Buffy Fundraising Auctions - Final Week

Well, here we are, at the last week of my Buffy fundraising auctions. Last week was a little slow with the "Angel" related items -- in fact, the two Wesley figures and the two Darla figures are back up for bids -- but we're still around $380 raised so far (that's gross, not net, but I'm covering the eBay and shipping fees myself).

In addition to the two re-listed auctions from last week, I've got 12 new auctions up for bid, including two premium items, so check out the list.

Jersey Monday: Deion Sanders (Falcons)

Before there was LeBron, there was Deion. Growing up as a kid, Deion Sanders was my favorite athlete, and I showed my love for Deion by getting his football jerseys (baseball jerseys with names and numbers on the back were much harder to come by in the early and mid '90s, so I never got a Deion baseball jersey).

My first Deion jersey was this #21 Falcons jersey, which I got when I was in middle school. This, like many of my early jerseys, is a Champion jersey, and like all of the NFL jerseys from the early '90s, it doesn't have a name on the back. A few years later, once Deion had left the Falcons, I almost considered turning this into an Eric Metcalf jersey. It was the season Atlanta made Metcalf a run-and-shoot wide receiver, and he topped 100 catches and earned a Pro Bowl berth. I eventually decided against it, which was the right choice in the long run.

I honestly cannot remember the last time I wore this jersey. Because I got it early in middle school, it was tiny on me before I finished high school. Now I have no chance of fitting it in -- though that isn't the case with some of my other Deion jerseys.

Jersey Monday will continue every Monday until I run out of jerseys to spotlight. And since I’ve got more than 150 of them, that could be awhile. The next few weeks will spotlight my Deion Sanders collection.

This Week in Buffy History: May 30-June 5

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)

Series of Tubes: FlashForward Season Finale Reaction

For some reason, I was under the impression that this was a two-hour season finale, but in reality, it was only one hour, and that's probably for the best. "FlashForward" had long since spiraled out of control, and any lengthening of its demise would have just delayed the inevitable.

The episode was bouncing around between all these unfinished story lines, while also attempting to set up the next storyline -- the one that's never coming. In the end, the show's final hour was just as sprawling and confusing as the entire series, and like the series, it spent too much time worrying about characters who we as the audience never connected with.

Perhaps the worst part of the episode was that the moment of the flash-forward actually came about two-thirds of the way into the episode, which left about 15 minutes of set-up for a season that isn't going to come. And while the writers did a decent job showing us many of those flash-forward moments, we'd seen them so many times throughout the season that by the time they actually happened, it was less of a revelation and more of a relief.

24 Hours Left to Bid in Buffy Fundraising Auctions

Three weeks down, two weeks to go in my series of auctions to raise money for Slay-a-Thon 2010 this upcoming June.

Through three weeks of auctions, we've raised more than $200 for charity, but we need to keep it up if we're going to hit $500without dipping into my personal collection.

This week is "Angel Week" with the auctions, featuring six-inch action figures from Diamond Select Toys that are all "Angel" carded. I've paired figures together when they feature the same character, so again there are fewer auctions this week, but plenty of new figures up for grabs. Also, I've got a lot of the "Angel" comics from IDW Publishing available too (pictured above), if you want to catch up on that series.

Now, on to this week's auctions:

Friday Five - Whedonverse Singing Moments

With the Joss Whedon directed episode of "Glee" airing last week, and "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" coming out on Blu-ray this week, it's been a good time for fans of Joss's musical tendencies. But even outside of traditional musical media, Joss has always been making music a big part of his shows. Musical guests at The Bronze were a staple on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" right up until The Bronze was destroyed in Season 7. In season 2 of "Angel", they introduced Caritas, where Lorne, the Host, would read people's futures through the power of karaoke.

So, for this edition of Friday Five, I'll take a look at some of the most memorable musical moments from the Whedonverse, when characters burst into song unexpectedly. I'm excluding the ones that came IN musicals, so no "Once More, With Feeling", and no "Dr. Horrible"... also, I'm excluding "Mrs." from the Buffy Season 7 episode "Selfless", since it's really a flashback to OMWF.

5. Rupert Giles - "Behind Blue Eyes" (from the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" Season 4 episode "Where the Wild Things Are")

This was the first time we saw Giles sing on the show, and while our reaction wasn't quite as incredulous as Xander's, it was still pretty shocking. And funny. I particularly love Willow's lines.

This Week in Comics: May 26

When I last did this feature, back for comics released on May 12, I mentioned that I might be able to skip May 19, since it looked like a light week. Well, I did skip May 19, but it turns out that there were a handful of books released then that I ended up buying. We'll get to those eventually, but let's start with the new stuff.

As always with "This Week in Comics", I'm going to go in alphabetical order, starting with "Amazing Spider-Man", which had two books released this week.

The Amazing Spider-Man #632
The "Shed" subtitle for this ongoing arc finally makes sense, as The Lizard sheds his original skin and evolves into something greater. I like the decision to do this, since most Lizard stories go the same way (Connors becomes Lizard, he and Spider-Man fight, Spider-Man speaks to Connors's humanity, Lizard lies dormant again), but this time they've made it so they can't write that same conclusion. Also, a Lizard that's dangerous in more than just a physical way is simply a better villain. The only thing that really bothered me about this issue was the shift in artist. The last few pages are drawn by Emma Rios who has a notably different style from Chris Bachalo. Bachalo's dark, styalized look had been perfect for this series, but Rios seems to have a more traditional take on the look. It's a weird shift within the issue itself, but Bachalo is supposed to be back for the next issue.

The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #37
The main story of this book, the tale of the first meeting between Spider-Man  and Captain America, is just okay. It's nothing special, and doesn't really add anything to either character. The back-up story, featuring an in-universe development of a Spider-Man comic, is way too tongue-in-cheek and self-referential for my tastes. Unlike last year's annual (which was bloated, but at least had a major set-up at the end), this issue is entirely skip-able.

Dr. Horrible Blu-ray Review

Last night after navigating the annoying soccer-related traffic around Hartford, I managed to make my way to Best Buy to pick up "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" on Blu-ray. For those of you not familiar with "Dr. Horrible", you suck. But seriously, it was a three-part web series put together by Joss Whedon during the writers' strike, starring Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day.

I've watched the series countless times before, but didn't buy it on DVD for two reasons:

1. I don't buy DVDs anymore. It's Blu-ray or nothing for me.
2. I can watch the series any time I want on Netflix Instant View

Now that there's a Blu-ray release, reason #1 is out, but is buying the disc worth the $15, rather than the free Netflix option (well, free-ish, since you do have to pay for Netflix monthly, but if you're only paying so you can watch Dr. Horrible, then I can safely say it is long past time for you to buy a disc)?

The Movie
In case I hadn't made it clear above, "Dr. Horrible" holds up to multiple viewings. It's incredibly well-crafted, and tells a pretty complete story in just 42 minutes. What I love the most about it is how it turns the hero-villain dynamic on its head. Harris plays Dr. Horrible, who is a villain, but is the protagonist of the movie and also the character you're more likely to root for. Meanwhile, Fillion's Captain Hammer is a traditional hero, but serves as the film's antagonist and is also kind of a douche (I'll address that more later on). Plus, you can never have enough Felicia Day in your life.

Picture Quality
For something that was originally filmed for broadcast on the Internet, "Dr. Horrible" holds up surprisingly well to the scrutiny of 1080p Blu-ray (and I can finally say that with confidence, since I just got my new 52" LED LCD TV last week). Felicia's hair has never looked redder. MMMM. Oh, sorry, right. Review. The image isn't going to blow you away like say "The Dark Knight" or even "Serenity", but it looks very clean for such a low budget production.

Audio Quality
The Blu-ray gets a nice DTS upgrade over the DVD, and you can definitely hear it. For something that's a musical, the audio really matters more than the video, and that's where this release shines.  However, there was one issue I had with the audio, that we'll get to in a minute.

Special Features
This release is loaded with special features, the highlight of which is "Commentary: The Musical". It's an entire extra soundtrack of songs, recorded as a "commentary" track that serves to skewer the film-making process and commentaries themselves. The inclusion of this is worth the purchase price alone, particularly since you can't get "Commentary" just by watching on Netflix. However, disappointingly, "Commentary" is not in 5.1 surround sound. The songs themselves still come through loud and clear, but I could barely hear the snippets of dialogue between them. So I had to keep turning up my volume to hear those and then turn it down again when the songs started up. It was a minor issue, but an issue worth noting nonetheless. Still, it's hardly a dealbreaker, especially since "Commentary" is just one of a handful of special features that also include a traditional commentary, a making-of featurette, outtakes, a behind-the-scenes clip, and fan-submitted Evil League of Evil application videos. There's also a too-brief interview segment with the members of the Evil League of Evil. I'd love to see them featured more prominently in a sequel.

Summary
The "Dr. Horrible" Blu-ray is definitely worth owning, and it's worth upgrading over the DVD just for the audio track -- though if you're like me and you waited for the Blu-ray, you'll be happy you saved yourself $10, since the two releases are very similar. It's a must-have for any Joss Whedon fan, and even those unfamiliar with Joss's work will enjoy the story, the songs and the groupies (they do the weird stuff).

Also, I wanted to throw in one last thought about "Dr. Horrible", something that didn't hit me until last night. The whole story itself relies on an unreliable narrator. The plot is told from the perspective of Dr. Horrible/Billy, who is a villain in his world, but is cast as the hero (if not a tragic hero) in this story. However, isn't it entirely possible that there's a different version of the same story to be told, where Billy/Dr. Horrible is an annoying stalker-ish suitor of Penny who is frequently rejected and turns to evil to get revenge, while Captain Hammer is actually a Superman-esque bastion of good, without the douchiness? I wanna see someone make THAT movie too.

Desktop Girl of the Week: Rebecca Mader

As you may have read, I re-watched all of Season 6 of "Lost" prior to Sunday's series finale. One of the things that stood out to me was just how smokin' hot Rebecca Mader (who played Charlotte) was. She only appeared in two episodes this season ("Recon", the Sawyer-centric episode, and the finale), but was amazing looking in both of them.

Mader's hotness shouldn't come as a surprise, since she got her start as a model. She's done a number of guest appearances throughout her acting career, including brief runs on the soap operas "All My Children" and "Guiding Light". In 2006, she was cast on the short-lived FOX series "Justice", of which I think I watched one episode (I tuned in for Victor Garber, who I liked from his "Alias" days, but the show wasn't compelling enough to keep my attention).

Mader's big break came when she was added to the large ensemble cast of "Lost" a year later, playing Charlotte Lewis, one of the scientists who arrived on Charles Widmore's freighter. Sadly, her character was killed off during the time travel adventures in Season 5, when it was revealed that Charlotte had actually lived on The Island as a child. Still, the writers found a way to bring her back for two Season 6 episodes in the "flash-sideways" universe, where she looked hotter than she ever had on The Island.

"Lost" Video - "I Remember"

One of my favorite things about the "Lost" finale was the "I remember" clips -- the flashes that happened when characters remembered their past lives on The Island. So last night I threw all of them together in a single video.

These are only the clips from the finale, "The End", so they don't include the Desmond/Penny stuff from "Happily Ever After" or the Hurley/Libby stuff from "Everybody Loves Hugo". It's just the flashes from Sunday's episode (and yes, I included all of Jack's flashes, even the ones that lasted a split second).

The music is pulled from the last few minutes of the episode, just after the final snip of dialogue. I would have made it the actual last two minutes of music, but I couldn't get rid of the sound effect of Vincent barking. Still, I think I made it work. Check it out and let me know what you think.

NOOOOO! Christina Aguilera Tour Cancelled!

I was just about to write about how the Christina Aguilera "Bionic" Tour stop at Mohegan Sun was shaping up to be the centerpiece of "Summer of Adam 2010", when this horrible news arrived in my e-mail inbox:

Christina Aguilera's summer tour has been moved to 2011 due to prior commitments that the singer had made to her film Burlesque and to the promotion of her new album Bionic. The singer felt she needed more time to rehearse the show and with less than a month between the album release and tour date, this wasn't possible.

That's some bullshit right there. I'm PISSED about this. Christina currently occupies the top spot on my list of performers who I haven't seen live that I want to see (number 2 on that list is Sarah McLachlan, who I'm hoping to see at Lilith Fair this year).  I know that she's announced that the tour has been moved to 2011, but who knows what that year will bring for me. I was ready to see her in 2010.

Oh, well, I guess I'll just have to watch the "Keeps Gettin' Better" video a few hundred more times to hold me over.

Series of Tubes: 24, Chuck, HIMYM Season Finale Reactions

After all the "Lost" madness, I'm almost season finale'd out, so rather than give each of Monday's finales a separate post, I'm going to combine them and keep my thoughts brief.

"24"
I wasn't one of the people who watched this show from the beginning and never got totally invested in it, even when I caught up on all the seasons a couple years back. So losing "24" doesn't have the same impact on me as losing "Lost" does, and I'm not nearly as well-equiped to discuss the finale. I would have liked it if they'd gone all in and burned every bridge, ending the series with Jack killing President Taylor, then Chloe killing Jack, but the ending they came too -- with President Taylor realizing the error of her ways and telling Jack to go into hiding from the Russians -- was satisfying in its own way. It definitely leaves the window open for a potential future "24" movie without leaving too many loose ends from this season. Also, the scene of Jack biting off Reed Diamond's ear was just grotesque and awesome.
Grade: B+

Breaking Down "The End" of "Lost"

I know I wrote that I was going to do a full recap of "The End", the series finale of "Lost", but let's be honest, that would be insanely long, and I'd much rather you took the time to watch the episode rather than read a synopsis of it.

However, I do still have more to say about this episode, even after my rapid reaction from last night/this morning. First of all, I've been reading a lot of opinions on the Internet today in which people said, "see, I told you, the plane crashed and they were dead all along." If THAT'S what you got from last night's episode, then I'm not sure what episode you were watching.

Yes, in the final scene in the multi-denominantional religious building (seriously, they had every major religion represented in the back room and the windows), Christian Shephard made reference to everyone out there being dead, but he was specifically referring to the events of the "flash-sideways" universe (which should really be considered a massive flash-forward, since it had to take place after the last of those characters died). Those scenes, which only existed this season, all took place after the deaths of the characters, and only existed to bring them back together one last time.

Christian even said to Jack, "You're real. Everything that's ever happened to you is real. All those people in the church, they're all real too." This isn't that complicated people. How much more fucking clarity do you need?

As for other common complaints I've heard today, I'm going to explain why I had no problem with them, one-by-one:

Series of Tubes: Animation Domination Season Finales Reaction

While I was watching "Lost" last night, my DVR was recording the FOX animated series season finales. "American Dad" aired last week to make room for the one-hour "Family Guy" episode, but otherwise there were three animated series that wrapped up this week. Let's take a look at each of them.

"The Simpsons"
What more can be said about this show that hasn't been said over the past 21 seasons. On a weekly basis it generally makes you laugh, but it doesn't pack the punch it used to. The main story of Sunday's episode was Moe discovering a talent for insults and using it to become a contest judge, eventually working his way all the way up to "American Idol". Meanwhile, with Moe's closed, Homer was spending more time at home, getting on Marge's nerves. Was it entirely original? Not really. But it worked. Still, it was the second Moe-centric episode in the last three weeks. I like Moe, but not that much.
Grade: B- (the "Lost"-related blackboard joke saves it from falling into C territory).

Jersey Monday: Evan Longoria

I have to thank my parents for a lot of the jerseys in my collection. Often they'll travel and when they get there, they'll ask me if I want anything, and 9 times out of 10, my response is a jersey from one of the local teams.

That's how I ended up with an Evan Longoria Tampa Bay Rays jersey. The timing worked out pretty well, since the team had just changed their jerseys (and nickname) and Longoria had just been called up. The Rays ended up having their best season that year, reaching the World Series before losing to the Phillies.

I don't wear baseball jerseys very often, but my Longoria jersey is one of the few that I will wear, mostly because he's a damn good player and it's a nice simple jersey.

Jersey Monday will continue every Monday until I run out of jerseys to spotlight. And since I’ve got more than 150 of them, that could be awhile.

Lost "The End" Rapid Reaction

I'll have a full recap with reaction to "The End", the final episode of "Lost" at some point tomorrow, but for now I just wanted to share some quick thoughts on Sunday night's 2 1/2-hour finale.

I know that there will be some "Lost" fans who'll be disappointed with what they saw, but I think that was the most satisfying ending we could have expected from a show that has teased us with questions for six seasons. Anything that spelled everything out to the letter would have been a letdown, and only would have served to punch holes in so much of the mythology that they established over six seasons. In the end (no pun intended), we got an uplifting explanation for what we'd been calling the "flash-sideways" universe (and how much of a misnomer did that turn out to be?), and a solid conclusion to the on-island action.

In the end, the show was never about "explaining" what The Island was, beyond the metaphorical explanations Jacob gave us this season. But I don't think we needed anything more than that to be satisfied with the characters' actions. If Jacob's explanation of what The Island was and what needed to be done was good enough for Jack, and eventually Hurley, then it should be good enough for us too.

As for Jack giving up his post as the "next Jacob" so quickly, that actually made perfect sense. Jack volunteered for the job when it involved fixing something, specifically the smoke monster. He took care of that, then had one last thing to fix: the light. Once that was done, so was he. Jack was never about "protecting" things, he was always about fixing them. Hurley's the protector, and so it makes perfect sense that he ended up as the long-term replacement for Jacob.

I'll get into much more detail on the final "flash-sideways" explanation in my full recap, but for now, let me just say that I thought it was beautiful. I'm sure there is a large contingent of "Lost" fans that would have preferred the show stick to a pure science-fiction explanation, but I don't think anything they could have done from that standpoint would have been satisfying. This was. Were there characters that should have been in that final scene that weren't? Sure. Mr. Eko comes to mind, as does Walt, but in the end, the most important connections were there for "The End."

It might just be the afterglow of the episode, but I feel like that finale lifted Season 6 to "best season" status. There's no doubt in my mind that this episode gets an A.

For more coverage of the 2009-10 TV season finale episodes, click here. AdamReisinger.com will be sharing thoughts on the finales of nearly 20 different scripted series that have been part of our viewing schedule all year.

Lost-a-Thon 2010 is Complete; Questions remain...

Normally before the season premiere of "Lost", I'll re-watch the entire previous season in a day or two. But after tonight, there'll be no more season premieres of "Lost", so over the last 24 hours, I re-watched the first 16 episodes of Season 6, in advance of tonight's series finale.

A lot of the early flash-sideways stuff makes a lot more sense once you've seen all the episodes to date, and "Across the Sea" is definitely better upon the second viewing (and after having seen "What They Died For", which clears up some of the ambiguity of the preceding episode).

I'd have trouble saying that Season 6 is the best season of "Lost" -- especially before the series finale -- but it's right up there as one of the best (and honestly, if you ask 10 different "Lost" fans to rank the six seasons, you'll get 10 different answers. Mine so far: Season 5, Season 1, Season 6, Season 3, Season 4, Season 2. 3 would be higher if not for the six-episode mini-season that started it off, and the awful "Jack's tattoo" episode).

I've actually been impressed with how much "Lost" has answered this season, and I expect tonight's episode to bring even more answers. That said, I don't expect it to come to a simple conclusion, nor do I expect it to answer every question. So here are some of the mysteries of "Lost" that I expect will remain mysteries after tonight's episode:

This Week in Buffy History: May 23-29

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”)

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

Series of Tubes: More Season Finale Reactions

Yesterday I caught up on some season finales on my DVR before starting my season 6 Lost-a-Thon, and I wanted to share some quick thoughts and grade them before they got WAY too old.

Bones
This show has always been driven by its characters more than the procedural aspects, but generally the case is still interesting. That wasn't the case this week, when the case of the week seemed to only distract from the important character interactions. Also, I thought the "one year" thing that everyone ended up doing was a copout, and next season is probably going to start with "One Year Later". Lame.
Grade: C+

The Vampire Diaries
This aired last week (that is, to say, 10 days ago now) and I didn't have any urgency to watch it, because I thought there was another episode airing this past Thursday. Whoops. The episode wasn't bad. It did a nice job of wrapping up some of the big storylines of Season 1 (the vampires from the vault, Jeremy and Anna, Uncle John Gilbert and his fatherhood of Elena) while also setting up some stuff for next season (the Damon-Elena-Stefan love triangle, Jeremy's vampiric suicide, the other supernatural beings in town). The only problem I had with the episode was Bonnie -- at the beginning of the season, she didn't understand her powers at all, and in less than a year, she's somehow become one of the most powerful witches in the world.
Grade: B

Romantically Challenged
Unless ABC decides to burn off the remaining two episodes this summer -- highly unlikely -- this serves as the series finale for the Alyssa Milano vehicle. I will say that there was one moment in this episode (when Rebecca was talking about her past relationships with her date and realizing she was turning him off) that I laughed, but otherwise it was just as trite as the previous 3. The show never felt like it knew what it wanted to be. Was it an ensemble comedy or a star-driven project for Milano? Was it cute or raunchy? Did it want to be about Milano's character balancing a career, being a single mom and trying to date, or just set her up with a series of hapless dates for comedy purposes? I know it's hard for a show to define itself in four episodes, but it didn't seem like it was going anywhere. And that laugh track, oh God, that laugh track.
Grade: D

For more coverage of the 2009-10 TV season finale episodes, click here. AdamReisinger.com will be sharing thoughts on the finales of nearly 20 different scripted series that have been part of our viewing schedule all year.

Friday Five - Memorable Movie Spoilers

SPOILER ALERT!

In honor of the 30th anniversary of the release of "The Empire Strikes Back" -- which contains one of the most spoileriffic moments in movie history -- I've decided to dedicate this week's edition of Friday Fave to some of the great "spoiler alert" moments in movie history. You know, the ones that if you heard them before seeing the movie, you were pissed about. So, um, if you haven't seen any of these movies, you might want to stop reading (also, if you haven't seen any of these movies, how's the cave you're living in? Nice and dank? Also, how do you get internet access in your cave?).

5. "The Sixth Sense"
I'm starting with this one, because it's the only one on the list that was spoiled for me. Technically it was only semi-spoiled, but the day before I went to see it, two of my co-workers were talking about it in the office, and one of them said something like "I totally didn't see the twist at the end coming". This was before everyone knew that EVERY M. Night Shyamalan movie had a twist ending, so when I saw Bruce Willis get shot at the beginning of the film, I knew he was dead for the rest of it. BTW, if you already know he's dead, the movie isn't particularly good.

Series of Tubes: Fringe Season Finale Reaction

I should have known better than to expect a big explosive ending to the "Fringe" two-part season finale (the first part of which aired last week), but I was still disappointed when the episode seemed to go out with a whimper, not a bang.

With all the key players over in the "other" universe, Olivia, Walter and William Bell worked together to get Peter back before Walternate could use him to power the universe destroying machine. But, in the end, that wasn't what the episode was about. It turned out to be a setup for next season, with a twist that everyone should have seen coming.

At one point in the episode, OUR Olivia changed her hair to match the alternate Olivia, so she could easily get to Peter. Anyone who's ever watched any TV at any point knew that this would result in an Olivia mixup at some point, and that's exactly what happened. In the climactic scene, Olivia used a grenade to clear away the alternate universe's Fringe officers, and got knocked out. William Bell woke her up and brought her inside, where he sacrificed himself to get Olivia, Walter and Peter back to the real universe. Only, Olivia was strangely quiet the entire time.

Series of Tubes: 30 Rock Season Finale Reaction

I'm giving out my first A of the 2010 finale season, and it's no surprise that it goes to "30 Rock" this show makes me laugh every week, and last night's episode was no exception.

I could run down everything I loved about the episode, but that would take way too long and in the end I'd end up just transcribing the entire thing in this blog post. So let's wrap up this episode, Olympic style:

Bronze Medal
The conversation between Jack and Liz at Cerie's wedding, where Jack explained that he just had to pick one of the two women he loved.

Jack: "The world is made by those who control their own destiny. It isn't made by those who don't do, it's made by those who do do. Which is what made me the man I am. I do do."
Liz (smiling and laughing): "Yeah."
Jack: "Grow up, Lemon." 

That was one of the three times I had to pause the episode I was laughing so hard.

Silver Medal
Everything Avery Jessup (Elizabeth Banks) did in the episode. It's not enough that she's smoking hot, but she gets some of the best lines too. Again, I go to a conversation that happened with her and Jack:

Jack: But, maybe it's too hard with the career, motherhood, keeping it tight to stay camera ready for breaking news. I mean, sure, Soledad O'Brien does it but...

Avery: I wipe the floor with that bitch.

And her "Overshoppe.com" commercial with her Maryland accent was priceless.

30 Days to Slay-a-Thon

We're now just 30 days away from one of my favorite events of the year: Slay-a-Thon, a "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" themed charity event to raise money for the Make-A-Wish foundation.

After my original post last month, I started selling my extra "Buffy" and "Angel" action figures on eBay to raise money for the event. So far I'm covering the eBay fees and shipping charges out of pocket to raise as much money as possible, and we're up to about $250 through two weeks. This week's auctions have been moving a little slower, but hopefully things will pick up in the last day of bidding.

If you've been holding out on bidding for something, waiting to see what's next, well, here's the full list of six-inch action figures that are going to go up on eBay in the next two weeks: Pylean Demon Angel, Season 5 Angel, Season 4 Wesley, Rain of Fire Wesley, Pylean Princess Cordelia, You're Welcome Cordelia, Judgment Lorne, House Always Wins Lorne, Reunion Darla, Season 2 Darla, Season 5 Spike, Vampire Buffy, Chosen Buffybot, Deluxe Graduation Day Buffy, Red Dress Glory, The Gift Dawn & Glory, Season 5 Anya, The Wish Cordelia, Lessons Dawn, Autographed Red Dress Glory.

I've also got a Villains Willow Bust and a lot of Buffy Season 8 and Angel: After the Fall comics I'm going to post.

Series of Tubes: Modern Family Season Finale Reaction

When I watched the pilot episode of "Modern Family", I was disappointed, but the show grew on my quickly, once I "got" the humor it was going for. Within its own little world, it's very funny, and I really like the characters because on any given week, any of them can be the star of the episode.

The season finale was very Claire-driven, as she tried to get everyone together for a perfect family portrait, but pretty much everyone in the cast got his or her moment in the sun. I loved the misunderstanding between Phil and Claire over what Claire had seen Phil do at the basketball game. Hell, even guest star Kobe Bryant got a little zinger in (though Pau Gasol's cameo got cut, which was kind of a disappointment, since it would have meant more Gloria and less Phil).

To me, the only real "miss" in the episode was Mitchell and Cam's original argument. The conflict between them just felt forced, for the sake of bringing it back at the end of the episode. Still, Mitchell's reaction to the pigeon in the house was hilarious and believable (you should see me when I spot a bee in my living room).

I'd give the episode an A-. It made me laugh, and did so without making me wonder how these characters would ever survive in the real world, which is way more than I can say for most sitcoms on TV these days.

For more coverage of the 2009-10 TV season finale episodes, click here. AdamReisinger.com will be sharing thoughts on the finales of nearly 20 different scripted series that have been part of our viewing schedule all year.

StubHub Responds!

OK, so ever since publishing my "Fuck You StubHub" rant from a few days back, I'd noticed some traffic from eBay headquarters in my server logs. I didn't think anything would come of it, but today I received this e-mail:

For those that can't see the image, here's the e-mail text:

Dear Mr. Reisinger,

I am so sorry that my email revived your disappointment over the Cavs loss. I did email everyone who had last purchased Celtics tickets in Boston these reminders but your post has enlightened me to the fact that I may be reminding scores of ardent fans of things better left to heal until next season.

I will make sure that you do not receive any more marketing emails from us unless you explicitly request them.

Once again, I am very sorry.

Sincerely,
Laura Morris

Wow, what a nice touch. I really didn't expect them to do anything, but now they've at least won my business back for my future ticket needs.

Series of Tubes: V Season Finale Reaction

When I heard the news that "V" had been picked up for next season (though as a midseason show) while "FlashFoward" was canceled, I was disappointed, but not surprised. You see, "FlashForward" set up its story so that it could exist as a single-season show. "V" on the other hand has moved forward so little this season that it NEEDED a second season. Tuesday's finale at least moved things forward in a way I feel no other episode did this season.

After a season of build-up and minor conflicts between Fifth Column and the Vs, we finally got a major event -- Erica using a "blue energy" bomb to destroy Anna's soldier babies. It wasn't the event that was the big deal (don't forget, this same group already blew up a shuttle), but Anna's reaction to it. She completely snapped, experiencing human emotion for the first time, and sending the Vs into attack mode.

Look, I understand that this show had to do SOMETHING to move the conflict forward, but I would have much rather seen a cold, calculating Anna make the same move. It didn't help that Morena Baccarin, who I normally love, really over-acted the entire scene. Still, the visual of the sky going completely red as the ships moved in was cool.

Birthday Buffy and Faith

As you may remember from the "30 Years of Adam" series, back in 2006, PooZ drew me some slick artwork of Mary Jane Watson for my birthday.

Well, this year, he delivered again, with a matching set of Buffy and Faith artwork, rendered beautifully in marker. It's a different style from what I've normally seen from him, but the matched pair is stunning. He gave them to me on Monday, but I didn't get them hung until today.

I had to move some stuff around in my condo to make a place for them, but it was worth it. My DVD collection is now hidden away in what used to be my dining room, and the Buffy display that was once in there is now in the hallway outside my bedroom, The two new pieces are flanking my autographed Sarah Michelle Gellar picture. It all looks pretty cool, thanks to PooZ.

Check out more close-up pictures of the two pieces of artwork after the jump.

Lost "What They Died For" Recap/Reaction

After last week's kind-of-mystifying episode, this week's episode was so full of awesome that I don't know where to begin. Rather than recap the whole episode in order, I'm going to break it down into the three main areas of interest: Jacob's group (with Jack, Hurley, etc.), Ben's group (which met up with Flocke and Widmore) and the flash-sideways universe.

Let's take the last one first. This week's flash-sideways opened up with an iconic Jack eye shot as he's waking up. There's a nice happy family scene with his son (oh, and to get this out of the way, we still don't know the identity of his mother) and Claire, at the end of which, Jack gets a call from Oceanic Air about locating his lost cargo (aka his dad's body). Only it's not Oceanic calling, it's Desmond.

Desmond continues to manipulate everyone in the flash-sideways universe into seeing their "true" reality. He goes back to the school where he ran over Locke, but before he can run him over again, he's confronted by Ben. Desmond whoops on Ben much like he did at the dock a couple seasons back, and Ben gets glimpses of that beatdown. After that, Desmond goes to the police station -- the one with Sawyer and Miles -- and turns himself in. He gets locked up in a holding cell, where he meets Sayid and Kate. Man, this guy is REALLY connected.

It's fun to see Desmond working like this, and realizing just how powerful his Widmore connections are. They had to establish him as a connected man in this reality, otherwise all this stuff that's going on now would just seem absurd.

Desktop Girl of the Week: Stana Katic

This feature isn't "Desktop Girl Who I Saw on TV Monday Night of the Week", but sometimes it feels like that, particularly since I watch a lot of Monday TV series and DGOW runs on Tuesday. But regardless of which day of the week Stana Katic graces my screen, she's definitely worthy of being a DGOW selection.

For those unfamiliar with this Canadian beauty, Ms. Katic plays Detective Kate Beckett on the ABC series "Castle". She got the role back in 2008, after having supporting roles as sexy women in the movies "Quantum of Solace" (which you should definitely see) and "The Spirit" (which you should see under no circumstances, even though it has Stana along with ScarJo and Eva Mendes... it's THAT bad).

Fans of the recently canceled (FINALLY!) series "Heroes" may also recognize Stana as Hana Gitelman, who could send and receive wireless messages with her mind. Though her power was woefully underutilized on the show itself, the Gitelman character was a major part of the Heroes comics during the first season, and Katic did a solid job translating her to the screen.

Fuck You StubHub

I haven't taken the Cavaliers loss in the Conference Semifinals very well, but given time, I'm starting to get over it.

Or, at least, I was, until THIS arrived in my inbox a few minutes ago:

Celtics quest for the championship! Where do you want to sit? How about NOWHERE THE FUCK NEAR THE CELTICS!

Look, StubHub, I know the last time I used your site, it was to buy tickets to a Celtics game in Boston. However, if you take a look at my entire purchasing history, you'll see that every event I've ever purchased tickets for has involved one team: the Cleveland Cavaliers. I do NOT want to go see the team that knocked them out of the playoffs. So go suck it, StubHub Spam Team. You're on the list.

Series of Tubes: Gossip Girl Season Finale Reaction

Ding-muthafuckin-dong, the bitch is dead.

That was my reaction (more or less) upon seeing Jenny Humphrey get her ass shipped up state at the end of the "Gossip Girl" Season 3 finale, where hopefully she can discover an interesting storyline while actress Taylor Momsen can discover the joy of eating more than once a month.

The funny thing is, I used to like Jenny as a character. Back in Season 1, when she was so desperate to be Blair's successor then realized that Blair wasn't the perfect role model Jenny thought she was, Jenny was actually fun. But then came Season 2 and the DRAMA (OMG! Jenny's moving out! OMFG! Jenny's wearing raccoon makeup!) and she continued to spiral out of control in Season 3, to the point that she was unlikeable, unwatchable, and then finally just utterly uninteresting. The writers tried so hard to play "top this" with Jenny's idiocy that none of it registered anymore.

That's why the season finale's first big shocking moment -- Jenny losing her virginity to Chuck -- wasn't a shock at all. It was just Jenny being Jenny; that is, thinking only of herself while not even considering the consequences. Hell, she was fine with the entire thing until Chuck went back to Blair, when she had her emotional breakdown (in, to be fair, the best bit of acting Momsen has done this season).

Series of Tubes: Castle Season Finale Reaction

I know a lot of people wanted this to be the episode where Castle and Beckett finally got together, while others think that's the moment the show is gonna fall apart. I actually think the Castle/Beckett relationship is in exactly the right place: they're two characters who have trouble expressing how they truly feel, and they keep looking for excuses to not admit the truth to each other.

In this case, for most of the season finale (and the past few episodes) it was Beckett trying to have a relationship with the other cop (whose name I've already forgotten), but by the end of the episode, she'd come around to realize what she felt for Castle... just in time to see Castle head to the Hamptons for the summer with his ex-wife/publisher Gina (his second ex-wife, not his first ex-wife/Alexis's mom, played by the amazingly beautiful Darby Stanchfield).

While this show, plot-wise, is a procedural, it's really more about the relationships between the characters, and that was at the center of Monday night's plot. The case, which centered around a man who was killed while playing some kind of real-life spy game, was actually just a way to show how so much pain could have been avoided if the people involved with the murder had just talked to each other. The chief even said as much to Beckett, in a line that probably didn't actually need to be written, but really hammered the point home for those that weren't getting it.

Overall, I'd give this episode a B. It wasn't spectacular, but it held my attention well enough to get to the good stuff at the end. The whole concept of the "Spy Ventures" real-life game was actually pretty cool, and I could definitely see myself doing something like that if it existed. Also, we finally got another one of Castle's poker game scenes, and the real life authors who appeared as themselves had some of the best lines of the show. I'd like to see more than one of those scenes next season.

For more coverage of the 2009-10 TV season finale episodes, click here. AdamReisinger.com will be sharing thoughts on the finales of nearly 20 different scripted series that have been part of our viewing schedule all year.

Series of Tubes: American Dad Season Finale Reaction

American Dad's season order was shortened to make room for the already-canceled "Sons of Tucson", so the show aired its season finale this week, instead of next week like the other FOX animated series.

Unlike "Family Guy", "American Dad" has never been a huge hit, and it generally only gives me a few chuckles a week. However, with "Family Guy" taking a huge dump on its fanbase this season, I can at least rely on "American Dad" to be kind-of funny on a weekly basis, which it was this week.

The season finale featured the Smith family giving Roger a birthday roast which resulted in a series of harsh jokes at Roger's expense (which I really enjoyed, because Roger is my least favorite character on the show). Roger pretended that the roast spurred him to clean up his life, but really he just was using the self-improvement as a cover for trying to kill the rest of the family.

By the end of the episode, everyone reconciled after Roger forced the Smiths to roast each other, then realized thy were laughing not crying. There was some stuff about Roger being a real member of the family and... ya know what, whatever. The actual story isn't important, because it's a fucking cartoon. Plot devices are completely discarded on a regular basis. Did it make me laugh? A little, which is par for the course with this show.

The best jokes -- aside from the Roger insults -- were the two in-show "product placement" style ads. They were just the right amount of satire and stupidity (Fran's jealously of the OnStar woman was a nice touch).

For more coverage of the 2009-10 TV season finale episodes, click here. AdamReisinger.com will be sharing thoughts on the finales of nearly 20 different scripted series that have been part of our viewing schedule all year.

Jersey Monday: Doug Williams

What, you thought I wasn't going to do Jersey Monday just because it's my birthday. Au contraire, jerseys have always been a staple of my birthday, even before I collected jerseys.

When I was a little kid, I quickly became attached to the Mets and Redskins (man, if I could go back in time I'd pick some better teams... hell, I live in New England, I could be a douchebag Boston fan with an ignorant pink-hatted girlfriend). Being a discerning child, I picked my favorite players on these teams using a system with advanced metrics, combining on-field efficiency, leadership, and salary. Or, I picked them because they both wore the number 17, which was the day of my birth.

For the Redskins, that player was Doug Williams, who also engineered one of the greatest moments in Super Bowl history. Williams wasn't the BEST Redskins player on those teams, and he wasn't the first player I wanted a jersey of (and you should know who WAS if you've been following Jersey Monday), but he was number 17, which made him cool in my book.

A few years back, I was with some friends when we came across a store that sold a ton of Mitchell and Ness jerseys. I almost passed on this Williams jersey to get a 1994 throwback John Elway (the white '60s style), but PooZ convinced me that I should probably get the jersey of the player who I liked growing up, even if I only liked him because of his jersey number.

I always wanted to wear number 17 whenever I played for a team growing up. I only stopped signing my name with the number 17 a couple years ago. Yeah, I'm a huge dork. A huge dork who was born on the 17th.

Jersey Monday will continue every Monday until I run out of jerseys to spotlight. And since I’ve got more than 150 of them, that could be awhile.

Series of Tubes: Desperate Housewives Season Finale Reaction

I'm gonna make this quick since I want to get on to other things on my birthday, but I really enjoyed last night's "Desperate Housewives" season finale. In the past, there's usually been some big character secret revealed to the audience during the finale, but that wasn't the case this time. We already knew about Angie's past, we already knew Kenny was the killer and the big secret that Brie told Gaby (which didn't happen until the final voiceover of the episode) was something we saw happen on screen years ago.

Unburdened from the concept of a "secret reveal", the show was able to focus on character interactions, which is what it's been best at for six seasons. And quite frankly, compared to some of the past season finales, this one actually ended up with workable endings for most of the main characters. Sure, Brie had to sign over her company and tell Gaby about Andrew running over Mrs. Solis (something she decided to do only after Orson left) but things could have been much worse for her.

Angie's gone now, which is pretty much standard for the "mystery of the season" housewives. I liked the bomb twist, though it seemed a little to convenient that no main characters were actually in danger of being exploded -- especially given how they promoted the episode all week.

As for all the set up for next season, I'm looking forward to it. Paul Young being back brings the whole show full circle, and I can't wait to find out whose child doesn't really belong to them (my early money's on Andrew, which would tie in nicely to this season's finale, though don't count Julie out either).

Overall, I'd give the episode a B+, which is much better than I felt about most of this season.

For more coverage of the 2009-10 TV season finale episodes, click here. AdamReisinger.com will be sharing thoughts on the finales of nearly 20 different scripted series that have been part of our viewing schedule all year.

Birthday Breakfast is Served

Scrambled eggs... bacon... a bagel... a mimosa. Yeah, it's a Happy Birthday so far.

Happy Birthday to Me!

There's a scene in "Iron Man 2" where Tony Stark is getting ready for his birthday, and he asks his new assistant -- Natasha Romanoff, still undercover as Natalie Rushman -- a contemplative question. "What would you do if you knew it was your last birthday," he asks (I know I don't have the quote exactly right, but that's not the point). Her response: "I'd do whatever I wanted, with whoever I wanted to do it with."

Well, here we are, for my 30th birthday. I don't KNOW that it'll be my last birthday, but I don't know that it won't be either. No day is ever promised to us. However, I'm not Tony Stark, so I don't have the means to do "whatever I want, with whoever I want". But what if I did...

30 Years of Adam: 2009

Adam Reisinger, the creator of AdamReisinger.com, turns 30 on May 17, 2010. As part of the countdown to his 30th birthday, AdamReisinger.com looks back on May 17th each year since 1980.

Compared to some of the other headlines that have happened on my birthday throughout my life, the headlines last year were pretty boring. There was a 4.7 earthquake in Inglewood, but let's be honest, in California, that barely registers. 

I was busy -- using that word loosely -- waiting for the NBA's conference finals to begin. Of course, the less said about the 2009 Eastern Conference Finals the better. Then again, at least last year the Cavs actually made the conference finals. Also on my 29th birthday, the Mets lost 2-0, which actually might have been one of their better games of the year. Go sports!

Well, it's been almost a full year since I turned 29. Crazy, right. Who knows what tomorrow -- and the next year -- will bring?

Buffy Fundraising Auctions - Week 3

Two weeks down, three weeks to go in my series of auctions to raise money for Slay-a-Thon 2010 this upcoming June.

Through two weeks of auctions, we've raised more than $200 for charity, and now we're really getting into the good stuff, again without dipping into the massive collection I've accumulated through the years.

This week is "Deluxe Week" with the auctions, featuring figures from all three series of Deluxe 6-inch figures from Diamond Select Toys. I've also paired some figures together, so there are fewer auctions this week, but 10 new figures up for grabs. Hopefully we'll have another good week and we can get closer to that $500 goal.

Now, on to this week's auctions:

This Week in Buffy History: May 16-22

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).

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

Don't forget, Slay-A-Thon 2010 is on June 19. Please help out with a donation if you can.

Site Updates: Buffy Comics, TV Finales and more...

I just wanted to give everyone some quick updates about new and upcoming features on AdamReisinger.com:

- Yesterday I went to add some items to my Buffy Collection page, and I saw the notice on the front page about how the comic thumbnails didn't link to full-size images but they would by May 17. Yeah, two months ago when I put that up, I figured I'd definitely get to it before my birthday. Well, I finally did, yesterday. So check that out, for some new items and some full-sized comics pictures.

- I'd noticed that my review of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", Season 8, Issue #34 was still getting lots of traffic, even from people who were looking for my review of Issue #35. To rectify that, I set up a page that has all my Buffy comic reviews. Also, all the reviews since Issue #27 (when I re-started the monthly reviews) have navigation links at the bottom of the page to get you to the previous and next review.

- As you may have seen this morning, I started my series of season finale reviews (re-introducing the "Series of Tubes" branding in the process). I'll be reviewing the season finales of all the remaining shows I watch, including probably a massive overload on the day of the "Lost" finale (Sunday, May 23).

- Don't forget, we're about a month away from Slay-a-Thon 2010. I'm still accepting straight-up donations (and I'd really like those, as would the good folks at the Make-A-Wish foundation), but I've also got the ongoing auctions of my extra "Buffy" collectibles. The next set will go up later today.

Series of Tubes: Smallville Season Finale Reaction

I'm not sure why I still watch "Smallville". I started watching for James Marsters, and I guess I kept watching because Erica Durance is hot, but the show itself is an exercise in futility. This year's season finale proved that more than ever.

First, the show opened with what appeared to be a glimpse of the future. Lois was the Daily Planet's star reporter, looking a little Sarah Palin-ish while emerging from Perry White's office and bossing around a photographer named Olsen. She opened a paper to see the front page headline, that Lex Luthor was running for president, before Superman (who was only seen via reflections and distance glimpses) stopped a plane from crashing into the Daily Planet building. 

The scene was incredibly brief, and turned out to actually be a dream Clark was having, but it showed all the things wrong with "Smallville". First of all, even if Lex Luthor turns out to be alive -- and he's seemed pretty dead for the past couple of seasons -- he couldn't run for president in 2013... since by that point there wouldn't be an election until 2016. Also, even if he was announcing a run in 2016, based on the timeline of the show, there's no way he'd be 35 in 2016. Also, Olsen, if it's Jimmy, is dead, and everyone at the Planet has seen Clark sans glasses for years now, so his double life as Superman would be near impossible to pull off. This show has wrecked any possibility of flowing into an eventual Superman continuity. 

30 Years of Adam: 2008

Adam Reisinger, the creator of AdamReisinger.com, turns 30 on May 17, 2010. As part of the countdown to his 30th birthday, AdamReisinger.com looks back on May 17th each year since 1980.

On May 17, 2008 -- my 28th birthday -- 3,000 people were evacuated from Lafayette, Louisiana because of a hydrochloric acid spill. That's pretty bad, but it could've been worse. I mean, it's not like the derailed train cars were spilling a non-stop flow of oil that resulted in a giant oil mass the size of Rhode Island... oh wait... that's, kinda, ya know, happening now. Man, thank God the Saints won the Super Bowl or Louisiana wouldn't have anything going for it (of course, maybe this is karma for the state giving us JaMarcus Russell). 

May 17, 2008 was an off day in the NBA playoffs, the day between Game 6 and Game 7 in the Eastern Conference Semifinal series between the Cavaliers and Celtics. Unlike this year, there actually WAS a Game 7 needed in 2008, and despite the fact the Cavaliers lost, it was actually considered something of an achievement for that team to lose to the Celtics. I'm done talking about this now, though, because basketball makes me angry right now.

The Mets actually managed to not make me angry on my 28th birthday, beating the Yankees 7-4. Of course, the 2008 Mets ended the season much like the 2007 Mets did, setting the stage for a horrible 2009. I still hate sports.

30 Years of Adam: 2007

Adam Reisinger, the creator of AdamReisinger.com, turns 30 on May 17, 2010. As part of the countdown to his 30th birthday, AdamReisinger.com looks back on May 17th each year since 1980.

On May 17, 2007, Gordon Brown was confirmed as the next leader of Britain's Labour Party, and here we are, 3 short years later, with Brown out, leading to some really funny episodes of "The Daily Show" (which is really all I care about when it comes to British politics... or American politics for that matter).

I wasn't paying any attention to the British elections on my 27th birthday. Instead, I was keeping an eye on the Pistons-Bulls series, where the Bulls had made it 3-2 after falling behind 3-0. However, on my birthday, they couldn't deliver another win, resulting in the Pistons advancing to the conference finals. At the time, I wasn't too happy about that, but it set the stage for this, so it all worked out.

The Mets also won on the 17th, taking a 1 1/2 game lead in the NL East. In fact, let's pretend that's how the season ended, so we don't rehash the horrors of 2007.

This Week in Comics: May 12

Back when I would blog on AdamNPooZ.com, I would occasionally do this thing called "This Week in Comics", where I gave brief mini-reviews of the comics I bought that week. I kind of miss doing that, so I'm bringing it back on AdamReisinger.com, and what better week to do it than Marvel's biggest shipment week of the year.

Let's get right to the merchandise.

Amazing Spider-Man #631

This second part of the "Shed" storyline gets to the actual re-emergence of The Lizard, who is one of Spider-Man's oldest and coolest villains. I loved the internal battle between the psyches of Connors and The Lizard. Also the first few pages -- and the last page -- did a nice job tying this book and storyline into the long-in-the-making "Gauntlet" story. 

Black Widow #2
This series launched last month, likely to capitalize on the "Iron Man 2" hype because the character appears in that movie. The book is actually well written, but definitely requires a lot of pre-existing knowledge of Natasha/Black Widow. Also, after reading the first two issues a month apart, I feel like this is one of those books that will read better as a collected trade. Still, the title has a lot of promise, and Daniel Acuña's art is pretty nice.

Friday Five - Things That Are Better Than Sports

I'm in a very anti-sports mood today, thanks to last night's LeBacle (the Mets losing to the Marlins and the Redskins going after Brian Westbrook didn't help), but that doesn't mean I have to be down, because there are some things in my life that I can enjoy that have nothing to do with sports. Here are five of them:

5. "Iron Man 2"
I'm going to see it again later tonight, this time in IMAX. In case you missed last week's review, I fucking love this move.

4. Comics
This was a massive week for shipping from Marvel, and pretty much every book I bought this week I liked. I'll have more on this either later today or tomorrow.

3. Video Games
You know what's great about video games: the reset button. Like, if the Eastern Conference Semis were a video game, I could have hit the reset button halfway through Game 5 and started the game -- or even the entire series -- over. Life needs save points.

2. Alcohol

1. Christina Hendricks
Yes, please.

Why I Hate Sports

For the past 25 years, I've been in an abusive relationship. I've tried to leave, but I keep getting sucked back in by promises that things have changed and it'll be better from now on.

Well, no more. I'm finally breaking up with sports.

Sports are supposed to be fun. They're supposed to provide the fans with joy, pleasure and entertainment. Well, that sure the fuck didn't happen last night, as the Cavaliers were knocked out of the postseason early for the second consecutive season. After last year's loss to Orlando, even the good moments during Cleveland's 61-win regular season weren't joyful. They were more like feeling of nervous anticipation, a "please don't let me down, please don't let me down" plea that wasn't answered.

30 Years of Adam: 2006

Adam Reisinger, the creator of AdamReisinger.com, turns 30 on May 17, 2010. As part of the countdown to his 30th birthday, AdamReisinger.com looks back on May 17th each year since 1980.

My 26th birthday. A good day for me. A less good day for Paul McCartney, who announced he and his wife Heather Mills were formally separating. They got divorced two years later. McCartney still had a better May 17, 2006 than Eric Forth, a member of British Parliament who died that day.

I did not die that day, instead having an awesome day in which I got the above piece of Mary Jane Watson artwork from PooZ. No matter how many MJ sketches I get, this one will always have a spot on my wall. 

There was one slightly non-awesome part of the 17th on 2006, and that was the Mets losing 1-0 to the Cardinals. That kind of set the stage for the 2006 NLCS, where the Mets lost to the Cardinals in 7 games. Why didn't he swing?

Oh, and for the first time in my life, LeBron James played a game on my birthday. LeBron scored 32 points and the Cavs beat the Pistons to take a 3-2 lead in their series, but they ended up losing in 7 games.

30 Years of Adam: 2005

Adam Reisinger, the creator of AdamReisinger.com, turns 30 on May 17, 2010. As part of the countdown to his 30th birthday, AdamReisinger.com looks back on May 17th each year since 1980.

Over the past year, many people have criticized the government for overspending in a time of economic crisis. But just five years ago, on my birthday, the Senate passed a $295 billion (yes, that's with a B) highway and transportation bill, and three months later, President Bush signed the revised bill, valued at $286B, into law. I don't know exactly what the bill was supposed to do, but I know my commute on I-84 still blows.

As for me personally, well, it's easy to know what I was up to on May 17, 2005, since I blogged it in crazy detail. Without going through all my birthday posts I can't say this for sure, but I'm pretty certain that 2005 was my longest birthday post ever. It was also my first birthday as a "Buffy" fan, as I'd only started watching the series that January. 5 years later, I'm still obsessed.

On the 17th itself, the Mets beat the Reds, 2-1, a nice change of pace from a few days earlier, when they'd lost 7-6 to the Cardinals when I was in attendance. The Mets were in 4th place after the 17th, but just 2 1/2 games out of first. They'd go on to finish 3rd, 4 games above .500 and 6 games out of the Wild Card.

Also, while 2005 was a happy birthday for me, it was a mixed birthday for Spurs point guard Tony Parker, who shares my May 17 birthday (but I was born in 1980 and he was born in 1982, so really, he's just copying me). The Spurs won, so it's not like Parker was too down, but he scored 11 points on 4-13 shooting and dished out 2 assists. Not his finest performance. Then again, San Antonio went on to win the title in '05, so it all worked out for him. Douchebag

Mini Mr. Hockey - Gordie Howe!

Well, the Cavs got debacled last night, the Mets lost to the freakin' Nationals again today and the Redskins are still trying to re-assemble Daniel Snyder's 2005 fantasy football team, so it's up to one team to lift my sports spirits... the Hartford Whalers!

Yesterday I was picking up some stuff at the mall, when I came across this:

Yes, that's a McFarlane action figure of Gordie Howe in his Whalers gear from the '79-80 season. It's even got his full name on the back of his jersey, because he played on the same team with his sons Mark and Marty Howe. Gordie Howe was 51 years old during his final season with the Whalers but still played 80 games and scored 15 goals. That's how you become only the second hockey McFarlane figure I own (the other is a Wayne Gretzky from his Oilers days).

Lost "Across the Sea" Recap/Reaction

Umm... what was that?

I was really excited about last night's episode of "Lost", because it was supposed to be chock full of answers, but instead it seemed to just present more questions. By the end, "Across the Sea" felt more like the first part of a two-part episode, only we're never actually getting the second part.

To be fair, the episode did have some significant answers. For example, one of the big mysteries about Jacob was how he became the "protector" of the Island. That was all explained in last night's episode, in which we saw Jacob and his twin brother being born -- approximately 2,000 years ago -- then watched Allison Janney (the previous protector of the Island) kill Jacob's birth mother so she could raise Jacob and his brother on her own. We saw them grow up, with Jacob following everything his "mother" said, while his brother seemed intrigued by the possible world beyond the island (thus the episode's title) and the people who kept arriving on the island. At one point, their mother warned them about the people there, with dialogue that exactly mirrored what Jacob said to the Man in Black when they spotted The Black Rock approaching the island. That was kind of a cool moment.

30 Years of Adam: 2004

Adam Reisinger, the creator of AdamReisinger.com, turns 30 on May 17, 2010. As part of the countdown to his 30th birthday, AdamReisinger.com looks back on May 17th each year since 1980.

OK, this post is gonna be a little self-referential, kind of like the 2002 post was, but on May 17, 2004, I finally took blogging seriously for the first time, starting the Adam Reisinger Year 25 project. I fully intended to blog every few days, if not at least once a week, and managed to keep that up for, oh, about two months. Still, the 76 posts I wrote in 2004 (well, technically 77, but there's one I refuse to repost) were an all-time high for AdamReisinger.com until 2007. 

Unfortunately, I don't have a backup of that site anywhere -- I'm pretty sure I dumped it when I imported all the entries to iWeb -- which is why the picture above is of my "apartment" (my parents' basement) at the time, instead of a screenshot of the site like I'd wanted. That actually reminds me... 2004 was my last birthday living at home. I moved out about 10 weeks later, and a year after that, I bought my own condo.

Oh, just to keep up with at least one part of this series, the Mets were off on May 17, 2004, as was the entire NBA. As mentioned in my original May 17, 2004 post, I watched High Definition playoff hockey that night. This was the game I was watching.