Riders, Raging Bulls for a fascinating, if gossip-filled, look at Hollywood, circa 1967-1981). It reminded me of when Spielberg's buddy, Harrison Ford, was tapped to present the Best Picture award back in 1999, with most people thinking that Saving Private Ryan had it in the bag, and then, surprise! surprise!, Shakespeare In Love won instead. But my worry turned out to be in vain, and Scorsese finally got his due. LONG OVERDUE (ok, I'm done now).

Here's a hilarious spot Scorsese did a couple of years ago for American Express. "Yeah, Timmy. It's your Uncle Marty. How'd you like to turn five again?"

Oh, Just Shut Up and Play

The good folks at Sports Frog have the best take:

"With Rodriguez, this cannot be written off to mere stupidity. He's no dummy. He's a savvy veteran who knows how this will play. There had been zero news. None whatsoever about the A-Rod/Jeter rift this season. Bernie Williams decided not to accept a minor-league contract and it has been manufactured into headline news for a week. Starved for news, you know the New York media is going to ask the obligatory question this time of year. But there was no need whatsoever to say anything but "No comment." It may not be easy, but Eddie Murray did it for years. On this one issue, at least, why not just clam up and play the game?

Because he cannot resist. Maybe he didn't want to say the part about lying. After all, he loves his squeaky-clean image. But the rest? Let there be no doubt that this was intentional. Not only does he love the camera, but this is a power move for him. Hey Derek, you're gonna freeze me out? This is how it's going to work this season."

BENCHED!

Not cancelled. Yet. What kinda odds are we lookin' at here?

I dunno, kids. I've always had a "love/hate" relationship with Aaron Sorkin's shows. Parts of Studio 60 are interesting, even compelling, particularly anything involving Steven Weber and Ed Asner, but my biggest problem with the show has been it's failure at nuance. Soapbox speeches from out of nowhere, misguided one-sided arguments in the guise of debate, creepy stalker-like ideas about romantic love, the fucking snake/ferret/coyote thing, in the end Studio 60 is just too stupid about how smart it is (or wants to be).

Here's a pretty funny parody I found called Stall 60 on the Sunset Strip.

Laurie Anderson - Mach 20

A Capella Groups: Enemies of America

I wonder what exactly they did to the Star Spangled Banner. Not as memorable as "Baby On Board", perhaps?

James Brown

1933 - 2006

All Praises Due To... Your 2006 Philadelphia Eagles

As a lifelong Giants fan, I gotta give it up to Philly. All Praises Due-style. It's Xmas Day, and they're 9-6, tied with the Cowboys, who they whooped up on tonight, 23-7, for the divisional lead. Sweet month, thusfar:

- Started December at 5-6.

- Proceed to win their next four. Beat Carolina at home. And, then, THEN: At Washington. At New York. At Dallas. All on the road. All Divisional Opponents. All wins.

- One game to go. They host Atlanta on New Year's Eve. And even if Dallas wins their last game (at home vs. Detroit), the Eagles hold the tie breaker on the Cowboys. So their win tonight guarantees them a spot in "the Tournament", as Bill Parcells calls it.

9-6. I don't know how long Jeff Garcia is gonna keep it up (and, sure, by all means, genius, feel free to insert your expected, boring, and/or obvious "gay" joke or double entendre here, because YOU HAVE TO, what with being blessed with the curse of originality), but dude's played like a monster since filling in for McNabb. In his six starts, he's completed almost 62% of his passes, with 10 TD's and 2 picks thrown. Studly and sterling. (And T.O. continued to drop more balls tonight; the karmic justice just makes rooting for Garcia all the more enjoyable.)

The long and short of it is that the Eagles are playing with house money right now. They are playing like a team who believes they not only can go far but will go far in the Tournament. Handicapping the NFC, right now, I'd be willing to say, sure, Eagles could take the Saints for the NFC Championship. The Saints did beat the Eagles in the Superdome back in Week Six (27-24, featuring the Time-Expiring Stylings of John Carney, ladies and jellyfish! Drive safely!), but the Eagles are playing more consistent, if not better, football than the Saints. The Bears ("Crown their ass!!!") aren't much more consistent than the Saints, but their defense is so ridiculously fast, they'd definitely make Jeff Garcia run around all day long. But I do think the Eagles could definitely give the Bears a run for their money. Without question, those are your top three teams in this year's soft-ass NFC:

1. Chicago Bears (13-2)
2/3. Philadelphia Eagles (9-6) or New Orleans Saints (10-5)
4-6. Insert "one-n-done" of your choice. Giants? Hee! That's funny. (And perhaps the topic of a different post.)

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What? You didn't think I forgot about you, did ya?

Steve Phillips Is A Big Fucking Idiot, Part I

On the 10/01/06 edition of Baseball Tonight:

Steve Phillips, regarding possible (probable) AL Rookie of the Year, P Justin Verlander:

"He's a rookie because the age and numbers say he is, but the way he pitches he's not a rookie."

Huh. I thought Verlander was a rookie...cuz this was his first year.