The Day the NY Jets Crashed

The day they got clowned by Harry Reid. Here we have just another one of many examples (See Fireman Ed's retirement due to harassment by fellow Jet "fans," anything related to Tebow or manufactured QB controversy, etc.) that has Jets fans hoping for a Mayan Apocalypse before the year is out. Now Harry Reid used to box so I am going to go ahead and assume that he's not a "let us got to the match of football" type Mormon like Mitt Romney, but he still kind of looks like an aged Harry Potter pwning the entire Jets fan base. It is truly embarrassing. The most astonishing part of this Jets season, however, is that they are actually in contention for a Wild Card spot and, due to their cream puff of a remaining schedule, they could win out and crash land (PUNS!) into the playoffs. Considering that the Jets played almost the entire year without their best offensive and defensive players, that would be an accomplishment and very quiet, almost whispered, testimonial to Rex Ryan's abilities as coach, despite all the distractions, and hopefully keeps him at the helm.

Not that anyone should be holding out hope for miracles in the future. The Jets, thanks to the incompetent mismanagement by Tannenbaum and Johnson (I don't care what he says, Woody was definitely instrumental in pushing the Tebow trade), have a hole-y (PUNS!) mess of a roster. Although the offensive line is generally good, there are almost no weapons on offense outside of Holmes. Keller has fallen off despite showing promise last year, a #2 receiver hasn't revealed himself yet, and Shonn Greene has proven himself to be a bust. Bilal Powell has shown some ability this year but he is a small upgrade, if anything, over Greene. Concrete Hands McKnight has yet to shown anything to open up hope that he could be an effective back and, Sparano be damned, the Jets still have not figured out how to use Tebow in the Wildcat. The defensive side, though still looking good this year, is old and much of the Jets' scheme revolves around a healthy Revis. To be fair, Cromartie did a good job in his absence and Sexy Rexy and his lieutenants did a good job of adjusting the defensive scheme so that the D was still effective.

Unless some changes are made, and I do not even know if the front office is competent to make them, the Jets may squeak into the playoffs this year but will most likely remain grounded next. Here's to hoping, I am wrong.


IMAGE: amazon.com

The Newsroom- A Critique of the Critics

Everyone has seen the complaints. Yes, the show is preachy as hell. Even the fucking song in the show's open credits seem preachy  in it's attempt to reach back to the simpler, more morally correct, broadcast news time of yesteryear; an attempt to copy Mad Men but to a much poorer effect. But everyone knows that Sorkin is preachy. Who cares?. And, sure, Sorkin always seems to come off as a world class doucher. But where is the surprise here as well? No one who's heard him speak denies that. It almost seems like the casual backlash always given to the popular for no reason a la Dave Matthews fandom in the 1990s. The fact of the matter is, in my humble opinion, its a fairly enjoyable show. It is hard to go too wrong when you are throwing Jeff Daniels, Emily Mortimer and Sam Waterston out there (I particularly like Waterston as the seemingly perennially drunk Charlie Skinner). Then you have the supporting cast of Dev Patel, Alison Pill and the somewhat surprisingly good Olivia Munn. 


I can certainly see how preachy could get annoying, but maybe what we need is some preaching. In the latest episode, Will McAvoy, although nominally a republican, comes out swinging hard against the Tea Party. But who is to say that that is so wrong. I found it particularly enjoyable and certainly wished that some of the questions he asked HAD been asked in 2010. We are now in the media world where objective news reporting and phrases like fair and balanced are now a punch line. Literally. By Jon Stewart nearly every night because of the unadulterated horseshit coming from certain sectors of the news media and the pussies in the rest of the news media  who treat all stories as if they were created equal. And this point was actually made, almost verbatim, through the show as I felt myself unconsciously nodding in agreement. Furthermore, I found the business argument presented by Jane Fonda's character extremely interesting and something that I don't think many people ever think about when consuming their news content. News media seems to get a pass these days and I think it is great that there is a show pointing out these flaws, albeit in a sometimes annoyingly quirky Sorkinian patois.


Anyway, in my view, this seems like much ado about nothing and very similar to the insanely nit picky questions raised about Girls, a phenomenal show, right off the bat. And, yes, maybe the critics who got to screen the episodes in advance are correct and the show falls off the map in next week's episode 4. I, however, plan on riding this one out for a bit and seeing where it goes. I think after the fawning critical love of many of Sorkin's previous shows, he deserves that much.


IMAGE: Jeff Daniels as Will McAvoy via hbo.com

Wes on Wes on Wes

First things first, please enjoy this amazing tour of the Moonrise Kingdom set with the inimitable Bill Murray, slightly sauced on spiced rum.

All set? It was amazing right? Oh, BMurr.

Now onto the movie itself. Underwhelming is the word that immediately came to mind. To be fair, I saw the above video before the movie and was expecting big, comedic things. My advice to you, dear read, is don't. While there were certainly some funny and many charming scenes, the beach dance party between main characters Sam Shakusky and Suzy Bishop comes to mind, for the most part it was, as has been stated by critics ad naseum, Wes Anderson out-WesAndersoning himself. I suppose it is my own fault as one should temper their expectations when they see the main characters populated by kids, but I could not help myself once I saw the BMurr, Frances McDorman, Bruce Willis (underrated comedy chops), Edward Norton (ditto) and Anderson mainstay Jason Schwartzman. It turns out, however, that these luminaries are just a sideshow to the chilrens and that this movie, in general, is more akin to The Fantastic Mr. Fox rather than Rushmore/Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou/Darjeeling Unlimited (which I really liked actually but haters gonna hate).

Since the central conceit seems to be the relative maturity of the Sam and Suzy compared to the childish antics of the adults (drunken tree chopping/police car canoodling/shoe assaulting). The children are actually preternaturally adult with their playing of house, aforementioned dance party more reminiscent of Vincent Vega and Ms. Mia Wallace then two young kids, which is doubly appropriate since there is, in fact, a teenage wedding and at least one old(er) folk wished them well (and I'm pretty sure that Pierre really did love the mademoiselle). EXTENDED ALLUSION POINTS! Bruce Willis makes this explicit in his scene with the young Mr. Shakusky later in the movie.

I enjoyed the movie enough just because of Anderson's talent (what's up with directors with the last Anderson, by the way?) but my recommendation would be to temper your expectations. This one does not bring much of the funny.

On to P.T. Anderson's The Master? 1 out of 2 Anderson's wouldn't be bad.