Wednesday Afternoon Quick Hits

• With the ‘06-07 TV Season over, I’ve moved on to some summer TV catching up. Specifically, I’m watching “24”. I’d started watching this season, but by all accounts, it wasn’t a great season. So now I’m rewatching the series from the beginning. I finished Season 1 over the weekend, and I’m now onto Season 2 (I did see a few S2 episodes back when they originally aired).

• Speaking of summer projects, I’m trying to go through my iTunes library and listen to all my music. I’ve got almost 3,300 songs that I’ve never listened to or rated. I’ve got another 600 songs or so that I’ve listened to, but never rated. So my plan is to go through all of them and give them a rating. On my commute, I can knock out about 24 a day, which means it’ll take about a year to do them all. I’ll keep you posted on the status, plus give you updates if I find any hidden gems in my iTunes library.

• I still don’t think the Cavs can win their series with the Pistons, but it is just a 3-game series now, and they’ve at least shown me signs of life. If they make it to the Finals, somehow, work sure will be fun during those games.

• iWeb still isn’t working for me. The .Mac support team is helping me out, but it still crashes every time I try to publish an update to my blog. I can still publish if I republish the entire site, so I’ll keep updating for as long as I can.

Fave 5 - NBA Players of All-time

This is the one I promised last week, but ended up changing because of the “Lost” finale. That said, this isn’t a “greatest” list. It’s my 5 FAVORITE players. If I was doing a 5 greatest list, then I’m pretty sure four of these guys wouldn’t make the cut (though one of them has plenty of time left to get there).

5. Stacey Augmon (1991-2006)
The Plastic Man joined the Hawks as a rookie, playing alongside one of my other favorite players (see below), and immediately captivated me. It wasn’t just his high-flying dunks, but his shut-down defense too. Sure, he was never an all-star, but he was always exciting in those early years with the Hawks.

4. Allen Iverson (1996-Pres)
He does amazing things on the court, but this has nothing to do with what he does in games. It’s all about practice. We talkin’ ‘bout practice. Not a game, not a game, not a game. We talkin’ ‘bout practice.

3. Dominique Wilkins (1982-1997, 1998-99)
When I started watching the NBA, Nique was my favorite player right off the bat. He could do so many things on the court that no one else could, dunking with such grace and violence all at the same time. His teams were never successful, and those later years drifting around the league (and Europe) were kind of sad, but The Human Highlight Film will always hold a special place in my heart.

2. LeBron James (2003-Pres)
LeBron’s only been around for 4 seasons, but he’s also the only player I ever did a website for (the now-defunct LeBronJamesNews.com), and I’ve never lived and died with a player like I have with LeBron. Last night, I was driving home from work during the 4th quarter of Game 4, listening to it on a static-y radio station, trying to get any info I could on the game, and cheering wildly when the Cavs took the lead.

1. Michael Jordan (1984-93, 1994-98, 2001-03)
If this list WAS a list of greatest NBA players instead of my Fave 5, this still wouldn’t change. MJ is the best. Period. Kobe’s not better than MJ. LeBron’s not better than MJ. Simply put, he was the greatest player ever, and I loved watching his career. Seeing him play in person during his final season with the Bulls was one of my greatest thrills as a sports fan.

This Week in “Buffy” History: May 28-June 3

May 28
1970 - Glenn Quinn born (played Doyle on Angel)
1982 - Alexa Davalos born (played Gwen Raiden on Angel)

May 30
1951 - Stephen Tobolowsky born (played Principal Flutie in the unaired pilot of Buffy)
1979 - Jenny Mollen born (played Nina Ash on Angel)

May 31
1974 - Ara Celi born (played Ampata Gutierrez on Episode 2.04, “Inca Mummy Girl”)

June 2
1972 - Wentworth Miller born (played Gage Petronzi on Episode 2.20, “Go Fish”)
1997 - Episode 1.12, “Prophecy Girl”, airs on The WB

June 3
1987 - Lalaine born (played Chloe on Buffy)

Pirates 3=3 hours

Seriously, that’s all you need to know about the movie. It’s 3 hours long. And that’s about 90 minutes too long, based on what actually happens in the movie, which is so damn confusing that I’m still not sure what happened.

That said, it was enjoyable, at least for the action. Ignore the plot. Trying to figure it all out will hurt you. Just know this -- there’s lots of cool fights, and a fairly satisfying ending (but not too happy or perfect, even though it is technically a Disney movie).

Also, I must say that it’s pretty impressive that Elizabeth Swann (played by Kiera Knightly) can keep her make-up in perfect conditions on the high seas, even while in the gravest of dangers. Bravo, Ms. Swann, bravo.

iWeb still killing me

So last night to get my last post up, I did indeed have to republish the entire site. I e-mailed the .Mac support team, but haven’t heard anything back yet. Hopefully things will be working shortly (without me having to rebuild my entire site from scratch).

Also, last night, the Cavs lost Game 2, by the same score as Game 1. I think they should be able to win Game 3 at home, but I can’t say I’m anywhere near confident. The Pistons are a better team -- and I think of the Cavs starting 5, only LeBron would start for Detroit.

Also, worth noting that I’ve managed to get a ton of awesome stuff this week. My “Ultimate Matrix Collection” on HD DVD arrived Tuesday. I’ve watched all three movies, which look spectacular in HD, and I think Matrix Revolutions gets a bad rap. It wasn’t the ending we all wanted, but it was still a pretty awesome movie.

Also this week, I got my Emma Frost comiquette from Sideshow, the DST Gwen Stacy statue (which I’d been wanting for almost 2 years now) and Sideshow’s human Spike, one of the rarest Buffy figures.

I’m going over to my parents house later to have dinner with my dad, and then probably going to see Pirates of the Caribbean with PooZ and the gang at 8. Hopefully by then, I’ll have heard back from .Mac, so I won’t have to keep republishing to add blog entries (because if I do, my blogging frequency is going to plummet).

iWeb is killing me

Seriously, the last 3 times I’ve had to publish, I’ve had to do a re-publish of the entire site. At least this last time, I didn’t have to delete everything off my iDisk before publishing.

I popped into my domain file and deleted some preference files, so hopefully that will help. You’ll know soon, because either this will be online, or iWeb will continue to make my life hell, and it won’t go online.

If for some reason, this does work, I don’t want this whole post to be about iWeb not working, because, well, that would be some kind of strange irony I’m not prepared to deal with.

I’m currently watching the Veronica Mars series finale on my DVR, and I have to say, I’m actually relieved the series is ending. The CW messed with the show so much this season that it was nearly unrecognizable to VM fans, and rumor had it that the show was about to be messed with even more if it had been renewed. Now, with it going to the great beyond (a little early, like “Alias”) I can buy seasons 2 and 3 on DVD and re-live the show that way. Though, honestly, if I’m going to re-watch any season, it’ll be Season 1, which was the best season creatively.

Fave 5 - "Lost" Episodes

So I know I said I was going to do my Fave 5 NBA players of all-time this week, and I know Fave 5 is supposed to be posted on Wednesday, but after last night’s episode of “Lost”, I had to scrap the whole thing and change topics. So, here they are, my Fave 5 Lost episodes, and if you’ve talked to me at all today, you know what’s No. 1.

5. “Pilot” - Season 1, Episodes 1-2
This two-part episode got everything started. So many mysteries were set up right away, and some of them have yet to be answered to this day. It’s amazing to look back at this episode and think that in the original script, Jack was supposed to die at the end. Imagine how that would have changed things.

4. “Greatest Hits” - Season 3, Episode 21
Normally I don’t like episodes where the flashbacks don’t integrate well with the plot, but this episode was so touching. Charlie’s farewell to the people he cared about was particularly sad, knowing what he was about to do. I miss Charlie already.

3. “Numbers” - Season 1, Episode 18
The greatest mystery of the show has to be “The Numbers”. Everyone who watches knows them by heart now. 4. 8. 15. 16. 23. 42. This episode unveiled the first piece of the story behind them, leaving us with something to talk about for years to come.

2. “Lockdown” - Season 1, Episode 17
This episode raised so many questions, but also led us down the road to so many answers as well. This was the beginning of Ben’s emergence as a key character, the beginning of the end for Ana Lucia, and has the great Jack-Sawyer poker showdown.

1. “Through the Looking Glass” - Season 3, Episodes 22-23
Wow. Just, wow. This episode has everything! Dude, Sayid killed someone with his LEGS. Sawyer shot Tom in cold blood. And Jack finally gave Ben the total ass-whoopin’ he deserved! And the flashFORWARD. Holy crap! With only 3 seasons left (at 16 episodes a piece) we have a defined end date for the show, and now we have a sense of where the show is going. I couldn’t have been happier with this episode.

This Week in “Buffy” History: May 21-27

May 21
2002 - Episode 6.21, “Two to Go”, airs on UPN
2002 - Episode 6.22, “Grave” airs on UPN

May 22
1974 - Sean Gunn born (played Lucas on Angel Episode 1.09 - “Hero”)
2002 - Episode 5.22, “The Gift” airs on The WB (final “Buffy” episode on The WB)
2002 - Angel Episode 2.22, “There’s No Place Like Plrtz Glrb”, airs on The WB

May 23
1971 - Laurel Holloman born (played Justine on Angel)
2001 - Episode 4.22, “Restless” airs on The WB
2001 - Angel Episode 1.22, “To Shanshu in LA”, airs on The WB

May 24
1984 - Sarah Hagan born (played Amanda)

May 26
1923 - Roy Dotrice born (played Roger Wyndam-Pryce on Angel Episode 5.07, “Lineage”)

Birthday weekend...

I celebrated my 27th birthday this morning -- a few days late obviously -- having breakfast with my family. It was a good time. I got to see Lilah and Eli (and everyone else obviously) and I got my present from my sister: Mr. Gordo!

Obviously, Marcy spent a lot of time scouring my site to find something Buffy-related that I didn’t already have (a task that’s admittedly becoming harder) and she succeeded. She even referenced Mr. Feigenbaum (the other plush replica I don’t yet have) saying “now you need to get the bunny.”

Didn’t do much else of note this weekend. I mostly just cleaned and played video games. I popped in some games I hadn’t played in awhile, like “Fight Night Round 3” and “Rockstar Table Tennis” and even played some “Sonic Mega Collection.”

Oh, I also watched the Spurs-Jazz game today. Sure, it sucks not to have the Suns or the Mavs around for the West finals, but these are still two really good teams. Not as good as the supreme Cleveland Cavaliers, of course, but still pretty good (that was a joke of course -- outside of LeBron, the Cavs kind of suck. But at least they’re in the East Finals. Unfortunately, that probably means Mike Brown keeps his job for another year).

That’s all I have for now. I’ve made some additions to the Buffy collection page, so feel free to stop by and check it out. Tomorrow, I’ll post the updated “This Week in Buffy History” and my Fave 5 this Wednesday will probably be about my 5 favorite NBA players of all-time.

Happy birthday to me...

Well, another year has gone by. Not a whole lot has changed from this time last year. Still working. Still living in Manchester. Still single.

It’s funny, but this feels less like my birthday than any one I can remember. Right now, I’m actually getting ready to go to work, something I haven’t done on my birthday, I honestly think ever.

Oh well, hopefully the Bulls will give me a birthday present by beating the Pistons and forcing a decisive game 7 (then maybe tomorrow the Cavs can give me a late birthday present by, I don’t know, actually caring for once and finishing off the Nets).

Fave 5 - “Buffy” episodes... with exceptions

Here’s my first Fave 5 -- my 5 favorite “Buffy” and “Angel” episodes -- not including season finales and season premieres. Also, when I say “season finales”, I’m not just considering the actual final episode, but any multi-part or multi-arc episodes. So no “End of Days”, “Graduation Day, Pt. 1” or “Power Play.”

All that said, I did do a top 10 favorite “Buffy” episodes back in 2005. 6 of the episodes in that top 10 were non-finale, non-premiere episodes. That said, not all of them made the cut for this (and two episodes that didn’t make the cut back then make it now, on a technicality, because last time I didn’t include episodes from “Angel”).

FAVE 5 EPISODES... WITH EXCEPTIONS

5. “I Will Remember You” - Angel Season 1, Episode 8
Let’s just start with this statement -- most of these episodes are the kind that make you cry. This one is definitely one of them. Sarah Michelle Gellar may have been at her acting best in the scene where she finds out the Oracles are going to turn back time to erase the day she had with Angel. It’s rough, but makes for great TV.

4. “The Body” - Season 5, Episode 16
Probably the most serious episode of the entire series, where the cast deals with the sudden death of Buffy’s mom. It’s just an incredibly well-written and well-directed episode.

3. “The Wish” - Season 3, Episode 9
Sure, it’s a gimmick episode (alternate universe and all) but it’s done better than most gimmick episodes on most shows. Plus, it raises so many great discussion possibilities.

2. “You’re Welcome” - Angel Season 5, Episode 12
In my opinion, the 2nd-best episode of the entire “Angel” run (behind “Not Fade Away”). The sword fight with Lindsay is just awesome, and the final Angel-Cordy moment is a real tearjerker.

1. “Innocence” - Season 2, Episode 14
This episode is all about the Buffy-Angel relationship, and how that one moment changes the entire thing. The cruelty of Angelus toward Buffy is totally in contrast to Angel’s love for Buffy. Plus, I always enjoy how at the end, Buffy can hurt Angel, but she can’t kill him, setting the stage for the rest of the events for Season 2.

This Week in “Buffy” History: May 14-20

May 14
1983 - Amber Tamblyn born (played Janice in Episode 6.06, “All the Way”)
2002 - Episode 6.20, “Villains”, airs on UPN

May 15
1982 - Alex Breckenridge born (played Kit Holburn in Episode 7.01, “Lessons”)
2001 - Episode 5.21, “The Weight of the World”, airs on The WB
2001 - Angel Episode 2.21, “Through the Looking Glass”, airs on The WB

May 16
1969 - David Boreanaz born (played Angel)
2000 - Episode 4.21, “Primeval”, airs on The WB
2000 - Angel Episode 1.21, “Blind Date”, airs on The WB

May 18
1999 - Episode 3.21, “Graduation Day, Pt. 1” airs on The WB

May 19
1997 - Episode 1.11, “Out of Mind, Out of Sight” airs on The WB
1998 - Episode 2.22, “Becoming, Pt. 2”, airs on The WB
2004 - Angel Episode 5.22, “Not Fade Away”, airs on The WB

May 20
1956 - Dean Butler born (played Hank Summers, Buffy’s dad)
2002 - Angel Episode 3.22, “Tomorrow”, airs on The WB
2003 - Episode 7.22, “Chosen” airs on UPN (series finale).

Happy Mother's Day!

Obviously, I have to wish a happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there in the world, including my own, pictured here with my niece Lilah, who is considerably older now (she’s 4 1/2 and starts Kindergarten in the fall, how crazy is that?).

I had a nice breakfast with my mom and sister this morning, then went over to their house and spent some time with Lilah and Eli (my nephew/Godson) before coming home.

OK, on to other topics. Remember a few months back when I wrote that TV was good again? I may have jumped the gun. A couple weeks back, for the third time this season, a TV show that looked very compelling, and I’d gotten hooked on, was canceled. The latest was “Drive”, which joins “The Nine” and “Knights of Prosperity” on the sidelines. All three were very good shows, and all three had terrible ratings.

Now, obviously I understand that network television is a business, and if a show isn’t performing up to standards, something has to be done. That “something” shouldn’t be “canceling the show after four episodes” which is exactly what happened with “Drive.” A great concept, with a great cast, “Drive” was promoted nearly non-stop by FOX, then had the plug pulled when it couldn’t pull in an audience greater than 6 million. Of course, “Drive” had two things going against it from the start -- a late season debut, and an incredibly short season. Most shows, unless they’re reality show stunts, won’t survive under those circumstances. FOX should have at least given “Drive” its full run, then brought it back in the fall. If the ratings still sucked, then cancel it.

OK, on to better news. After my nice breakfast today, I came home and played “Spider-Man 3” on my 360 and finished the story mode. The last fight is awesome, since you get to play as both Spider-Man and New Goblin. Plus, it doesn’t cover everything that is in the movie, so there are actually still a couple surprises if you’ve somehow finished the game before seeing the movie.

Then again, based on the numbers, you’ve seen the movie. It’s almost up to $250M at the box office, which is just incredible.

I’m going to try to get back to daily, or near-daily, postings, and to help do so, I’m going to add two weekly features. First will be “This Week in ‘Buffy’ History”; I already have The Ultimate Buffy Calendar, which has the dates for every “Buffy” and “Angel” episode ever, and birthdates for the major stars and most guest stars on the show. So I’ll start spotlighting those events on a weekly basis, every Monday.

I’ll also, every Wednesday or Thursday, do my “Fave 5”. I’m sure you’ve seen the T-Mobile commercials advertising their “Fave 5” feature. Well, each week, I’ll write up something on my “Fave 5” in a given category. This week will of course be “Buffy” related -- my “Fave 5” episodes, not including season premieres or finales.

That’s it for now. See ya tomorrow.

Crazy court vision

Ho hum, another win.

Seriously though, how awesome is this? Right now the Cavs are 6-0 in the playoffs and winning games when they don’t even shoot 45 percent. Everyone on the team is doing absolutely everything the Cavs need, including the man pictured to the left, one King James.

Earlier this year, in this very blog, I criticized LeBron for what I perceived to be a decline in his much-hyped passing ability this season. In watching the Cavs during the regular season, it was evident to me that LeBron wasn’t finding his teammates in open spots like he’d done early in his career. Well, that changed during the playoffs, and his court vision was once again on full display Tuesday night.

It’s not often that a player can make a 36-point, 12-assist performance look easy, but that’s just what James did. With rare exception, whenever he was doubled -- or the Nets even flashed a threat of doubling -- he found someone in perfect position to score. That’s how the entire starting lineup ends up with double figures. As for those times when the double didn’t come? Well, that’s how James ends up with 36 points.

Right now, a Cavs-Pistons rematch looks inevitable. The only question remaining before that series is if both teams will be 8-0 in the playoffs entering the Eastern Conference Finals. I truly doubt it, but then again, I doubted that both the Cavs and Bulls could pull off sweeps in the first round, and yet they did. Now we could be looking at more double-sweep action in the East.

That hasn’t happened since ’99, when the Pacers and Knicks both swept their Eastern Conference Semifinals. However, the Knicks won their 1st round series 3-2 (the Pacers did enter the conference finals a perfect 7-0). Two teams meeting in the conference finals with perfect postseason records has never happened since the playoffs expanded to 16 teams in 1984. I doubt it will this year, but it’d be pretty cool, wouldn’t it?

Monday Morning Quick Hits

Just an FYI, these “quick hits” will probably be longer than usual, since I’ve got a lot to cover here.

• Despite what some people may tell you, “Spider-Man 3” was awesome. Yes, it wasn’t as good as the first two movies, and yes, it could have been 20 minutes shorter, but it was still awesome. I’ve seen it 3 times already, plus put in 12 hours on the video game, so obviously I love it. The three villain thing was handled well, with them showing up at different times, and not teaming up until the very end (and even then, all three of them don’t team up against Spider-Man, since that would be a nearly unbeatable scenario).

I really liked the Jazz club scene with Peter and Gwen (who looked better in the movie than I expected she would) since it was the kind of place that they would have gone in the comics -- because those were taking place in the late 60s. However, Peter’s actions toward Mary Jane in that scene, culminating with hitting her, were cold. As you all know, I’m a bigger fan of Mary Jane than of Spider-Man himself, so I wasn’t cool with what Peter was doing there.

Along those same lines, the kiss between Spider-Man and Gwen Stacy was just cold. That was completely wrong. I don’t care if Pooz says this makes me sound like a woman, but I have to completely side with MJ here: that was THEIR kiss. It was a unique moment that completely linked the Peter-MJ relationship and Peter just ignored that. And no, don’t give me that MJ duplicated the kiss with John Jameson in “Spider-Man 2” so that’s the same. It wasn’t. MJ was trying to see if she could have the same chemistry with someone else, and she knew at that moment that she couldn’t. What Peter did there was just cold.

All that said, I can’t wait for “Spider-Man 4”.

• The same night “Spider-Man 3” came out, the Warriors defeated the Mavericks in the biggest upset in NBA playoff history. I DVR’d the game and watched it without knowing the result, even though the game was already complete. When Baron Davis went down with his hamstring injury, I was tempted to stop and just check the score, figuring the Warriors would have lost. I’m glad I didn’t. Seeing Baron come back out from the locker room -- not quite Willis Reed style, but still pretty gutty -- and then hit that miracle three-pointer in the first half, was awesome.

Now the question for the Warriors is, can they win another series? The ’99 Knicks did it as an 8 seed, reaching the Finals, but that was the lockout shortened year and things were so off that year anyway. But for the Warriors, this may have well have been a shortened season. They didn’t really have their current roster together and gelled until March, so they’re really in only their third month together. Their full season record doesn’t reflect how good their team is now.

• I mentioned the “Spider-Man 3” game above, and it is indeed awesome. I finally reached a level that is just kicking my ass right now (the Kraven fight) but so far I’m happy with the game. Plus, I have yet to use a guide or an online FAQ, so the fact that I’ve gotten up to 48% game completion is pretty impressive. I’m hoping I can beat the entire game (or at least the main story mode) without looking up any info.

But there’s another game that’s taking up some of my time. I finally broke down and bought NBA Live 07 for my 360. The reason I held off so long is that the player movement was a little slow, even while using speed boost, but I had to have a basketball game. With the playoffs going on, I was in a basketball mindset. I’ve already started my season with the Cavs (and buried Eric Snow in my rotation, so he only plays about 2 minutes per game) and so far I’m undefeated through 8 games.

That said, the slam dunk contest mode, which I was excited about playing, is garbage. The game makes it so hard to execute any high score dunks, and most of your decent dunks are scored anywhere from 29-35. The gamebreaker dunking in the NBA Street games is the model EA should have used for NBA Live, but they didn’t.

• There’s a new Kelly Clarkson song out (if you haven’t been paying attention to my blog, Kelly is my new Britney, since Britney went all crazy). “Never Again” is the first single off her next album, and it’s not bad, but I feel like we’ve heard it before. It’s an amalgamation of a few of the songs off “Breakaway”, where I was hoping for a little more of another evolutionary step (like between “Thankful” and “Breakaway”). That said, I’ll still be getting the album when it comes out, and probably going to her concert at Mohegan Sun in August.

Thursday Afternoon Quick Hits

• Sorry about the 2 week disappearance again, but I went back to working a much crazier schedule and was considerably more tired than I’d been. Even on my two days off last week, I barely did anything. I basically just sat around playing video games and watching movies and relaxing.

• Warriors-Mavs Game 6 is tonight. I’m not sure I’ll watch it live, given the late night, but I’ll definitely record it on my DVR to save for prosperity. This could be the biggest upset in major sports history, much less NBA history.

• The latest issue of the Buffy Season 8 comic came out and I’m so happy about the way this arc is going. It’s everything I could have expected from an actual Season 8 of Buffy.

• Tomorrow’s the big day. Spider-Man 3. I plan on seeing it multiple times. It’s gonna be awesome. Go get ‘em, Tiger!