Random

The Final Opus.

Entertainment, Random

I read an article about Berkeley Breathed ending the “Opus” comic strip. I really haven’t followed his work much since the end of bloom county in the early 1990’s. The “sequel” strips, Outland and Opus really didn’t have the draw for me that Bloom County did. But it was always reassuring to know that they were out there, they’re kind of like old friends that you don’t talk to much anymore.  I do remember my parents having the big collections around the house when I was a kid. I think I’ve read “Bloom County Babylon” 10 times (the one with Opus in a top hat on the cover) and I remember making a Bill the cat name tag for my desk in 5th grade. I’m not sure if I knew what the comic was really about when I was little, but I knew it was funny. I think it’s done a lot to shape my view of politics and fame in general.

I’ll miss you Opus.

via NPR

“Liberal, shmiberal. That should be a new word. Shmiberal: one who is assumed liberal, just because he’s a professional whiner in the newspaper. If you’ll read the subtext for many of those old strips, you’ll find the heart of an old-fashioned Libertarian. And I’d be a Libertarian, if they weren’t all a bunch of tax-dodging professional whiners.” – Berkeley Breathed

The X-Games bring the pain.

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Maybe it’s because I fit perfectly into the demographic that they’re searching for, but I find the X-games enthralling. I remember when I first heard of them, I was 14 and into rollerblading every day. I was amazed that ESPN would be covering and promoting sports that I was interested in. Looking back on old clips it’s easy to see how far they’ve come. They did a little piece on the word “extreme” before the start of competition this year. It was a little bit BS because I’ve never actually heard anyone use that word, it’s kind of like hearing your parents talk about “gangsta” rap… in 2004.

But the opening event “Skateboard Big Air” has got to be one of the definitions of extreme. It’s so crazy it makes professional skateboarders scared. When I was watching last year and saw Jake Brown fall 40 feet out of the sky and land on the flatbottom I was sure I just saw somebody die on TV. I called Charlie into the room and told him he HAD to watch this, because “I’m sure this guy is dead”. He wasn’t… he WALKED AWAY.

If you haven’t seen it check this out.

I knew this year they would put the hype machine on overdrive because Jake was coming back to the competition (Jerome Bettis is from Detroit). But seeing the look on his face when he was about to take his first run on the ramp was insane. I thought for sure he was going to say… “OK, I can’t do this, later!” But not only did he do it, he landed almost the same run… on his first try. So after I thought that would be the highlight a few runs later Danny Way absolutely got destroyed on the coping of the quarter pipe then did a front flip 20 feet down and landed on his back and then slid lifelessly into the middle of the ramp. Again I was sure that he broke both his shins and developed “floppy leg syndrome” (Willis Mcgahee, horrible Youtube clips, etc). But after a few minutes with medical… HE WALKED AWAY. Not only that… HE CAME BACK to take his next runs. AND LANDED the same trick he just got KILLED on.

Really I can’t be clear enough, this was the best thing I’ve watched on TV since the NCAA title game. So intense, So huge, So scary. The tricks just kept getting better and bigger and you weren’t sure at any moment if someone was going to die. This event is like the MMA of the X-games… really it’s more than that, it’s like the RUNNING MAN of the X-Games. Eventually someone is going to die or be paralyzed in this event. But HOLY DAMN if it’s not exciting.

Announcer – “Danny are you going to take another run?”

Danny Way – “I’m going to take all the runs“

The Terminator has nothing on Danny Way. PROPS TO MR. WAY!

Later

Guitar Hands…

Entertainment, Random

Since we got the Guitar Hero for the 360 we’ve been playing it non stop. I took off work a little early so that I could get home early and have some time by myself. I started my own band so I can keep track of my progress. Chuck Norris Tears will be tearing up the charts in no time. When the roomies get home its on to some intense battles. Since we only have to one guitar right now we just take turns playing the same songs and the one with the highest percentage gets to pick the next song. It’s not the best plan, but it’ll have to do until we find the second guitar.

But now when I type I’m expecting an off chord when I hit the delete key.

Later!
Mark