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Thanks to my brother for forwarding this to me. I'm assuming this is for real. If it isn't, it ought to be. Enjoy.

It is scary that there are people like this out there. Scary, but funny.

Old music, old memories

While updating my iPod, I have been reacquainting myself with some music from my past. One of the real pleasures has been listening to the first 2 albums by Heart, Dreamboat Annie and Little Queen. I had forgotten just how wonderful these albums are. Great, inventive stuff and Ann Wilson's vocals are terrific; what a powerful voice. I am not sure what happened to Heart, why they decided to change their sound to glossy corporate rock in the 80's, but what a shame. Yeah, that was when they had their biggest radio hits, but the music was just generic pap, IMO. Anyway, we still have the excellent early stuff (including "Straight On" from the Dog & Butterfly album, one of my favorite Heart tunes) and the memories of those more innocent times (the 70's!) to go along with them.

John Arthur William Schmaltz

A friend of ours got this outfit for John so I had to get a picture right away, of course. Thanks so much, Melissa!

John is doing great, as is the rest of the family. Barb is getting ready to return to work and it is going to be so difficult for her (and John). Here's hoping they both can cope with the separation anxiety!

NCAA Football 09 demo impressions

Electronic Arts has released the demo for my annually most-anticipated game of the year. The NCAA series was terrific in the days of the PS2 and the original XBox, but the next-gen versions have been disappointing. So how does the newest version look so far? Improved. And fun.

There has been a lot of buzz going around the 'net by people who have played an early version of the game. Most of it has been positive, but there have been a couple of things that have set off warning sirens. First of all, it was said to be almost impossible to put pressure on the QB without blitzing. While it is difficult, it can be done. The demo is only 8 minutes long, and in one of those sessions I sacked the QB with my defensive linemen 3 times. Not bad. In other games it was a bit more difficult, but not impossible, so that's a good sign.

The 2nd complaint was that the CPU never throws the ball deep. I have played about 6 games total and the CPU has gone deep on me twice. While that doesn't seem like a lot, it must be remembered that the game is only 8 minutes long (2 minute quarters). So I just don't think you can make a judgement based on the short time the demo gives you each game. But I will definitely be looking for this in the retail version.

Turnovers were a big problem in last year's game; there were way too many interceptions, by both human and CPU, and there were too many fumbles by the human controlled players. This looks to be toned down. Of the 6 games I played, I saw 2 fumbles the whole time, and both were by the CPU controlled offense. I did have a game where I picked off the CPU twice and I threw one myself, but they seemed to be realistic plays, mostly because of dumb decisions by the QB. Again, I really can't tell if this will be a problem with the retail version, but so far it looks promising.

The one caveat for all of these impressions is this; the game is set on the 2nd easiest skill level (varsity). So it may be much tougher to rush the QB on higher levels and perhaps you'll see more human turnovers as well. Again, this can't be known until the full version arrives in stores.

Player control seems more responsive and that is most welcome. It makes playing the game simply more fun by allowing the user to pull off moves that may have been extra difficult on previous versions.

I have played both the PS3 and 360 versions of the demo. While they play the same, there is no doubt in my mind that the 360 version is the better looking version. It's not by a lot, but the players look more crisp and the colors are not as garish as they appear on the PS3. This creates a problem for me, because I have already ordered the PS3 version. I simply think the PS3 is a better, more reliable machine than the 360, plus I have joined an online league that is PS3 only. But I may have to reconsider and go with the 36o version just because it looks a bit better. I am not sure what I am gonna do, so right now I am just gonna sit tight.

I am waiting anxiously for July 15th when the retail version hits stores. I'll be first in line, as usual. I am hoping EA has come through for us this year and given us a truly next-gen version of NCAA Football. I'll be reporting back after the game arrives, if I can tear myself away from it long enough.

Some stuff

Not much new here other than John continuing to grow (7 lbs, 10 ounces!) and thrive. He's still got his days and nights mixed up and Barb goes back to work soon, so he needs to straighten up!

I just posted an article on my favorite genre of music, power pop, over at GTSM. You can find it here.

The Cardinals were swept by the Royals at home, which just should not happen. If they miss the postseason this year, this is the kind of series you look back on and just shake your head. The offense is absolutely anemic without Albert Pujols in the lineup.

Barb and the kids are doing fine. I am off for a few days and hope to enjoy my time off. I have been really letting too much time go by between posts here, but I am going to try to do a better job of just posting everyday stuff here rather than full length articles every time. That gets hard after a while, especially with so much going on in our lives.

Hope all is well and that everyone has a great, safe weekend.

Wii Fit has arrived

My Wii Fit came by Fed Ex yesterday. It arrived in perfect shape, so here's another satisfied eBay customer. Unfortunately I had a migraine headache last night (in fact I've had one for every day for 2 weeks now) so I didn't get too much accomplished. I was able to set up profiles for everyone in the family, except for 4-week old John, of course.

The game grunted when I first stepped onto the pad. Nice. It also let me know that I was overweight. Tell me something I don't know, Nintendo. I am anxious to try it out some more and I will give my impressions when I do.

Of other note is that I sent off my defective Rock Band guitar to EA last week and the replacement guitar arrived yesterday. That is a seriously quick turnaround time. The tilt-control (used for powering up) was broken on my first guitar, and the whammy bar would not hold a note either. I briefly plugged in the new one to see if it worked right, and it did. Kudos to EA for taking care of this in such a timely manner.

I put in my pre-orders for NCAA 09 and Madden 09. I decided to get both for the PS3. It's such a solid console and runs so much quieter than the Xbox 360. I have joined an online league at GTSM. My only worry is that the Playstation Network's performance has so far been far below that of Xbox Live's, so playing online may be an exercise in frustration. But since 99% of my gaming is done offline, it's not enough to make me stick with the 360 version.

NCAA is always my most anticipated game of the year, so I am stoked for that. But from the previews I have seen, Madden looks to be the better game. I am almost always disappointed in Madden (I haven't even bought it the past 2 seasons), so we'll see if they can win me back this year. Definitely looking forward to checking it out.

eBay and me

I have been really good about not overbidding on items on eBay. Granted, I do not use eBay much, but still there have been some things that I wanted from eBay that I refused to overpay for. Until now.

I was able to hold off getting a Nintendo Wii from eBay because the damned things were just way too expensive. When I saw some of them going for $500, I laughed at those who paid double the price. And I eventually tracked one down at a store and paid the retail price for it. But then a funny thing happened. For some stupid reason, I did not have the foresight to pre-order Wii Fit. I knew it was coming, knew I would want it and yet it never dawned on me that it would be so difficult to find once it was released. And after seeing it in action over the weekend, I really wanted one.

So I hopped on eBay where, lo and behold, I was greeted by a message that I would receive $20 off of any purchase over $100, as long as I used Paypal. Well, that sounded good. So I started looking at Wiis in which their auction was about to expire. I saw a couple for $160. Too high, I thought, even with the $20 off coupon. I saw one at $140 and I bid on it. Of course, as soon as I did I was notified that I was no longer the high bidder. So I went up to $150. With just minutes left, I was in the lead. But with about 30 seconds remaining, I was outbid again and time ran out. Damn! That was close.

I looked around again and saw an auction that was at $145 with 2 minutes left. I put in a bid for $150. The bid was increased twice by others, up to $156. With about 30 seconds left, I thought "What the hell" and put in a bid for $160. I knew it would be beat. People sit at home and wait for the auctions to get down to the last seconds before entering their bid and swiping the item out from under you. I hit the page refresh button; 11 seconds left and I was still the high bidder. There's no way I was actually going to end up with the highest bid, was there? I refreshed again and this time it took a few more seconds for the page to reload. When it did, it said "Congratulations! You won the item." Uh-oh.

I was immediately hit with buyer's remorse. What a stupid thing to do! I was so sure I was going to be outbid at the very last second by some pimply-faced kid sitting at home, who was now high- fiving his buddy and screaming "In your FACE!" to me through his monitor. But no. I had just committed $160 ($140 after the coupon, mind you) on a video game that I should have waited for. Well, I thought, at least my daughter Jess will love it. But how was I going to explain this to my wife, to whom I have been preaching fiscal responsibility as we deal with a new baby (our 4th child!) and are looking to buy a new minivan to seat us all?

In the end, I just plopped down next to her on the couch and told her. And as you have probably surmised, I'm still here amongst the living. Maybe it was because her parents are staying with us and she can't actually kill me in front of them; her mom is squeamish and would insist on helping Barb get the blood out of the carpet. Or maybe it was because she is still over the moon because we just had a baby and he's beautiful. Or maybe she knows I am a knucklehead and a gaming addict but she still loves me anyway. That's the one I am hoping for. If you don't hear from me again soon, you'll know I was wrong.

Not much new

Today's picture is of my buddy (and oldest daughter) Jessica. She is quite the girl and we couldn't manage this household without her. And that's my strapping boy Zach in the background. Barb and I are truly blessed indeed.

John is continuing to grow at a terrific rate. The boy is quite the eater! His schedule is still all out of whack - he is most awake between 10PM and 4 AM - so Barb and I are running each day on very little sleep. Fortunately Barb's parents are here and we have been able to sleep in this weekend, which has been really nice.

The other kids are all doing great too. Jess has been a HUGE help around the house and with Laurel. Zach has been chipping in too. Laurel has been her usual mischievous self.

Barb has been holding up remarkably well. She has been a real rock and, as always, the family anchor. How she does it, I'll never know.

Not too much new on the gaming front. I am still trying to hunt down Wii Fit with no luck whatsoever. Why I didn't pre-order the it is completely beyond me. I am usually pretty good about that. I did pick up Hot Shots Golf Open Tee 2 for the PSP. I loved the original Open Tee so I am sure this one will keep me interested as well. I also ordered a couple copies for 2 of my buddies at work who are also Hot Shots addicts.

I am hearing some good things about NCAA Football 09. The NCAA series has been one of my must-haves for ages now. But I am hearing even better things about Madden 09. The Madden series has been a disappointment to me for quite a while. I prefer college football to pro (but I love 'em both), so I have always looked more forward to NCAA. But from what I have read and seen so far, this really looks to be Madden's year. I haven't bought Madden the last 2 years, but this one looks too good to pass up. Hopefully it will live up to the hype for once.

That's it for now. I hope to be blogging more frequently in the future.

The Great Movies, vol. 2: Jaws

As a 9 year old boy during the summer of 1975, I witnessed the single greatest entertainment experience of my life: my father took me to see Steven Spielberg's Jaws. Now this was in September of 1975 and the movie had opened earlier in June and was already a phenomenon the world over, so I was a little late to the party. But by then I had pumped so much information out of my friends who had already seen the movie that I knew the entire story inside and out. I mean, I knew it all: I knew about each victim of the shark, I knew about the tiger shark that was caught and erroneously thought to be the killer, I knew how it ended, ...everything. I remember my teenage neighbor saw the movie and when he came by to tell us about it, I was finishing his sentences, knowing everything he was saying about the movie. And I distinctly remember him saying, "I don't know why to still want to see it, you know it all already."

Ah, but that was just it; I hadn't seen it yet, experienced it with my own eyes. I already knew it was the greatest adventure story I had ever heard. But to actually see the events unfolding on screen...well, that was something I had to behold for myself. And so that September, I finally talked my dad into taking my brother and me to see Jaws. My uncle Jim came along with us. And when the lights went down and that awesome John Williams music started, I was already a goner. What made Jaws so special for me was that beyond all possible hope, it lived up to my expectations. I had never before so eagerly anticipated something and all experience since then has taught me that nothing can ever live up to the hype. Well, Jaws did. And it still does for me today.

Based on Peter Benchley's best-selling novel of the same name, Jaws tells the simple story of the town of Amity, a tidy Long Island beach side community that relies on the summer tourist trade to keep it going through the long, cold winters. When the body of a swimmer killed during a late night skinny-dip is found on the shore, the coroner tells police chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) that the girl was the victim of a shark attack. When Brody responds by ordering the beaches closed, Amity's mayor, worried that such a move will kill the summer tourist business, convinces the coroner to change the official cause of death to a boating accident. Brody does not agree but has no choice but to go along. Days later when a young boy is killed by a shark in front of numerous beach goers (including Brody and his family), Brody is proven correct and a town meeting is called. After Brody announces that the beaches will be closed, the attending citizens panic and the mayor decrees that the beaches will only be closed for 24 hours, much to Brody's chagrin. The meeting is then interrupted by a loud screech as one of the great movie characters of the 70's is introduced; for running his fingernails down a blackboard is the local shark fisherman, known simply as Quint. He informs the town that the shark is a big problem and one that he is not willing to risk his life over for the standing $3000 reward. He will find and kill the shark, he says, for $10,000. The mayor is dubious and vaguely promises to consider the offer.

The character of Quint is played by the late, great Robert Shaw, and he is absolute perfection playing a salty old fisherman who has his own personal demons and reasons for hunting and killing sharks. It is a tour de force performance that remains etched in the memories of many, many film-goers. How we has overlooked for an Academy Award nomination is one of the great mysteries of the 70's, right up there with the leisure suit. Anyway, back to Amity and it's little shark problem.

Except that it's not a little shark problem, it's a BIG shark problem. When local fishermen haul in a large tiger shark, the mayor is convinced the killer has been caught and that the beaches are safe again. Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfus), a shark expert called in by Brody, examines the remains of the first victim and determines that the tiger shark cannot be the killer. He proves this with a quick late night autopsy on the tiger shark. He and Brody, who by the way is deathly afraid of the water (the fact that he lives on an island is a running joke throughout the movie), head out to see if they can find any sign of the shark at night. Hooper's sonar gear picks up a large object, but it is not the shark; it is the half-sunken boat of victim #3, a local fisherman whose body Hooper discovers in a truly shocking scene. And that's not all Hooper finds. He also finds a tooth embedded in the hull of the boat. It is the tooth of a great white shark and it is huge. Unfortunately, Hooper drops the tooth when he is startled by the appearance of the victim, and neither he nor Brody can convince the mayor to close the beaches again. For tomorrow is the 4th of July, you see, the biggest day of the summer for Amity's tourist season.

Of course when the holiday arrives, Mr. Shark makes an appearance and kills a boater in the estuary, nearly taking Brody's son with him. A highly peeved Brody forces the mayor to hire Quint to kill the shark, for the summer season is over in Amity. No one will be swimming there until the real shark is killed. Brody convinces Quint to take him and Hooper along for the hunt. Right away there is a clash between Quint's old school ways and Hooper's technological approach to finding the shark. Brody, who is scared out of his wits to be on a boat in the first place, is caught in the middle. And here is what separates Jaws from the average thriller: the characters are real. You believe that there is a Quint, and a reason that he behaves the way he does. Same for Hooper, the quirky, educated guy that has a razor sharp wit. And Brody, the everyman, is a flesh-and-blood character as well, a man that you hope and pray somehow survives this saga and returns to his family safe and in one piece. These are not the cardboard cut-out characters you find in modern day thrillers, they are real personalities. And it makes all the difference in the world.

Once aboard Quint's boat, the fabulously rickety "Orca", the chase is on. The Orca is one heck of a set piece, a character in itself where you witness some of the most intense action you can imagine. It becomes a claustrophobic nightmare for Brody, while Quint and Hooper are completely in their element. The level of suspense during the hunt is propelled by Spielberg's impeccable directing and John Williams' soaring musical score, which rightfully won an Oscar.

Quint is able to harpoon the shark and has a floating barrel tethered to the harpoon. The drag from pulling this barrel will tire the shark and keep it from diving. The men decide to stay out at sea overnight in order to keep an eye out for the barrel. Chasing their fear away with a few drinks, they begin comparing scars and telling stories and it is here we learn of Quint's dark past. A sailor during World War II, his ship was sunk by a Japanese submarine and 1,100 men were adrift in the water for days. Sharks quickly arrived and began devouring the sailors in plain sight. Witnessing many friends killed in the most horrible of ways, the young Quint would survive and go on to become a shark fisherman, taking private revenge against the beasts that still haunt his dreams.

The shark interrupts their drinking and before too long, the hunters become the hunted. Quint continues to harpoon the shark, but is awestruck when the shark continues to dive, even with two, then three barrels attached. The great white turns the tables on the men, ramming the Orca repeatedly and springing several leaks in the hull. Quint, finally rattled, heads for shore, the shark chasing them all the way. When Quint stubbornly refuses to slow down, the engine overheats and finally blows and the Orca is left listing dead in the sea, taking on water. Brody, who can't swim, faces the realization that he is likely to either face his biggest fear, drowning, or be eaten by the shark. In a last ditch effort to save their hides, Quint calls upon Hooper's modern equipment to kill the shark.

Lowered into the water in an anti-shark cage, Hooper is immediately set upon by the shark. The cage is no match, and soon the shark's head is inside the cage and the mouth is reaching, straining to get a bite at Hooper. But the shark gets tangled in the cage's tethering lines and Hooper is able to swim to the ocean floor, where he hides among the rocks. Brody and Quint, unable to see what has transpired in the water beneath them, desperately haul up Hooper's cage, only to find it mangled and empty. The shark then surfaces, leaping out of the water and onto the back of the Orca, plunging it beneath the waves. The weight of the shark tips the boat up and Brody and Quint hang on for dear life. When one of Hooper's scuba tanks rolls onto his hand, Quint loses his grip. Brody catches his hand, but cannot hang on. Quint slides down the deck of the Orca, straight into the mouth of the shark, where he meets his gruesome fate.

Brody witnesses Quint's horrific demise and the Orca starts sinking. Stuck in the cabin of the sinking boat, Brody fights to free himself when the shark rams through the glass and into the cabin with him. Facing the gaping maw of the shark, he picks up Hooper's spare scuba tank and tosses it into the shark's mouth. The shark retreats and Brody climbs out of a cabin window and onto the bridge, only to see the shark circling him and getting ready to come in for the kill. With Quint's old rifle, he climbs the mast and takes aim at the shark, and more specifically the air tank wedged into it's jaw. As the shark approaches, the mast sinks ever lower until Brody is at water level. Firing shot after shot and quickly running out of time, he takes aim and gets off one last shot that pierces the scuba tank, exploding the shark into a huge geyser of flesh, blood and sea. Hooper surfaces, learns of Quint's fate and he and Brody rig a couple floatation barrels together and paddle back to shore.

Wow. The audience as a whole finally exhaled.

If you weren't around in the mid 70's, it's hard to picture just how much Jaws became a part of pop culture. It was at that time the highest grossing movie in history. It shaped everything about the sumer of '75. It was in every magazine, on every news stand and merchandise was in stores everywhere. There were Jaws posters, lunch boxes, models, games, magnets, stickers, t-shirts, you name it. The poster was used as a metaphor in political cartoons, it was parodied in other movies, it was talked about in every neighborhood. And this was unprecedented. As a young boy who had been addicted to monster movies as a kid, you can imagine what an impact this had on me.

Jaws was nominated for 4 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. It won 3 of those awards, for Best Original Score, Best Sound and Best Editing. It was not like many of today's empty blockbusters, which thrive despite being critically lambasted. Jaws was a huge critical success as well as a popular smash, and it gave Steven Spielberg the right to make virtually any movie he wanted. We all know how his career has turned out. But of all of his many successes, I still maintain that Jaws is his finest moment. It is not only a masterpiece of action and suspense; it also has a terrific sense of humor and it is perfectly paced. At just over 2 hours, it never feels long.

I still think back to that day in September of '75, when I was a young boy who finally got to see the most anticipated event of my 9 year old life and it actually exceeded my wildest expectations. When my dad sat beside me in the darkened theater, chuckling softly at the scary parts so that I wouldn't be too afraid. When, to paraphrase the late, great critic Pauline Kael, I lost myself at the movies.