Jersey Monday: Andre Rison

Monday Night Football Matchup: San Diego Chargers at Kansas City Chiefs

This jersey is a little different from some of my other embarrassing jerseys. See, Andre Rison wasn't a bad player. He was a 5-time Pro Bowl selection and a 4-time All-Pro (a more impressive measure of someone's success). He won a Super Bowl. And he had a cool nickname (Andre "Bad Moon" Rison, a Chris Bermanism from back when those went mainstream. It helped if you were 10 years old the first time you heard it, which I was).

But the vast majority of that was in Rison's rear view by the time he joined the Chiefs. Yes, he did make the Pro Bowl in 1997, but with very pedestrian numbers (72 receptions, 1,092 yards, 7 touchdowns). So if there's a jersey you're going to get to represent his career, it probably wouldn't be this one. It'd most likely be the #80 he wore with the Falcons, back when he and Deion Sanders were teammates and I became obsessed with just how insanely cool that entire team was (seriously, the early '90s Falcons, with the black jerseys and the MC Hammer sideline appearances and the swagger... they were like the pied pipers of middle school suburban white kids).

That wasn't an option in '98, when I went to grab a Chiefs jersey to complete my collection, and with Joe Montana long since retired, Rison seemed like the best option on that roster -- well, technically Derrick Thomas would have been the obvious best option on that roster, but as far as I remember, my local sports shop didn't have his jersey, or Leslie O'Neil. My KC choices, if I'm remembering correctly, were Rison and Bam Morris, so sadly this ended up being the better of those 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. For the remainder of the NFL season, Jersey Monday will feature one of the teams playing on Monday Night Football.

The Big Bang Theory "The Good Guy Fluctuation" Reaction

When I started watching "The Big Bang Theory" last summer, it was at the suggestion of a couple of friends who both suggested that the show was really funny to "nerds" and people who appreciated "nerd culture". But that's really not the case. The show gets most of its laughs by mocking its nerdy characters, usually indirectly, and putting them into situations in which non-nerds can point and laugh and say "ha-ha, those nerds are socially inept."

Never was that more evident than in Thursday's episode, which included what had to be one of the most insulting scenes to the show's allegedly core fan base. In the scene, Leonard, Howard and Raj are rifling through the back issues at their local comic shop (aside: for some reason, the show always shows them going through the large back issue boxes when they're at the shop. Visually, I guess it works better then having them with their backs to the camera perusing a rack of new issues, but it's painfully unrealistic) when Stuart, the shop owner, comes over and literally says "Alert: Girl at 9:00." Then, when the group goes to all look, as if they've never seen a girl before (despite all of them having sex pretty regularly), Stuart tells them to look one at a time, and they do so, like the girl is a fucking diamond unicorn or some bullshit.

I readily admit to being a comic book nerd. I go to my LCS every Wednesday, usually at the same time, and have been doing so for the better part of seven years now. Never, not a single time, has the reaction to a female walking into the shop been for all the males in the shop to huddle up, have one of them quietly point her out, and then insist they only look one at a time. In fact, I'd argue that about 75% of the time I go to the store, there's at least one female there, and the male customers generally don't treat the female ones like mythological creatures who can't be looked at directly for fear of turning into stone. We talk to them like normal human beings. We have conversations with them, usually about comics, but sometimes even about other stuff (I had a really nice talk with a woman in the store a few weeks ago about football, which, admittedly, was surprising). "Girl in store" doesn't immediately mean "every guy try to hit on her", and not every female that goes to a comic book store is looking to give up her phone number (and much, much more) to the first guy who talks to her.

This was an insulting bit to everyone involved, and played on an outdated nerd stereotype to get a cheap laugh out of the vast majority of the show's audience that has never set foot in a comic book shop (and probably never will). Male comic book fans should be insulted by how they were portrayed -- as idiots who don't know how to act when a woman "invades" their "fortress of nerditude" -- and female comic book fans/artists should be insulted about their portrayal too. It's disappointing to see this from a show that does spend a lot of time courting the same audience it's outwardly mocking (the BBT panel at Comic-Con is always one of the best attended with some of the longest lines). The show has gone to this well more and more over the last couple of seasons, and if this is the kind of show they're going to put on every week, then I'm not sure it's the kind of show I want to continue to watch.

Review: Spider-Man Spider Island Wrap-Up Books

This week, Marvel's ongoing "Spider Island" event wrapped up (save for the ASM #673 epilogue due next month) with five books. And while there's no doubt in my mind that the main "Amazing Spider-Man" book was the best of the set, I figured I'd run down all five of them.

Spider Island: Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #3

This was probably my least favorite of the multi-issue Spider Island minis, but that doesn't mean I didn't like it. It was an enjoyable read, and the artwork really stood out. I think the only thing that bothered me about this issue is that Shang-Chi was somehow able to "will" himself to a cure, rather than having to wait for the cure Peter provided in ASM 672. I know he's a master of kung fu but that was a little much.

Spider Island: Spider-Girl #3

I keep going back and forth on whether I like this character, but I think most of my animosity toward her is really redirected from my anger at Marvel for canceling the previous Amazing Spider-Girl series. Anya Corozon's adventures with Hobgoblin and Kingpin wrapped up neatly here. I didn't feel like this series tied into the main series as well as some of the others (even Deadly Hands of Kung Fu lead directly into the climax of ASM 672), but the interplay with Anya and Kingpin was good enough that it didn't matter. Things were left open ended enough at the end of the issue to continue into an ongoing should Marvel decide to bring it back (Spider-Girl's series was already canceled after running just 8 issues). If they don't, it serves as a solid conclusion to the character's arc.

Spider Island: Cloak & Dagger #3

I really can't say enough good things about this series, which really had very little to do with Spider Island, but in the big picture that doesn't matter. The art was brilliant, the story was engaging, and the series ended with a wonderful twist that makes me hope to God that Marvel creates a Cloak & Dagger ongoing. In the previous issue, Mr. Negative had used his powers to basically reverse Dagger's "polarity" (for lack of a better term) and in this one, Cloak had to save her to prevent her from using her new power to destroy everything (it works much better on the page than how I've just described it). In the end, Cloak and Dagger end up sharing a kiss that Cloak uses to reverse the sources of their powers. Cloak, who'd previously been based in the darkness, now comes from the light, while Dagger is darkness-based -- complete with the weight that places on her soul. It's a sweet character twist with beautiful costume changes (I demand to see someone do Dark Dagger cosplay immediately) and really demands more story. Make it happen, Marvel.

Charmed Comic Review: Issue #15 - Where There's Smoke, There's a Firestarter

PLOT SUMMARY


Note: there are three intertwined stories going on in this issue, spliced into each other. I'll give a quick summary of each one, rather than try and match the narrative flow of the pages.


The A-story: Piper is about to spill the beans to Phoebe about Cole when Paige orbs in to tell them about a fire at her house. Everyone is safe, but they're not sure what started the fire. Phoebe gets a premonition off something stuck in the door, which leads them to Tyler, who tells the sisters about a school that was recruiting him. Paige orbs the sisters into the office of Knox Academy, where the headmaster explains that they're a neutral alternative to Magic School. Paige gets a phone call, and they head back to Magic School, where it turns out Tamora has developed molecular acceleration powers that create fires (a low-level version of Piper's blowing stuff up power), while Kat is able to slow things down, but not quite freeze them. Henry wants them to bind the twins' powers, but Paige doesn't.

The B-story: Cole continues his quest to find Prue by visiting a seer named Alexi. Both of them proceed to try and keep secrets from each other and share cryptic revelations. Alexi tells Cole that what he seeks can be found in the place of her namesake. As Cole leaves, less than satisfied with Alexi's help, Rennek emerges from the shadows with something called "The Jewel of Orthon". He says there's one more person he needs to use it on, to force the Charmed Ones to tear themselves apart, with an ominous image of the Knox headmaster creating fire with his hand.

The C-story: This one appears for the first time as Cole asks Alexi to find Prue. We see two women in Pilgrim-era garb. One of them, Sarah, levitates a rock with her mind. She quickly grabs it and hides it in her pocket, but the other woman notices and says Sarah can trust her. The blonde woman places the rock on the table and asks Sarah to move it. She's reluctant, but the women says she's not the first woman in their town to be a witch. Sarah says she needs time, and the other woman is understanding. Sarah thanks her, calls her "Patience", and says she won't leave during tourist season. Cue Sarah walking outside with modern cars. She leaves the door open, and Patience appears to close it with a wave of her hand, and we see the sign outside the door: "Salem Witch House."

REVIEW

Review: Angel & Faith #3 - "Live Through This, Part 3"

PLOT SUMMARY


Angel and Faith start out at a bar, shaking down a demon named Fraser for information on the Mohra Demon blood. Fraser denies having it, but Angel is sure he does, and comes up with a plan on the fly to prove it, while Faith talks with him about the possibility of using the blood to make Angel human again (thus fulfilling the Shanshu prophecy). They track down some of Fraser's customers to confirm their suspicions, then meet with Alasdair Coames, one of Giles' old acquaintances to figure out how to find the Mohra.

After leaving Coames's place, Faith joins up with her slayer friends, who are trying to break up a fight between Nadira and a bunch of Arsenal fans. They see Faith as their mentor and "the grownup", a role she isn't entirely comfortable with. However, Coames sees her the same way and approaches her about Angel. He picked up on the sense that Angel wants to resurrect Giles, and needs Faith to stop that from happening.

Faith and Angel, incognito, crash an auction where Fraser is selling off Mohra blood. They start a rumor that the blood is fake, to anger the demon crowd and force Fraser's hand. He brings out the Mohra to prove the blood is real, and Angel and Faith free him. Because he's weakened from the blood draining, the Mohra can't fight alongside Angel and Faith, and chooses to sacrifice himself. That creates a riot for the last vials of blood, which Faith destroys (after snagging a couple). Right as Angel says things couldn't have gone worse, Pearl and Nash crash. Faith vows to herself to help Angel get rid of the monsters adding that she'll "get rid of one myself. Him."

REVIEW

Review: Kelly Clarkson - "Stronger"

You've probably already started seeing commercials for Season 11 of "American Idol". The show continues to be among the most popular on television, but it no longer means guaranteed success for the winner. In fact, the last few "idols" have been forgotten almost as quickly as they were crowned (Season 9 winner Kris Allen no longer has a major label deal). But one idol -- the first one -- endures.

Kelly Clarkson released her fifth studio album this week, the long-delayed "Stronger" (a name that really needs to be retired from use by female solo artists). Originally slated for release in Fall 2010, then Spring 2011, "Stronger" finally arrives in Fall 2011, not as the much anticipated "Kelly Clarkson country" album, or even a musical evolution from the multi-platinum artist, but another solid entry is Clarkson's ongoing battle with love and relationships and why they suck so much.

I find it interesting that Clarkson said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that there was no real fighting with the label on this album. It's easy to spin that as the label trusting Clarkson more, but after listening to it, it's apparent that the lack of fighting stems from the fact that the album is, on the whole, "safe." It explores a lot of themes Clarkson has addressed before, primarily problems with love and overcoming them to be a better person. The lead single, "Mr. Know It All", is probably a perfect example of the "safeness" of the album: it sticks to the subject matter both Clarkson and her fans are most comfortable with, narrows her vocal range, strips down the production and produces a good, if forgettable track.

That's representative of my biggest disappointment with "Stronger": on the whole, it's perfectly fine, but it doesn't stick with you. I've listened to the whole thing through multiple times now and while it's enjoyable, it's also disposable. Aside from the title track and, maybe, "You Can't Win", there isn't really a song that sticks out and makes you want to play it over and over again. None of the six tracks Clarkson is credited with co-writing live up to her most recent prior writing efforts on songs like "Cry", "Already Gone" and "Impossible" from 2009's "All I Ever Wanted". There isn't a song that vocally chills the listener like "Sober" or "Because of You". And there definitely isn't a "Since U Been Gone", Clarkson's breakaway 2004 single that she's been measured against ever since.

Overall, there's nothing wrong with "Stronger". It's a good listen, and better than the vast majority of content most artists are putting out these days. However, nine years into her career, Clarkson should be striving for more than "better than most".

Jersey Monday: Vinny Testaverde

Monday Night Football Matchup: Baltimore Ravens at Jacksonville Jaguars


Holy crap this is a horrible jersey. I have a lot of bad jerseys, and honestly, based on overall career production Vinny Testaverde isn't really near the top (bottom?) of that list, but this is just such a weird jersey for me to have.

I got this jersey when I was in high school, in part because a friend of mine was a semi-close relative of Ravens owner Art Modell. Plus, as I've mentioned before, I was on a quest to get at least one jersey from every team in the league, and player selections were incredibly limited in the mid-'90s. Ray Lewis wasn't quite a national name yet, and so Vinny was the Ravens jersey representative nationwide.

The jersey itself is a pretty straightforward Champion number from the mid-'90s (1996 to be specific). Like all of Champion's jersey from that era, it uses the same generic lettering the company used for every team. I'd credit them for how well the numbers held up over the mesh, but that's really more a sign of how little I worse this jersey, and therefore how little it went through the washing machine. I haven't worn this in more than a decade, but I do remember the black sleeve stripe being weirdly constricting, despite it not being a spandex material.

As for the player, Testaverde was a carryover from the Browns years, and served two seasons as Baltimore's starting QB. He actually had his highest single-season passing yardage total in his first season in Baltimore, throwing for 4,177 yards, a Ravens' record that still stands (by more than 500 yards over the next best total). In fact, it'd be a Browns franchise record too, if the NFL acknowledged the shared history of the two teams.


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. For the remainder of the NFL season, Jersey Monday will feature one of the teams playing on Monday Night Football.

Once Upon a Time "Pilot" Reaction

We've reached the point in the TV seasons where some of the late-premiering shows (it's not fair to call them mid-season replacements, but for whatever reason they didn't premiere last month) are finally hitting the air. The first of the wave was ABC's "Once Upon a Time", which debuted last night. Initially, I was going to take a wait-and-see approach with the show, but I decided to catch the premiere (on my DVR, after the World Series).

My biggest concern for the show was that coming from a set of "Lost" writers, it would ramble on for weeks, teasing the audience with hints of a broader premise while seemingly going nowhere. However, in the opening episode, the show wasted no time getting its primary premise out in front of the audience: in "fairy tale land", the Evil Queen interrupts the wedding of Snow White and Prince Charming with the threat of a curse, one that will take away everyone's happy endings. That curse takes everyone to the real world, where years later the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming is supposed to return to "Storybrooke" (the name of the fairy tale world's real-world counterpart) and save everyone from the curse.

The concept sounds cheesy on paper, but worked much better on film in the premiere episode. Leaning on their "Lost" roots, the writers seamlessly wove the current story in with flashbacks to the events leading up to the curse. What I thought would be the show's weakness ended up being its strength, along with the fantastic performance in a dual role by Lana Parrilla, who played the Evil Queen who post-curse becomes the mayor of Storybrooke.

However, the show revolves around the character of Emma Swan, the now-adult daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming, played by Jennifer Morrison (most recently seen as the destestible Zoey on "How I Met Your Mother"). You could play a drinking game with the cliches they used to create the character, and Morrison's half-involved, half-"get me outta here" way of playing Emma just brought the whole mood of the episode down. I understand that she's the grounding character, the one who was raised in the "real" world and has no natural connection to fairy tale land, but it only took about 20 minutes into the episode before I took a dislike to her. It didn't help that she shared most of her scenes with her biological son, the stereotypical "child who knows more than the adults" we see in this type of show. He was an entirely unnecessary character, and one who creates more of a problem than a solution going forward (if he already knows the key mystery behind the show, then the show becomes more about characters believing him than figuring things out for themselves).

Truth be told, "Once Upon a Time" showed a lot of potential in its first hour. There are plenty of interesting characters, led by Parrilla's Queen, and the groundwork was laid for an added layer of mystery between Snow White, Emma and Rumplestiltskin (known as Mr. Gold in the "real" world). I definitely want to see what happens with Josh Dallas's Prince Charming, who was near death when the curse hit and is in a coma in the "real" world. The flashbacks are interesting enough to keep me watching, but I'd like to see Morrison tone down the incredulity to make the real world scenes more enjoyable in the coming weeks.

NYCC Round-Up Part 3: The Memories I Made

On my way back from New York Comic Con on Sunday, I watched the movie "Limitless", which got me thinking about memory and how it works. Sometimes we experience something we think we'll remember forever, only to have the memory fade away quickly, while something we experience for just a split second makes an indelible impression. Why bring this up? Well, upon first putting together this post, I had the Kevin Smith/Jason Mewes podcast near the top of my list of things I'd never forget from this year's NYCC. Then, while looking back at my posts from past NYCC visits, I discovered that I'd seen Smith's panel in 2007... and COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN ABOUT IT. It wasn't that the panel was bad or forgettable, it just got shuffled behind memories of other things from that weekend, and until reading my '07 recap post, I'd never really thought about it.

What it also made me realize is that the most memorable experiences at a convention are the ones with which me make a personal connection. Sitting in a huge room with hundreds, if not thousands, of other people and hearing juicy tidbits at panels seems incredibly cool at the time, but it's the smaller moments that linger in our minds much longer.

With that in mind, I've gone through my memories of this most recent New York Comic Con and picked out some of my favorites to share with you, focusing on the ones that I think I'll be able to remember years from now without having to refer to this post. I thought about ranking them, but instead I'll just put them in day-by-day order, kind of like a personal recap of the show.

THURSDAY

- There actually wasn't a whole lot going on at the show on Thursday. The show floor was open, and some of the creators were at their tables in artists alley, but the thing I'll remember most is just how sparsly attended the preview night was and how easy it was to move around. In fact, I'll probably remember that TOO well next year, and make the mistake of thinking it was like that every day. It wasn't.

- Also, not show-related, but I did go out and meet up with some colleagues in New York on Thursday night. It was cool to meet people with whom I'd only previously interacted on Twitter, putting faces to names, and having too many drinks in the process. I didn't get back to my hotel room until about 2 a.m., and was hungover about halfway through the show on Friday.

NYCC Round-Up Part 2: The Stuff I Got

Sunday night, when I was unpacking from my trip to New York Comic-Con, I realized that for the first time in years I'd made a trip to a comic book convention and failed to purchase a single comic book. Sure, I got the variant edition of X-Men Regenesis #1 that came with my VIP package, but I hadn't picked up a single book from a dealer, artist, exhibitor or anyone else.

However, that doesn't mean that I didn't pick up anything at the show. Far from it. I came away with plenty of goodies, some of which I'd like to share (read: show off) in this post.

First things first, lets address that big ass pile of comics up top. As I said, I didn't buy any comics this weekend, but that didn't mean I didn't have any with me. I brought a ton of stuff to New York to get signed, and was successful on probably 95% of it. It's hard to pick what my favorite signatures were to get, but having the entire 0-30 run* of "Amazing Spider-Girl" signed by Tom DeFalco -- after getting it signed by Ron Frenz in Baltimore -- is pretty fucking amazing.

*I know in yesterday's post, I mentioned that I wasn't a fan of people that bring huge stacks of books for creators to sign. To clarify, I was specifically referring to obvious dealers -- that is people who are clearly getting multiple copies of the SAME book signed repeatedly. Additionally, with DeFalco, he happened to be at his table briefly on Thursday, and I asked him if it would be OK if I brought that many books with me to get signed. He was fine with it, and I made sure I was the first person at his table Friday so I could get out of everyone's way quickly. 

One of the last things I did before I went to New York was packed a trio of slipcases to get signed at the show. At the far left is my "Firefly" complete series DVD cover, signed by Jewel Staite (Kaylee). In the middle is my "Star Wars" complete Blu-ray set signed by Mark Hammil, who consistently had the longest lines of the weekend. And on the right is my "30 Rock" Season 4 case signed by Judah Friedlander (Frank), Grizz Chapman (Grizz), Kevin Brown (Dotcom) and Scott Adsit (Pete). The first three were scheduled guests at the show. Adsit -- a regular convention goer -- just happened to be visiting Friedlander's booth while I was waiting in line, and was nice enough to stop and sign autographs. So that was pretty awesome.

Jersey Monday: Fred Barnett

Monday Night Football Matchup: Miami Dolphins at New York Jets


Let's be honest: it's embarrassing enough that I own a Fred Barnett Dolphins jersey, considering his entire career with the team lasted 15 games, during which he totaled a less-than-impressive 53 receptions. But more embarrassing is the fact that this jersey is the only one I own to represent the Miami franchise in my collection.

I got this jersey in 1996, Barnett's first year with the team. I was in Florida on vacation with my family, and wanted to get a Dolphins jersey (by this point in my life, it was pretty clear that I was trying to put together the whole league, one jersey at a time). I purposely didn't want to go with Dan Marino, since I thought that was kind of cliché. The player I really wanted was Zach Thomas, who was in his first year in the league and seemed really cool to me, but the mall we were at didn't seem to have any Thomas jerseys. Plenty of Marinos, some Karim Abdul-Jabbars (which I refused to get on principle, because the only Abdul-Jabbar jerseys anyone should own are from the Bucks and Lakers) and, of course, Barnett. I remembered Fred fondly from his days with the Eagles, where he'd been known as a big play receiver, so I decided to get the Barnett jersey.

His Dolphins -- and NFL -- career lasted exactly six more games. He was cut in October of 1997, retired after that, and somehow I never got around to adding another Dolphins jersey to my collection. Maybe that'll change with Andrew Luck.

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. For the remainder of the NFL season, Jersey Monday will feature one of the teams playing on Monday Night Football.

NYCC Round-up Part 1: The Issues I Had

I was going to write a long post covering my full experience at the 2011 New York Comic-Con this past weekend, but I decided to break it up into a series of shorter, more manageable posts, each focusing on a specific aspect of the show. Overall, I had a great time at the show, but there were definitely some issues that came up and I'd be remiss if I didn't write about them. To be fair, they were all pretty minor, relatively, but when you go to a show like this, you want everything to run as smoothly as possible.

Now, I had the pleasure of having VIP passes, so I can't personally speak about the line issues I heard about for entrance to the show or the IGN Theater throughout the weekend, but there were some times when even the VIP pass wasn't enough. The first time was for the Jay & Silent Bob podcast, which was on Friday night. The organizers cleared the room before the event, since it was ticketed. That part made sense. What didn't make sense was having everyone stand around -- the VIPs just outside the hall and the rest of the crowd in an adjacent queue hall -- for more than an hour after the scheduled start of the event with no communication whatsoever. Even if Smith was running late, which he admitted during the show he was, it would have been much more sensible to seat the crowd, since we were all waiting either way, and waiting in our seats would have been preferable to waiting standing up.

The situation with the panel for "The Avengers" on Saturday was much more of a clusterfuck, at least for many fans. Personally, I knew that NYCC's policy was not to clear rooms after panels, but apparently a lot of people didn't know that, and were stuck standing in line for seats that never came open (thanks to people that got to the event early on Saturday and camped out in the room all day for the sole purpose of seeing "The Avengers" panel). The VIP situation was also mishandled pretty badly. "Ultimate Access" VIPs were supposed to have guaranteed seats for any panel in the IGN Theater, so long as they showed up 10 minutes before the panel started. However, throughout the day, the NYCC volunteers were allowing non-VIPs to move up to those seats once panels started and they weren't filled. That seems like a great idea, assuming you have a plan to relocate those non-VIPs once the VIPs showed up. It became clear pretty early on that the organizers had no such plans, so what ended up happening is the VIPs (read: me and others like me) had to flag down a security person, who then had to kick out someone with a non-gold badge, and that person went from having a great seat to one further back -- or, in the case of "The Avengers" panel, no seat at all, since the room was full. Additionally, some VIPs I spoke to chose to watch the panel in the VIP Lounge, where we were told all the IGN Theater events would be streamed, only to find out that the con was not streaming "The Avengers" panel to the lounge. Ouch.

Avengers Trailer: I Want to Go to There

Yes.

Just yes.

Everything about the official trailer for "The Avengers" is awesome. God, I wish this movie were coming out NOW, and not next summer. Instead, this will have to hold us over for now. Well, this, and the exclusive footage I'm going to see this weekend at New York Comic-Con (jealous?!).

Jersey Monday: Barry Sanders

Monday Night Football Matchup: Chicago Bears at Detroit Lions

Holy crap, the Detroit Lions are on Monday Night Football. Not only that, but they're favored, and they're actually good. It seems like it's been forever since the Lions were good, but I actually remember some good years for Detroit when I was growing up.

One of those years was 1991, when the Lions went 12-4 and reached the NFC Championship Game, where they were promptly crushed by the Washington Redskins (God, that seems like forever ago, right?). The star of that team, and most of the Lions teams throughout the '90s, was Barry Sanders.

I remember being a kid in middle school, then high school, and the debate was always Barry Sanders vs. Emmitt Smith. If you were on Barry's side, like I was, the argument was that if Barry had Emmitt's offensive line, he'd run for 2,500 yards every year.

I got this jersey in high school, as a gift from a friend who knew I needed a Lions jersey to help complete my collection. I don't think I've worn it since college, and it's not the Lions current style anymore so it's not like I'm going to wear it again soon. But it's just nice to know that it's no longer the most recent example of a good Lions player.

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. For the remainder of the NFL season, Jersey Monday will feature one of the teams playing on Monday Night Football.

The "Modern Family" Documentary Problem

There are a handful of sitcoms that use the mock documentary format these days, and for the most part when I'm watching them, I try to put aside the absurdity of that narrative style and just enjoy the content. Ever since watching the "Community" episode that mocked them (and listening to the commentary, which makes a lot of valid points about how much easier it makes the storytelling), it's become harder, but I still just try to accept the episodes for what they are.

However, last night's "Modern Family" really bothered me in regards to this, because of the Luke/Phil subplot. First, check out this scene that gets the ball rolling.




Now, within the construct of the show, there's supposed to be this documentary crew filming these people, which is how we get the "talking head" scenes, but it's also implied that the documentary people are filming these families to provide the other footage we see. So, in the "Modern Family" world, Phil's reaction should be to go to the documentarians and ask if he can get that clip to upload to YouTube. Is that less funny? Sure. Does it mean we cut an entire subplot out of the episode? Absolutely. But it's also 100 times less insulting to the viewer.

Hell, I honestly would have even accepted all the other stuff that happened if the final scene had been a talking head tag with Phil saying something like "Well, we didn't get our hit YouTube clip, but the one Luke put together is almost as good." Then cut briefly to Luke's clip, then back to Phil on the couch, saying directly to the documentary guy "wait, couldn't I have just asked YOU for the original clip." End episode. A simple tongue-in-cheek acknowledgement of the format would have brought it all full circle, you get to keep all the Phil physical humor and it even reinforces Phil's simple idiocy. Instead I was bothered by the documentary thing the entire time, and now it's going to bother me for at least the next few episodes. I blame "Community."

Desktop Girl of the Week: Amber Heard

Ever since the last DGOW Tournament ended, I've been meaning to re-start the weekly naming of Desktop Girls of the Week. I fully intended to do it last week, but other things got in the way. I've even had a list of potential DGOW selections this time around, and the name at the top of that list was Amber Heard. She was atop the list for two reasons. First, it's sorted alphabetically by first name. Second, I didn't think her new show, "The Playboy Club" was long for this world, and I wanted to get to her early in case it got canceled.

Well, my procrastination finally bit me in the ass, as "The Playboy Club" was canceled after Monday's episode, just the third of the season. I said in my initial review of the show that it might not make it to Halloween. I didn't expect it to get canned before Columbus Day.

Hopefully this doesn't derail the career of Heard, who was probably the one redeeming aspect of the show. She doesn't have an acting résumé that screams A-list (hell, before "The Playboy Club", the thing I knew her best from was her minor role in "Zombieland"), but she definitely has classic Hollywood good looks, and she seems to be a decent enough actress that with the right project she could make it big. We'll probably get more insight into that in a couple weeks when "The Rum Diary" -- based on the Hunter S. Thompson novel -- comes out. Heard stars opposite Johnny Depp, and could get a huge career bump assuming the movie is successful (or at least a critical success).

Oh, and lastly, I should point out that while traditionally DGOW has played to my male readers (for, well, obvious reasons), Heard is openly gay, having come out in 2010. So, enjoy, ladies...

• Amber Heard Official Site
• Follow Amber Heard on Twitter
• Amber Heard on IMDB

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.

R.I.P. Steve Jobs

Apple just confirmed that company founder and recently retired CEO Steve Jobs has died at the age of 56.

I honestly don't know how to react to this news. Steve had obviously had health issues over the years, which is what many people believe led him to step down as CEO, but I didn't anticipate reading about his death just a day after the company he built from the ground up -- twice -- announced the latest revolutionary product with his fingerprints all over it.

I'll always have a special place in my heart for Apple, as it was the first company I worked for out of college. I spent five years of my life as a member of the Apple family, and though retail life wasn't always the best, there was a special kind of joy working for Apple, and a lot of that came from Steve's vision.

I remember the first day I was on Apple's campus for training in Cupertino, and our trainer told us a few things to know about Steve. He said first, above everything else, do not treat him like a celebrity. If you see him on campus, don't run up to him and tell him how much you love him, or how every computer you've ever owned has been a Mac or how the iPod changed your life. On campus, Steve wasn't "Steve Jobs, master of the keynote", he was your boss. Well, technically your boss's boss's boss's boss's boss, but you had to treat him with that kind of respect.

The second thing he told us about Steve gave me incredible insight to how his mind worked when it came to running Apple the company. The trainer told us that once in awhile people would run into Steve and he'd ask them, "What do you do for me?" If you answered with your job title, you'd likely get fired. I can't confirm whether this ever actually happened or not, but to me it said that Steve wasn't the type of person who cared about titles or anything like that. He cared about the process and the results, and that's what makes the products he was in charge of creating so great (the MobileMe story is another great example of that).

Apple, as a company, will remain successful even with Steve gone, I feel confident in predicting that. But it'll never be the same. The world has lost a true genius today.

Early Impressions of NBA 2K12: My Player

I picked up NBA 2K12 at midnight last night (well, technically shortly after midnight, since there was a sizable line at my local GameStop*) and I wanted to share some early impressions of the game. Sure, I've only had it for about 13 hours, but I ran through the initial setup of the game and created a "My Player" career and played some games, so I just wanted to share my initial impressions of the game.

*Including 2K12, there were four major games being released at midnight, but the vast majority of the people at my GameStop were there for NBA 2K12, not Spider-Man or Dark Souls or Rage. My brief observation of the piles of copies of 2K12 behind the counter showed that sales were evenly split between the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, and the Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan covers. Almost no one was taking the Larry Bird cover.

Last year, when you first popped in 2K11, it dropped you right into a classic Bulls-Lakers game, immersing you in the whole Michael Jordan experience, which was the big selling point of the game. This year, 2K12 starts you off by building your "player", which I thought was the My Player character but is actually your online avatar. It's a sign of the increased emphasis on online play this year, and the game even has you link up your Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts, which was a pretty seamless process (though I haven't actually tried posting anything to my accounts from the game yet, so we'll see how that goes).

Once I was through that set-up process, I jumped right into "My Player", which was apparently the most popular mode last year. I had two big complaints about the mode last year, both of which have been addressed with changes this year. First, the process of getting your created player to the NBA has been drastically streamlined from last year. No more extended pre-draft camp, no more preseason, just one "rookie showcase" game, three pre-draft interviews and then the draft itself. The creators of the game have admitted that it's a step back in terms of realism, but a step forward in terms of fun, and I have to agree. The pre-draft interviews were surprisingly fun to go through, particularly for my player, a 5-11 point guard who I created with the hope of landing on the Heat (one change from last year I didn't like: the option to just choose your team has been dropped entirely. You are now forced into the draft process, which kind of sucks if you're really a fan of one team). My pre-draft interviews were with the Pacers, Rockets and Knicks, and they're not generic at all. They're team and position specific, which was evident right away, when the Pacers asked me how I'd fit in on a team that already had Darren Collison and George Hill.

I ended up getting drafted 17th overall by the Knicks, who apparently liked how I answered their questions about playing in the New York spotlight. Of course, that buries me on the depth chart behind Chauncey Billups and Toney Douglas, which, honestly, is fine for now. My player is rated a 60 right now, which would be terrible for a starting point guard, but is fine for a third stringer (last year, My Player rookies came in which significantly lower rankings, which is the other big fix I like this year. I'm bad, but not unplayably bad). And while the new "My Player" mode allows you to skip right to "key games", I started off playing every game, mostly because I'm only playing 10 minutes a night, and the game allows you to sim everything when you're not on the court. Because of the quick sim, it's very easy to get into a never-ending "just one more game" routine, where you end up blowing through a couple weeks of the season very quickly.

I haven't tried my hand at all the drills yet, but the ones I did play seemed like a step up from last year's. Also, there's now a two-pronged approach to improving your player, both through ratings points (the traditional method) and skills. The latter costs a lot more skill points, but if you have the balance, it makes it easier to make a big step up in one particular aspect of your game.

The gameplay itself seems marginally improved from last year's already impressive mechanics. If anything, shooting might be a little easier, though that may just be a function of me not being as terrible as I once was. Once again the in-game announcing adds narrative to the standard play-by-play, but once again it gets surprisingly repetitive very quickly. The graphics look improved from last year, though hair is still a challenge. One thing I really like is the "turbo" button doesn't just speed up the existing animations, but actually has its own set of them. When you use the speed burst in transition it's really noticeable, as your player will now dribble far out in front of him as he speeds up the court. It's a huge improvement from both a look and play perspective.

It's really hard to make any sweeping generalizations on a game after just a few hours of playing, but NBA 2K12 seems to be really good, and just from looking at the menu, there's a lot of depth to keep me interested. I'm planning on setting up an online association at some point, so I'll let you know how that goes and what my impressions of that are.

Jersey Monday: Simeon Rice

Monday Night Football Matchup: Indianapolis Colts at Tampa Bay Buccaneers

I could have spotlighted my Peyton Manning jersey here, but that would be foolish for two reasons. First, I already did that, way back in January of 2010. Second, Manning isn't playing.

Then again, neither is Simeon Rice, who retired after a brief stint in the UFL in 2009. Rice's last NFL action came not with the Bucs -- with whom he spent the majority of his NFL career -- but with the Colts in 2007. So this actually represents both teams playing tonight.


Still, Rice is known best as a Buc, and this jersey is obviously a Tampa Bay jersey, one of two in my collection. I was working at Westfarms Mall when I got this jersey, and at the time there was a jersey store right across the hall from the store I worked in, so I bought a LOT of jerseys in this period. The Rice pickup was specifically to update the Tampa slot in my collection from the horrid white creamsicle style to the more modern Buccaneers look. I remember buying another jersey the same day I got this one, but for the life of me I can't remember which one it was. That's probably a sign I have too many jerseys (well, that and the fact that I can run "Jersey Monday" for another year or so without any shortage).


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. For the remainder of the NFL season, Jersey Monday will feature one of the teams playing on Monday Night Football.