DRIVE-BY BLOGGING

Here are some quick thoughts I've had over the last couple of weeks:

--An entertainment company is developing a TV show specifically designed to help kids sleep. It's called Desperate Housewives.

--President Bush has named Air Force General Michael Hayden as his nominee to be the new head of the CIA. Many are concerned about the military being in charge of intelligence gathering, especially in light of Bush's illegal wiretap program and the doctored intelligence used to justify invading Iraq. My take: it's the most upfront thing the Bush Administration has ever done. They've always used right-wing military planners and industrialists to guide their intelligence objectives and this would just make it official. In the same vein, Bush plans to also promote vice president Dick Cheney to the title of Dark Lord of the Sith.

--Gomez is the best alternative rock band nobody's paying attention to. Each album they release improves on their previous work and they now sound as good as early-90's REM or better.

--Overall, this has been the best season of The Sopranos since the first one. That being said, what are David Chase and his writers doing with those eight final "extra" episodes that will air next year? I fear they may being drawing a good thing out too far.

--I'm okay with trying to remake mediocre or cheap movies into something better or at least better looking, but why bother with a camp B-movie classic like The Poseidon Adventure? The original is perfect for a lazy Saturday afternoon at home where you don't want to think, you just want to relax and laugh your ass off at cheesy special effects, over the top acting and a ludicrous premise. You don't spend $150 million to take all that and make it SERIOUS! This is proof that the only thing in Hollywood scarier than Tom Cruise is taking a chance on a new idea. For other examples of this wrong headed remake thinking, see (or don't) The Getaway, Dark Water, The In-Laws and Planet of the Apes, just to name a few.
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Barry Bonds, Dialing 714

Barry Bonds is about to hit home run number 714, tying him for second all-time with Babe Ruth. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm no Bonds apologist. He's spent his whole privileged life with a silver spoon in his mouth, treating reporters, fans and teammates like nuisances to be tolerated (at best) or like dogshit (at worst) only to complain that when one of his "accomplishments" goes underreported or questioned that he's a victim of racism or a media conspiracy against him. It would be good for baseball, sports in general really, if we were rid of Barry Bonds. That being said...if he passes the Babe or (heaven forbid) Hank Aaron, there shouldn't be an asterisk by his accomplishment. There's something tainted about almost every major record in the storied, hypocritical history of Major League Baseball, starting with the fact that no one knows for sure how many home runs Negro Leaguer Josh Gibson, arguably the greatest slugger of all time, hit in his pro career--and he NEVER got a chance to play in the big leagues. Japanese slugger Sadaharu Oh has over 850 home runs--yes, in smaller ballparks, but if the World Baseball Classic proved anything, it's that they play a pretty good brand of baseball over there and their pitchers are no joke. When Babe Ruth hit 714 home runs, he never had to face a Black, Latino or Asian player once in his career and ballparks were a lot less uniform then now--some of the smaller ballparks were less than 300' down the lines (and over 450' to centerfield to make up for it).

My point is, where do the asterisks end? Did Bonds take steroids? Almost undoubtedly, based on reports and visual evidence. So did a lot of major leaguers before baseball suddenly (and belatedly) cracked down in the last collective bargaining agreement--pitchers and hitters both. Until and unless you are able to sort out the cheaters from the honest players with hard evidence, you have to take the numbers at face value and let the chips fall where they may. And remember, they're only baseball records, not nerve gas canisters. They're made to be broken and they're all subjective, one way or another.


Peace...