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Enjoy the awesomeness

(the others aren’t nearly so good)

Lazy, lazy, lazy …

Right up there with the reality show “I’m not here to make friends”

This video cracks me up. Music’s awesome too.

Update: cracks me up… disturbs others. Overly Kubrick, I guess, but what got me was the bridge with the interlude to the childhood friendship. C’mon, genius! Way less Clockwork Orange that way. Anyhoo, Here’s the fine young lads being all young and brit-like:

(note, not the studio cut)

Try not to be slightly disturbed that Alex Turner (lead singer) looks a lot like Martin Freeman (Tim from the British Office).

So this one about Pandorum was fun.

I am not going to toy with your emotions the way I usually do in reviews like these and give you some long political analysis about class or social anxiety or lesbians. The fact is that this movie was lame, both as a movie and as a cultural symptom. It was dimly lit, filled with boring spaceship corridors and even more boring monsters, and lightly sprinkled with a backstory far more interesting than the front story. Watching Pandorum was like playing a metal album backwards to hear the Satanic messages and getting only some voice saying, “I like balloons” over and over again.

A few thoughts:

First off, because no one wants to scroll, one of the greatest shots of all time from the Fed-Djoker semifinal (go to ~2:20):

Awesome.

Women’s final just finished Great story for Clijsters, and a remarkable achievement (for those that don’t know, she was near the top of the game, decided to become a mother, came back 27 months later and in her third match back she wins the US Open). She’s fun to watch, a great athlete, a clean ball striker, and … doesn’t grunt.

The end of the Serena-Clijsters match was unfortunate. The lineswoman made a horrible call at a critical juncture (foot fault (that wasn’t) on Serena at 15-30 in a match-deciding game). Serena’s reaction was understandable, but the threats made were unconscionable. She’ll be fined and suspended, but not, of course, before she and Venus play in the doubles finals tomorrow. Can’t have that.

I picked Wozniacki for good things a bit over a year ago – her game is steady, she’s a great athlete, but primarily because she’s got the right mental fortitude. Solid player. Also, doesn’t scream. Her problem is nearly the same as Murray’s – she’s a counterpuncher without a big weapon. That means she’ll have a much harder time being on top (though easier than Murray, the women’s game has a lot more room for that kind of play than the men); someone with a big weapon or someone having a great day is going to run her off the court and she’s got nothing to respond with. If she makes her serve a weapon, like Murray has, she could be a top-3 player for a long time. Particularly given the sorry state of women’s professional tennis.

Speaking of the sorry state of the women’s game, as a whole, they serve like club level players. It’s really, really sad that professional athletes can’t seem to play 2 sets without reaching double figures in double faults, and the ones that don’t fault that much don’t use pace.

Except the Williams sisters, of course. They’re the exception.

It’s also sad for the women’s game that the most promising players they have are either aging greatest of all timers (Serena, Venus), have come back from 3 years away (Clijsters, Dokic), or are thinking about possibly coming back (Henin).

And the screaming. Oh! the screaming. The fucking screamgrunts that 80% of them use makes watching the matches tedious (even when you’re not comparing the lesser level of play to that in the men’s game. Yes that’s, by definition, sexist. Unfortunately, it’s also true.). Back in the day, I used to enjoy watching women’s tennis more than men’s – not because of the sex factor, but because they actually had rallies, constructed points, and made for much more interesting tennis than the men’s constant serve and volleying. Serve-return-volley-over makes for an excruciatingly boring watching experience. Nowadays, the men rally. Fitness, a little racquet change, and a lot of string tech (and slower balls and surfaces), and the men’s game is a joy to watch. Unfortunately for the women, they’re still playing the same game, only at 80% of the speed of the men and without any real differentiation in their games. Whereas the men have a number of styles competing and contrasting, the women have 2: flat hitters who go all power all the time (can’t really serve and hit a ton of unforced errors) … and the counterpunchers (which, right now, are really only Wozniakci and Jankovic.. at least the successful ones).

Needless to say, my women’s bracket was hosed by about the second day. I did have Serena-Clijsters semifinal, but Serena as the winner. Wozniacki I had losing to Kuznetsova. I did pick Oudin for 3 rounds, though.

On to the men’s draw:

Over the past six months, I’ve been evaluating more (not posting here, though), I take back what I said about Murray being the next great. He’s the Jankovic of the men’s game (solid, a grinder, but not a top player, though will have a high ranking due to number of matches played) and unless he develops a weapon other than his serve, I think he’ll be out of the top 10 as soon as he loses a step. He’s closer to Brad Gilbert v2.0 than an Agassi. He also seems to be letting the pressure get to him on the bigger stages a bit – I have hope that will go away in time, but unless he changes his game, the limitations of his style will always be there.

I love watching Fernando Gonzalez – he just goes for everything, all the time. But in an entertaining way. He’s like a nearsighted bullfighter – you never know if you’ll get a trainwreck or some spectacular work, but you know there will be blood. Think: Shrek’s Puss-in-boots meets Ricky Ricardo.

I new Nadal wasn’t going to make it this year – after watching the Cleveland tourney it was obvious his abdomen injury was going to keep him from doing particularly well. When you’re spinning your first serve in at 106, you’re not going to win the men’s majors. That he made it to the semis is a testament to his grit and determination and skill. Hopefully, he’ll heal up and his parents’ divorce won’t be on his mind after a while. He lost to Del Potro (which I predicted, woot, me), which is going to be a matchup we’re going to be seeing a lot of in the future.

Just as Nadal is a bad matchup for Fed (Nadal’s spin to Fed’s one-handed backhand is kryptonite), DelPo is a bad matchup for Nadal (DelPo is 6′6″, so Nadal’s big high spin just brings it into his wheelhouse). JMDP isn’t the most exciting guy to watch – unlike 90% of the other players, he’s not pretty … he’s also not flashy or particularly emotional. He’s more Lurch than an Ambercrombie model. He also may be the only 20 year old hairier than Robin Williams. But personality/excitement aside, I think he’ll be in the top 3 for a long time: he’s moves well for someone that size, has great groundstrokes, strong serve, and is still going to improve. Did I mention he hits huge? Just an incredible amount of power from that guy.

The three hardest forehands in the men’s game right now (flat division): Fernando Gonzalez, Jo Willy Tsonga, and JMDP. If Verdasco hit it flat (which he did at the Australian this year) he’d be in that discussion too, as would Nadal.

My bracket was nearly perfect – I picked Isner (though not over Roddick), and my only real deviation was I had Tsonga beating Gonzo. I predicted a JMDP-Fed final, with Fed as the winner … we’ll see tomorrow if I win the big kewpie doll. It’s going to be a tough match – right now, I think it’s much closer to a tossup than anyone realizes. Let’s hope it’s a good one.

Update: DelPo in 5, in a not particularly well-played match. No kewpie for me, but I did mention it was close to a tossup.

Is there any current band with a bigger disparity between awesomeness of the music and craptacularity of the vocals & lyrics than Muse? They’re Queen 2.0.

I thought they were going to be a what-if-Kid-A-never-happened version of Radiohead, but instead appear to be closer to Rent fans who happen to have an electric guitar handy.