New Charmed Art

I'm in Boston for Boston Comic Con this weekend, but as a warmup for the show, I figured I'd share some original artwork I've picked up recently. Well, not entirely that recently -- the first piece arrived last month and the other two arrived last week.

All three pieces are published pages from the ongoing "Charmed" series. The first, pictured to the left is from the first issue by artist Dave Hoover and features eldest (living) sister Piper. It's a really good likeness of Holly Marie Combs, and I really wanted to have something from the very first issue of the Charmed comic.

The other two pages are both from issue #6. Hit the jump to check those out.

Gary Neal: Greatest Pro Sports Moment in Towson History

To say Towson University's list of great professional sports moments is limited is probably a massive understatement. The school has produced three Super Bowl winners, but two of them were special teams players and the other was a backup left tackle who was thrust into the starting role due to an injury. None of the handful of baseball players who've reached the majors from the school have ever made a huge mark, and prior to this season, the Tigers had only produced one NBA player.

Well, now that number is two, and thanks to Gary Neal, Towson has a signature pro moment from one of its former athletes.



Prior to Neal's game-tying buzzer-beater against the Grizzlies -- keeping the Spurs season alive, at least for now -- the "signature" highlight for Towson athletes in the pros was probably, sadly, Sean Landeta's whiffed punt. Actual strong individual performances are few and far between. Landeta was a two-time all-decade selection, but no one really goes to YouTube to watch precision punting. Dave Meggett had a series of highlight plays in a three-touchdown game (2 rushing, 1 passing) against the Redskins in 1994, and that was the third time in two seasons he'd thrown a TD pass against Washington. Going over to baseball, Chris Nabholz's best game probably came as a rookie in 1990, when he nearly no-hit the Mets. He also had a 10-strikeout game a couple years later.

And while that's all well and good, none of it matches the pressure of the playoffs, with one shot to stave off elimination. And that's what Gary Neal was facing last night, and he stepped up big time. And because of his awesomeness, I'm a little more proud to call myself a Towson Tiger today.

Desktop Girl of the Week: Heather Morris

A couple months ago on "Glee", three of the main characters quit the cheerleading squad, allowing them to wear normal clothes on the show for the first time. And while I've loved the outfits they've worn, I kind of miss the Cheerios uniform, which is why I chose this picture of Heather Morris to serve as the "Desktop Girl of the Week" wallpaper.

If you're not familiar with "Glee", Morris plays Brittany, the idiotic former cheerleader with the sweet disposition. She quickly became my favorite character on the show when I started watching last summer, and has only enhanced that status this year as she's been given more to do.

Morris herself has a background in dancing, which is how she landed the "Glee" role (as has been widely reported, she was brought in to teach the cast the dance for "Single Ladies", then was added to the cast after performing so well).

I considered going with a non-"Glee" picture for Morris, especially after her Esquire feature -- which inspired me to finally make her a DGOW selection -- but instead stuck with Brittany as a Cheerio. Still, it's definitely worth checking out this amazing video from that Esquire shoot.

• Heather Morris on IMDB
• "Brittany S. Pierce" on Twitter
• Glee Official Site

As always with DGOW, I’ll provide a widescreen (1680x1050) image for downloading. If you want to see past DGOW, then just check the archive album.

Glee "Born This Way" Reaction/Song Review

The theme of this week's episode of "Glee" was acceptance, which I thought was a little weird since in some way every episode the show has ever aired has been about acceptance -- the club members accepting who they are and getting others to accept them for that. Still, the episode got stronger as it went on, with some interesting revelations about Quinn, the return of Kurt and plenty of screen time for Santana.

Taking that last one first, Santana turned out to be a driving force in getting Kurt to return to McKinley, though mostly it was part of her convoluted plan to be name prom queen (which itself was part of a larger plan to get Brittany to break up with Artie and start dating her exclusively). For the most part, Santana was in full-on bitch mode, threatening to out Karofsky if he didn't go along with her plan and lashing out at Brittany (who FINALLY gave it right back to Santana, in an exchange that was long overdue), but there were some softer moments for her, which Naya Rivera once again handled with aplomb. She tends not to get the publicity that Lea Michele, Dianna Agron and even Heather Morris get, but she's probably the best actress in the group.

The acceptance theme for the episode stemmed from an incident in the opening scene where Finn accidentally broke Rachel's nose, leading Rachel to investigate getting a nose job, something the rest of the glee club was against -- leading Mr. Schu to point out that they all have things about themselves that they don't like, which became the central focus in their final number (and I'll get to that in the song review). Early in the episode, I thought the theme was really forced, particularly in the way Mr. Schu kept trying to tie it in to Emma's problems with her OCD, but once the stories started flowing more naturally, they made sense. Well, except for Emma -- I really liked her last season, but as her OCD has become her ONLY character feature this season, she's become kind of annoying.

Kurt's return to McKinley was done well enough given the constraints of the show's universe. It's not like they were going to leave him at Dalton for the rest of the season, but he couldn't just show up one day and be like "yeah, I'm back." The scene between him and Karofsky in Figgins's office was very well done, with Mike O'Malley once again shining, if only for the brief time he was allowed to be in the episode.

I thought the revelation about Quinn -- that before transferring to McKinley she was an overweight, unattractive geek named "Lucy" -- was interesting, because it's a twist that makes sense with what we've already seen of the character. It goes a long way toward explaining why she's so insecure about Finn's obsession with Rachel, because Quinn's done so much to become what she thinks is the "perfect" image of beauty, and if she loses Finn to a girl like Rachel, then what was the point? Also, while I haven't always been the biggest fan of Agron's acting ability, she did quite a lot with body language in this episode, adding nuance to an already strong performance.

There was a lot happening in this episode, but I'm not sure it needed to be 90 minutes. Emma's story could have easily been handled in another episode, because even though she went to see a doctor at the end and is now taking medicine for her OCD, it didn't really seem like she's "accepting" that she has a problem. Also, trimming it down to a 60-minute episode might have forced them to cut some of the moralizing at the start.

Then again, if it weren't 90 minutes, we wouldn't have had six musical performances. My thoughts on those, after the jump.

This Week in Buffy History: April 26-May 2

April 26
1978 - Ivana Milicevic born (played Sam Finn in Episode 6.15 “As You Were”)

April 28
1973 - Elisabeth Rohm born (played Kate Lockley on Angel)
1997 - Episode 1.8 “I Robot, You Jane” airs on The WB
1998 - Episode 2.19 “I Only Have Eyes For You” airs on The WB
2004 - Angel Episode 5.19 “Time Bomb” airs on The WB

April 29
2002 - Angel Episode 3.19 “The Price” airs on The WB
2003 - Episode 7.19 “Empty Places” airs on UPN

April 30
2002 - Episode 6.18 “Entropy” airs on UPN
2003 - Angel Episode 4.21 “Peace Out” airs on The WB

May 1
1972 - Bailey Chase born (played Graham Miller)
1972 - Julie Benz born (played Darla)
2001 - Episode 5.19 “Tough Love” airs on The WB
2001 - Angel Episode 2.19 “Belonging” airs on The WB

May 2
1981 - Navi Rawat born (played Dana on Angel Episode 5.11 “Damage”)
1990 - Kay Panabaker born (played the Girl in the White Room on Angel)
2000 - Episode 4.19 “New Moon Rising” airs on The WB
2000 - Angel Episode 1.19 “Sanctuary” airs on The WB
2007 - Season 8, Issue 3, "The Long Way Home, Pt. 3", released by Dark Horse Comics

Jersey Monday: Kevin Garnett

So the Heat still need one more win to advance to the second round of the 2011 NBA Playoffs. If they get that win, they'll set up a series with the Boston Celtics, who've already advanced via a sweep of the New York Knicks.

"But Adam," you say, "That's not a Celtics jersey over there."

No, it's not. It's a Minnesota Timberwolves jersey, from back before I disliked Kevin Garnett. I'd started to turn on him in his later years in Minnesota, but there was a time when he was among my favorite players in the league. That time was obviously pre-Boston; with the Celtics, I've found Garnett's over the top tough act to be kind of annoying and unnecessary.

Still, I can't deny that he was once ridiculously cool -- remember the Nike "Fun Police" commercials? -- and that led me to buy this jersey during a trip to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2004.  It's one of two KG Wolves jerseys I own, one of three for KG overall. Of the three, this is the only "authentic" in the bunch, with the other two being swingman jerseys. Its also the only home jersey I have of KG. In fact, only about 1/4 of my NBA jerseys are true "home" 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.

Video Game Trade-Ins: Amazon vs Best Buy vs GameStop

I didn't originally set out to test out all three major video game trade-in services within the span of two weeks, but somehow that's exactly what's happened this month.

It all started back at the start of this month, when I decided to back up my save data on my PS3. As I was backing up each file, I noticed that in many cases they hadn't been touched in months. With some games it was easy to see the flurry of activity within a couple weeks of buying the game just by looking at the span of when the first save file was created (usually a settings file) to when the last one was saved.

Now, I've never been much of a trade-in person when it comes to video games. There was a period back in 2004 when I used a stack of Xbox games to get a PSP, then the time a few years later when I used the PSP and its games to get a Nintendo DS Lite. But aside from that (and my straight-up sale of my Nintendo Wii a couple years ago) I pretty much had all my Xbox, Xbox 360, PS2 and PS3 games since I first got those systems.

Now, there was nothing I could do about the original Xbox and PS2 games, since they're pretty much worthless at this point, even via trade-in, but I had way too many Xbox 360 and PS3 games that I just wasn't playing anymore and was never going to play again. So I hit up all three major trade-in services to see what I could get, and I actually found benefits to each one.

Desktop Girl of the Week: Hayley Williams

I don't listen to the radio at all, and I haven't since about 2002, so I tend to miss out of a lot of things in music. One of the groups I let slip under my radar was Paramore, fronted by lead singer Hayley Williams. In fact, it wasn't until I picked up the B.o.B. album back in December (also about 6 months late on that one!) that I really heard Hayley Williams for the first time. Sure, I'd seen her before that, and I'd probably heard some Paramore songs in passing, but I'd never really taken the time to actually listen to her music until "Airplanes".

Well, you don't need me to tell you that it's good. It is. And you don't need me to tell you that she's attractive. She is. I'm still not entirely sure that Paramore's overall sound is something I'm in to, but her voice is almost hypnotic at times, and (my Britney Spears obsession aside) I'm a sucker for a great female voice. I'm definitely going to be giving the past Paramore albums more of a listen over the next few days, and I'll definitely be sure to pick up the new one -- with the new lineup -- right when it comes out, not 6 months (or 6 years) later.

• Paramore Official Site
• Follow Hayley Williams on Twitter
• "Airplanes" Music Video

As always with DGOW, I’ll provide a widescreen (1680x1050) image for downloading. If you want to see past DGOW, then just check the archive album.

Glee "A Night of Neglect" Reaction

And thus ends the mildly annoying saga of Holly Holliday.

Gwyneth Paltrow was back this week on "Glee", but by the end of what was a surprisingly solid episode, she and Will Schuester had broken up and she had set Will back on the path toward Emma, making all of the first 16 episodes worth of romantic plot lines just an unnecessary detour from where they left off last season.

Tuesday's episode, "A Night of Neglect", had a bunch of stuff that came out of nowhere, including the revelation that four of McKinley's glee club members also happened to comprise the school's academic decathlon team, but more of the episode worked than didn't. Yes, I found the Holly-Will-Emma stuff kind of heavy handed and overly telegraphed, but it achieved what it was supposed to, so I'll let it slide in an ends justify the means kind of way.

I was incredibly amused by Sue putting together a team of Will Schuester enemies to take down glee club, and was even more amused by the code names she gave them:
- Sandy Ryerson, The Pink Dagger
- Terri Schuester, Honey Badger
- Dustin Goolsby, Sergeant Handsome
- Sue Sylvester, General Zod (YES!)

Was the whole thing -- including the creation of a "heckling club" to destroy the glee club's benefit event -- unnecessary and over the top? Sure. But that's Sue, and that's why she works.

I also really enjoyed Mercedes's crazy diva demands to perform at the show. A giant bowl (really more a small barrel) of green M&Ms, a team of humidifiers to keep the air she breathes humid, a fresh puppy to dry her hands on after she washed them, and lastly to be carried all day the day of the show. Just really good in its insanity.

So what didn't work for me? Well, the shoehorning of Kurt into the episode was mildly awkward, though it did lead to a great scene with Kurt, Blaine, Santana and Karofsky, and I think Karofsky's secret might be closer to coming out (Santana nearly stumbled upon it in this episode). Also, the scene where Holly Holliday told the heckling students that being mean isn't good, even if it's just on the Internet and you think you're anonymous, felt way too much like a message from the writing staff to the show's critics. And you could argue that I'm not "getting" the message by being critical, but I'm not anonymous; my name is right up there in the banner. And anything negative I write about the show on this site I'd happily say to the faces of those involved in the show's creation, along with all the many positive things I say about the show too.

Speaking of positive things, on to this week's music...

Hawaii Five-0 "Ho'opa'i" Reaction

I don't think I've written about "Hawaii Five-0" since the series premiere, and that's really too bad, because the show is becoming one of my favorites to watch on a weekly basis. It's not that there's some amazing ongoing story that I can't wait to see come together like "Fringe". And it's not incredibly deep like "Mad Men" or twisted like "True Blood". It's just a well-put-together, action-packed show that consistently delivers an entertaining hour of television week after week.

This week's episode featured a guest appearance by Sean "Diddy" Combs, playing an FBI agent who had been working undercover with a mob boss and was about to move on him when his wife was killed. The scenario was kind of implausible, as are many of the "crime of the week" scenarios on the show, but the characters buy into it so well that it really doesn't matter.

There's often a family element to each week's crime -- tying back to the show's overarching premise of McGarrett investigating his father's death -- and this week was no exception. Because all the main characters on the show have some kind of family backstory motivating them in general, it helps to pre-establish their motives on a week-to-week basis, so they show doesn't have to waste time explaining why this particular crime is so important to solve.

That brings me to the other reason I'm enjoying this show so much. While it has many of the same elements of a standard police procedural, it's much more action driven, and doesn't force the characters into the same "crime scene, find evidence, interview witnesses, find more evidence, zoom, enhance, solve crime" pattern of them. McGarrett tends to be a "shoot first, do the cop stuff later" kind of character, which, while not always realistic, is kind of fun. There was a moment in this week's episode that I loved, when McGarrett and Danny were discussing what they'd do if they were in the same situation as Reggie (Combs). McGarrett said he'd do things "by the book", to which Danny responded, "Which book would that be? 'Patriot Act for Dummies?' 'How to Nuke Your Enemies?' 'War and Peace... Minus the Peace Part?'" Great stuff.

Oh, and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the fine work by Keith David, late of "The Cape" -- on which he fast became the only watchable part of the show -- as one of the main villains of the episode. He manages to carry entire scenes on the strength of his voice alone. More great stuff.

For more coverage of the 2010-11 television season, visit the AdamReisinger.com TV Reviews home page.

This Week in Buffy History: April 19-25

April 20
1971 - Brody Hutzler born (played Landok in season 2 of Angel)

April 21
2004 - Angel Episode 5.18 “Origin” airs on The WB

April 22
2002 - Angel Episode 3.18 “Double or Nothing” airs on The WB

April 23
2003 - Angel Episode 4.20 “Sacrifice” airs on The WB

April 24
1975 - Thad Luckinbill born (played R.J. Brooks in Episode 7.06 “Him”)
1977 - Eric Balfour born (played Jesse in Season 1)
1985 - Courtnee Draper born (played Annabelle in Episode 7.10 “Bring on the Night”)
2001 - Episode 5.18 “Intervention” airs on The WB
2001 - Angel Episode 2.18 “Dead End” airs on The WB

April 25
1969 - Gina Torres born (played Jasmine in Angel Season 4)
2000 - Episode 4.18 “Where the Wild Things Are” airs on The WB
2000 - Angel Episode 4.18 “Five by Five” airs on The WB

Jersey Monday: Allen Iverson (Blue)

It's NBA playoff time!

Rather than regale you with another tale of one of my many LeBron James jerseys, let's shine the spotlight on a jersey from the Heat's first-round opponent, the Philadelphia 76ers.

I don't have a jersey of any current 76ers players, but even if I did, I'd probably be showing this jersey instead. The Allen Iverson blue alternate was one of my favorite basketball jerseys in my collection for awhile, which makes sense, because post-Jordan and pre-LeBron, Iverson was probably my favorite player in the league.

Interesting footnote to this jersey: I have dozens of McFarlane Sports Picks action figures, but only four bobbleheads. Two are Mets related, one is a Jason Terry Hawks bobblehead my mom got for me in Atlanta, and the other -- the only bobblehead I've ever purchased for myself -- is of Iverson, wearing this jersey. It was available at McDonald's in the Philly area to celebrate his 2000-01 MVP award, and I picked it up on eBay that summer. I still have it somewhere in my basement, and I should probably break it out at some point.

Oh, and Heat win by 7 tonight. Book it.

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.

Jackson Jennings Series: Starting From Scratch

A couple weeks ago, I mentioned that I was going to spend less time blogging and more time working on the story I'd been trying to write on and off for a few years. I've written that exact sentiment multiple times over the years, but this was the first time that it actually led to real progress on the story. Well, sort of.

First, a little back story for those unfamiliar with this particular piece of writing.

I first developed the vague sketch of an idea around this time five years ago. At that time, the only real solid ideas I had in place were the main character, a couple of supporting characters, and the primary character motivations. I worked on it a little bit and eventually got to the point where I thought I had enough to put together a series of stories for a comic book.

Over the next 18 months, that small series of stories turned into 17 completed scripts (running anywhere from 24 to 32 comic pages per script), six more outline sketches, and a series timeline that would have provided another three years worth of stories. However, life got in the way, and nothing ever happened with them.

LeBron James 2010-11 Second Half Highlight Video - POWER

Hey, look at that, it's playoff time! So, with that in mind, let's enjoy some LeBron James highlights from the second half of the 2010-11 season, set to Kanye West's "POWER". And, in case you missed it back in January, check out the first-half highlight video, set to Kanye West's "Runaway". It's a LeBron/Kanye thing.

2010-11 NBA Playoff Predictions

I know you've all been waiting with bated breath for my first-round NBA playoff predictions, which, if you'd seen my regular-season predictions, is probably a bad idea. To be fair, I'd like to think I have a better grasp on these teams after 82 games, but only time will tell. So let's get right to the picks, starting with the Eastern Conference.

1 Bulls vs 8 Pacers
Preseason predictions: Bulls 4th, Pacers 13th
Look, I'm not the only idiot that didn't have the Bulls finishing first in the East. I did at least have them winning the Central, which is more than I can say for Sports Illustrated. This series should, like most 1-8 series, be a cakewalk for Chicago.
Prediction: Bulls in 5

2 Heat vs 7 76ers
Preseason predictions: Heat 1st, 76ers 12th
I really didn't have much faith in Philly, which I think goes to show just how good a job Doug Collins has done this year. Well, it won't be good enough in the playoffs.
Prediction: Heat in 4

3 Celtics vs 6 Knicks
Preseason predictions: Celtics 3rd, Knicks 8th
Holy crap, I got a team right! And the Knicks weren't too far off (ignore the team I had finishing immediately ahead of them in the East). I know some people think this will be a competitive series, but I tend to disagree.
Prediction: Celtics in 5

4 Magic vs 5 Hawks
Preseason predictions: Magic 2nd, Hawks 6th
Not too far off on these. I know Atlanta won the season series 3-1, and 4-5 upsets are fairly common (an average of one per season), but Dwight don't play dat.
Prediction: Magic in 6

Now, on to the Western Conference, where I predict utter chaos!

Or not. More likely not.

1 Spurs vs 8 Grizzlies
Preseason predictions: Spurs 4th, Grizzlies 10th
I always pick the Spurs lower than they finish, mostly because I hate them. Do I hate them enough to pick a massive upset in the first round? No. Not even close.
Prediction: Spurs in 6 (building in a loss for Manu's injury -- if he's fully healthy, then this doesn't go beyond 5)

2 Lakers vs 7 Hornets
Preseason predictions: Lakers 1st, Hornets 8th
I was off by one on the seeds, but I actually pegged this as a first-round series before the season started. Go me! Also, go Hornets... out of the playoffs, and probably quickly.
Prediction: Lakers in 5

3 Mavericks vs 6 Blazers
Preseason predictions: Mavericks 5th, Blazers 2nd
I'm VERY tempted to pick an upset here, because the two teams are even closer than their seeds would indicate, but I just can't do it. However, I do think this will be a close series.
Prediction: Mavericks in 7

4 Thunder vs 5 Nuggets
Preseason predictions: Thunder 3rd, Nuggets 11th
I thought the Nuggets would collapse post Carmelo trade (yes, I built that trade into my prediction, even though it wasn't really on the radar in October), but they didn't. In fact, they've been one of the best teams in the league since the break. I just don't think they match up well with the Thunder at all.
Prediction: Thunder in 6.

Yes, I'm going chalk in the first round. I suck, I know. We'll check back in a couple weeks and see how this all turned out.

30 Rock "I Heart Connecticut" Reaction

Forget Connecticut, I heart "30 Rock." This was easily one of the best episodes of the season, thanks in large part to the return of Tracy Jordan, an extended "Pete is awesome" plot that turned out to all be a dream and a particularly insane subplot with Jack and Jenna.

Of the three, the Pete one was the one that at first seemed like the worst, because I wasn't sure where it was going. Pete felt disrespected as the producer -- thanks in large part to a great cameo from Rob Riggle as one of the crew members -- and challenged Frank to arm-wrestling to pick lunch. Then it turned out he was crazy good at it, and challenged Riggle's character, only to decide to throw the match when it turned out Riggle was just as disrespected as Pete, only by his family. That was all OK, but when Pete lost the match, then it cut back to him sitting across the writers' room table and it was all a dream, that's when I lost it. SO well done.

The Jack and Jenna plot wasn't quite as inspired, but the increasing absurdity of their efforts to get their movie made was great. The Connecticut jokes were only OK (and I don't say that as someone who cares about Connecticut -- I've lived here 25 years and still hate the place), but just the overall effect was great. I particularly loved the guy playing Slaughter Face, who had some nice non sequiturs.

Then, finally, Kenneth and Liz finally tracked down Tracy, who had relocated from the empty warehouse he was staying in to the one place he knew Liz would never be while she was out trying to save her show: the upstairs of Liz Lemon's apartment. Liz's motivational speech to get Tracy to come back (basically telling him to start being batshit insane again) makes me really excited for the next few episodes. I miss crazy Tracy.

Speaking of crazy, I happened to watch the first two episodes of "30 Rock" last night after I watched this one. It's amazing just how much crazier the show has become over the years. The first couple episodes actually seemed like relatively standard sitcom fare compared to some of the stuff we've seen this season, and hopefully we're in for so much more.

Lastly, in the tag, there was a "text-to-vote" gag. Yes, I tried texting the number. And yes, it works. If you text "Liz" to 62288, here's what you get in response:

"Thanks for your vote! The last person to spend 99 cents on me was when Dennis Duffy bought me a foam St. Patrick's Day hat... for Christmas 2004. Lemon, out!"

And now for the top lines of the week that you didn't have to send text messages to read.

2010-11 NBA Awards Picks

It's time to hand out some NBA regular season awards... Except I don't do any real handing out, nor do I have an official vote for any of the NBA awards. Still, here are my picks for the 2010-11 season, with a twist. For each award, I'll also choose a winner in a "opposite" category.

Most Improved Player
LaMarcus Aldridge, Portland Trail Blazers

MIP often goes to a player who got a significant minutes increase, which is why Kevin Love is the most frequently cited player for this award this year. But Aldridge was already carrying a heavy minutes load for the Blazers last year, and was asked to do even more this year, and he delivered. His scoring average jumped almost 4 points per game, and on a notoriously injury-prone team, he played 81 of 82 games. His 21.5 PER was easily a career best.

Most Regressed Player
Gilbert Arenas, Washington Wizards/Orland Magic

Arenas wasn't great in limited action last year, but he was still well above league average in PER (18.7) while averaging better than 22 points per game. This year? He fell off a cliff. Playing 70 games, his most since '06-07, Arenas shot a dismal 36.6% from the field while posting a PER of 10.8. The latter figure ranks among the 20 worst in the NBA, and none of the other players that low were ever as good as Gilbert.

6th Man of the Year
Lamar Odom, Los Angeles Lakers

Like many past winners of this award, Odom is a sixth man in name only. He may not start, but he's part of the Lakers finishing lineup, which is arguably more important in determining "starer vs reserve" status. Still, you can't deny his productivity.

12th Man of the Year
Jamaal Magloire, Miami Heat

There's no real good "opposite" of 6th Man, so this'll have to do.  And while I'm not entirely sold on my selection of Big Cat, you have to applaud him for accepting his role in Miami's strange center rotation, and managing to actually be mildly productive when called upon. Plus, like any true end-of-the-bench guy, Magloire put up insane numbers in the last game of the season, grabbing 19 rebounds, the most by a Heat player in more than five years.

Coach of the Year
George Karl, Denver Nuggets

It would have been so easy for this team to just give up on the season multiple times this year, but Karl kept them from doing so, and they were actually one of the league's best teams after trading away their best player. Karl's never won this award before, but this isn't just a "lifetime achievement" thing; he was great this season.

Worst Coach of the Year
John Kuester, Detroit Pistons

It'd be easy to give this to the fired Jim O'Brien, or Kurt Rambis, who "led" the Wolves to the league's worst record (yes, worse than the Cavs), but neither of them were the subject of a reported player revolt. Kuester was, to the point that his team reportedly started calling him Sean Penn (as in "Dead Man Walking"). Ouch.

Executive of the Year
Pat Riley, Miami Heat

People keep looking for reasons that Riley won't get this award, pointing out that the Mike Miller signing hasn't worked out and he nearly signed Eddy Curry. But look, the guy got LeBron, Wade and Bosh to all sign with the same team. They should re-name the award after him for pulling that off.

Worst Executive of the Year
David Kahn, Minnesota Timberwolves

I'd suggest they should also rename this (non-existent) award after KAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHNNNNN!, but he's got a long way to go to match Isiah Thomas.

Defensive Player of the Year
Dwight Howard, Orlando Magic

The easiest award on the board. Well, except for Kahn's.

Offensive Player of the Year
Steve Nash, Phoenix Suns

I wanted to give this to LeBron James or Derrick Rose, but to me the opposite of "Defensive Player of the Year" is the guy who focuses entirely on offensive at the complete expense of the other end of the court. And no one embodies that more than Nash, who posted an offensive rating (points per 100 possessions) of 118, while giving up a defensive rating of 114.

Rookie of the Year
Blake Griffin, Los Angeles Clippers

I stand corrected. THIS was the easiest call. Though I did briefly consider giving my award to Gary Neal (Fight on, Towson Tigers!).

Old Man of the Year
Grant Hill, Phoenix Suns

The 38-year-old Hill seemed like he'd be on his way out of the league about five years ago, but he found the fountain of youth in Phoenix. This year he posted a PER right around league average while being surprisingly spry on defense, despite being the third-oldest player in the league (behind Shaq and Kurt Thomas).

Least Valuable Player
Josh Powell, Atlanta Hawks

(going with the opposite first here, to build the suspense)
Just like with MVP, there are a lot of ways to define LVP. Is it the pure worst player in the league? Is it the guy who did the least while making the most money? The worst player on the worst team? I like to think of it as a guy who was horrible for an otherwise good team. So by that standard, the pick has to be Powell. He had -0.2 win shares -- yes, negative -- this season while playing 54 games for the Hawks. That was the worst number for any player playing 500+ minutes for a playoff team. But stats don't tell the whole story. You have to watch the games to appreciate how bad Powell is. I was watching Heat-Hawks the other day, and I saw Powell have this stretch in the fourth quarter: offensive goaltending, missed 5-foot jumper, missed layup, made a couple easy dunks, fouled a three-point shooter, offensive foul on a fast break. Sure, the 4 points he scored were nice, but he easily cost the team more than that. LVP, indeed.

Most Valuable Player
Dwight Howard, Orlando Magic

I'm gonna try keep this short, because I don't want to get too much into the "stats vs eye test" debate that has shaped this MVP race. I will say that while I do think LeBron has the stats to be the MVP, he just hasn't always seemed very MVP-like this year, which couldn't possibly be a more wishy-washy subjective statement, but it's true. On the other hand, Howard has the stats and passes the eye test (to be fair, Derrick Rose's stats are pretty damn good too, just not as good as Howard's). I know people want to knock him for the free-throw shooting, but even at his worst, he's still getting his team a point per possession during hack-a-Dwight, which is not terrible. He's the best defensive player in the league, he's becoming a bigger force on offense, and his team would be pretty bad without him -- yes, they had a strong performance against Chicago without him, but that was just one game, and they still lost.

If I was ranking a ballot 1-5, I'd have it like this:

1. Dwight Howard
2. LeBron James
3. Derrick Rose
4. Chris Paul
5. Dwyane Wade

Be sure to check back later today, when I'll have my picks for the first round of the playoffs.

Desktop Girl of the Week: Katrina Bowden

I may not agree with her selection by Esquire readers as the Sexiest Woman Alive (I guess maybe I hadn't heard about the untimely deaths of Scarlett Johansson and Christina Hendricks), but there's no denying that Katrina Bowden is hot. She's also a recurring star on what is quite possibly my favorite show on television, which makes her a doubly-valid choice as a Desktop Girl of the Week.

The 22-year-old Bowden has only been acting since 2006 (appearing in a Fall Out Boy video before that), and is best-known for her role as Cerie Xerox on "30 Rock". Cerie has never really been given much to do as a character besides look hot, but Bowden seems to be able to handle that just fine. She's appeared in a few things outside of "30 Rock", but I've literally never seen any of them. Kind of sad, actually.

• Katrina Bowden on Twitter
• "30 Rock" Official Site
• Cerie's Vlog

As always with DGOW, I’ll provide a widescreen (1680x1050) image for downloading. If you want to see past DGOW, then just check the archive album.

Review: Rihanna f/ Britney "S&M (Remix)"

"S&M" is probably my favorite song off Rihanna's latest album, "Loud", and, well, I'm sure longtime readers of this site know my feelings on Britney Spears (hint: I heart her), so I was very excited about today's release of the "S&M" remix featuring Britney.

However, upon listening to the song, I just feel that there's something "off" about it -- and it's mostly Britney's voice.

The original song, carried by Rihanna's vocals, is a force of nature, powerful vocals over driving beats. The imagery evoked by the overall tone of the song perfectly matches the lyrical content, and Rihanna is the engine that powers the whole thing. On the remix, Britney's vocals work well enough with the toned-down instrumentals over her verse, but they don't fit at all with the chorus, and it's painfully obvious. For all the maturation in her life outside of music, vocally she still sounds like a young girl "trying on" Rihanna's edgier style.

The remix really shows the fundamental difference between the two artist: while Rihanna is obviously a good dancer, entertainer and sex symbol, her voice is still her most powerful asset. Britney's voice for all it's positive qualities, isn't "powerful", and she ends up sounding overwhelmed on this track.

This Week in Buffy History: April 12-18

April 12
1971 - Nicholas Brendon born (played Xander)
1971 - Kelly Donovan born (played Xander double in Season 5)

April 14
1977 - Sarah Michelle Gellar born (played Buffy)
1997 - Episode 1.07 “Angel” airs on The WB
2004 - Angel Episode 5.17 “Underneath” airs on The WB

April 15
2002 - Angel Episode 3.17 “Forgiving” airs on The WB
2003 - Episode 7.18 “Dirty Girls” airs on UPN

April 16
2003 - Angel Episode 4.19 “The Magic Bullet” airs on The WB

April 17
1955 - Kristine Sutherland born (played Joyce Summers)
2001 - Episode 5.17 “Forever” airs on The WB
2001 - Angel Episode 2.17 “Disharmony” airs on The WB

April 18
1976 - Kevin O. Rankin born (played Donny Maclay on Episode 5.06 “Family”)

Jersey Monday: Jackie Robinson

I don't really need to say much about this jersey. If you don't know why it's important, then I can't really help you.

I will say that this was the first Mitchell and Ness jersey I bought, way back in 1997. You may notice the patch on the left sleeve -- that's MLB's official Jackie Robinson 50th anniversary patch, which I picked up at Shea Stadium during a Mets-Dodgers game. I know adding it to the jersey technically makes the jersey less authentic, but I didn't care about that when I was 17, and honestly I don't care about it now. It just looks cool.

MLB's annual Jackie Robinson Day is this Friday, and I really wish I could be at a game that day, but the geniuses at MLB's scheduling office have the Mets playing a 3-game set in Atlanta starting that day (that series is wedged in between 13 home games for New York... nice job making that schedule, guys!).

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heat Club Band

So, when I don't spend all my time reviewing TV shows (quick thoughts on stuff I watched this week: "NOF" finale was good, just wish they'd got there quicker, "BBT" was probably one of the best this season, but still not as good as Season 2 stuff, and I hated this week's "Bones") I get to finish projects I've been working on for awhile.

I know I'd mentioned writing, and I did some of that this week, but I also finally completed my long-time Photoshop project: The Heatles. More specifically, the Heatles, as they appeared on the cover of their "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heat Club Band" album.

Every Heat player from this season (yes, even Jerry Stackhouse) is in there, as are countless other players, coaches, announcers, dancers, girlfriends, mothers and others related to storylines from this year's NBA season. Yes, I have a guide to the cover. No, I'm not sharing it right now. But feel free to try and identify everyone.

Desktop Girl of the Week: Beau Garrett

I think I was more appreciative of "TRON: Legacy" than most back when it came out, and I was so excited about the Blu-ray release that I pre-ordered with 2-day shipping from Amazon, so I could be sure of having it on release day (aside: I got the "Ultimate Experience" collection, which in addition to the standard Blu-ray comes with the 3D Blu-ray, so if anyone has a 3DTV they can lend me -- or wants to buy one for me -- I'd really appreciate it).

I watched the movie last night after work, and was once again captivated by Beau Garrett. She's only in the movie for about three scenes, and has no more than a handful of lines, but for obvious reasons she's visually captivating. And by "obvious reasons", I of course mean that she's one of the few characters dressed in all white, in a movie in which most of the characters are dressed in all black.

Even re-watching the movie last night, I couldn't pinpoint exactly where I'd seen Garrett's work before, but when I looked her up, it turns out that she played Johnny Storm's reluctant love interest in "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer". Given the significant makeup and lighting differences between the two movies -- and the type of character she played in both -- I think I can be excused for not picking up on that sooner. Plus, the less said about "FF2", the better.

Garrett will soon be starring in the new "Criminal Minds" spin-off on CBS. Until about two days ago, I'd never seen an episode of the original, but I happened to catch a re-run late one night, and it honestly wasn't half bad. Combine that with Garrett's presence in the spin-off, and I may just watch.

• Beau Garrett on IMDB
• Buy "TRON: Legacy" on Blu-ray
• "Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior" Official Site

As always with DGOW, I’ll provide a widescreen (1680x1050) image for downloading. If you want to see past DGOW, then just check the archive album.

This Week in Buffy History: April 5-11

April 7
1997 - Episode 1.6 “The Pack” airs on The WB
2010 - Season 8, Issue 34, "Twilight, Pt. 3", released by Dark Horse Comics

April 8
1973 - Emma Caulfield born (played Anya)

April 9
1974 - Todd Duffey born (played Murk in Season 5)
2003 - Angel Episode 4.18 “Shiny Happy People” airs on The WB

April 11
1932 - Joel Grey born (played Doc in Season 5)

Jersey Monday: Michael Jordan

A couple hours from now, UConn and Butler will tip off to see which team takes home the NCAA Tournament title for 2011 (my guess: UConn). But since I've already spotlighted my one UConn jersey and no one outside the state of Indiana owns a Butler jersey, I guess I'll have to "settle" for showing off a jersey of an NCAA Tournament legend, Michael Jordan.

In 1982, a freshman Jordan stepped up and made a game-winning shot for North Carolina, giving legendary coach Dean Smith his first NCAA Championship. Jordan's shot is one of the most memorable in NCAA Championship Game history, possibly topped only by NC State's miracle alley-oop the following season.

Of course, Jordan failed to lead North Carolina back to the title game in either of his next two seasons, then faded into obscurity, bouncing between the NBA and minor league baseball and finally retiring after a couple nondescript years with a terrible Wizards team (note: my recollection of Jordan's post-college career may be inaccurate).

There's no saying whether anyone in tonight's game will hit a shot that will end up being replayed year-after-year like Jordan (though Butler's Gordon Hayward came damn close last year), but it's probably safe to say that no one in this game will come within the same galaxy of being the next Jordan.

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.

Review: Britney Spears - "Femme Fatale"

I've listed to Britney Spears's latest album, "Femme Fatale", in its entirety a few times now, and I'm still not sure how I feel about it. I'm not sure I like it, but I'm not sure I dislike it either. However, either way, I keep coming back to this question: is this really even a Britney Spears album?

What I mean by that is Spears's presence on the songs themselves seems like almost an afterthought. Her voice has never been among the elite in the industry, and has become less of the focal point of her albums with each passing release, but on "Femme Fatale" it almost seems like the goal was to minimize Britney's contribution as much as possible to let the producers shine instead.

Now, if you're a fan of dance/club music, then that may be a good thing. The beats are thoroughly well-produced and strong throughout. However, they feel entirely homogenous. Rather than there being a tonal ebb and flow to the album, there's just a never-ending pulse, as if the goal of the music was to get the listener to maintain a 200 bpm heartrate for the entire listening experience.

It's possible that in this post-Rebecca Black world, my tolerance for meaningless, overly-robotized vocals has been lessened, but it's also possible that Britney is something of a guest star on her own album. Which gets me back to my initial question: If you made this same exact album, with the same exact production and vocal quality, but instead of Britney Spears it was from an unknown artist (let's call her "Becky White"), would it be successful? Which song would be the breakaway hit? Sure, "Hold it Against Me" performed well on iTunes, but again I feel like that success is more due to the Britney Spears "brand" than the music itself. And in the end the album feels like a collection of talented producers using the Britney brand to promote their own works, at the expense of Spears's music herself.

There are a couple of songs that I can see myself listening to repeatedly, led by "Criminal", which is probably the least dance-y song on the album. The Max Martin/Shellback production duo (the same pair responsible for "If U Seek Amy" and "3") seemed to work WITH Britney's vocals on this one, rather than over them. "Seal it with a Kiss" has lyrics that may as well have been written by a 4th grader, but damn it if it isn't catchy as all hell. On the flip side, there's "Big Fat Bass", the Will I Am collaboration which may be the seventh sign of the Apocalypse.

Overall, my opinion of the album "Femme Fatale" probably leans toward the positive. However, the verdict is still out on Britney Spears's "Femme Fatale" -- if there even is such a thing.

Shut it Down!

Taking a digital vacation. No Twitter, Facebook, blogging, etc. for the rest of the week. Possibly longer. Need to clear my head.Wed Mar 30 02:23:57 via TweetDeckAdam S Reisinger
adamreisinger

Over the last few days -- during my self-imposed break from blogging and participating in social media -- I asked myself a few times why I continued to do it. I started this blog way back in 2002 as a LiveJournal (remember those?), mostly to keep my college friends informed on what was going on in my life after I moved away. Over the years its morphed into something less about ME and more about my opinions on things. I'm not necessarily sure that's a bad thing, since my life isn't nearly interesting enough to support a regularly-updated blog, but I'm not sure it's a good thing either.

You see, when I started blogging more regularly (and just check the post counts on the sidebar to see the development of that happening), I told myself it was a way to keep my writing skills honed. I'd been a writer in some organized fashion from my freshman year of high school through my senior year of college, but hadn't had any official writing assignments after 2002. I'd tried writing a couple stories during that time, but nothing held my interest long enough to get finished. The blog, however, managed to do that.