My NBA Dream Team

NBA basketball happened to be on the TV earlier and I happened to start thinking about what my team would be if I could put together 12 players from the prime of their career. I only chose players that I had watched for a number of years, so early 90's through the present. I had a few players that were difficult cuts (John Stockton) and some that were added for specific purposes (Reggie Miller and Robert Horry [see below]). I thought it was a pretty fun little list to put together.

Starting Line-Up:

Shaquille O'Neal - C

Dennis Rodman - PF

LeBron James - SF

Steve Nash - PG

Michael Jordan - SG

Full Team:

1. Shaquille O'Neal - C (Most dominating big man and one of my favorite players.)

2. Hakeem Olajuwan - C (The dream shake.)

3. Dwight Howard - C/PF (Nice versatile addition.)

4. Dennis Rodman - PF (Best big man defender and rebounder I ever saw)

5. Karl Malone - PF (Great scoring big man)

6. LeBron James - SF (One of the best overall players ever)

7. Robert Horry - SF (Great all around player. Knack for big moments.)

8. Steve Nash - PG (Great ball handler and used to feeding multiple players and egos)

9. Dwayne Wade - PG/SG (Very versatile guard and clutch performer)

10. Michael Jordan - SG (Best player and big game performer in my time)

11. Kobe Bryant - SG (Great scorer, another one of the greats)

12. Reggie Miller - SG (Great 3-point threat)

Players under consideration that did not make it:

Dikembe Mutombo (Great defensive center, but needed the scoring threat from the center position)

David Robinson (Really good center, but not quite there for this team)

Tim Duncan (One of the last out. I had to choose between "Timmy" and "The Mailman" and decided that Malone's bigger body and jump shooting ability were more needed on this team)

Charles Barkley (Another tough one not to include. With Rodman holding down the defensive end of the PF slot, I went again with Malone for his scoring ability.)

Kevin Durrant (Still a little early with him for me. Probably deserves to take the back up SF slot over Horry, and maybe will in a few years.)

John Stockton (Last man out. One of the best distributors of the ball I've seen, but I could only see carrying one guy who mainly looks to get the ball to others. Most of the other SG can also play PG when needed.)

Ray Allen (Extremely close with Reggie Miller. I needed a 3-point marksman and it was down to those two. Ray is probably the better rounded player of the two, but is a bit more streaky and free shooting.)

My Post Week 5 College Football Heisman Rankings

1. Russell Wilson - QB (Wisconsin)

2. Trent Richardson - RB (Alabama)

3. Andrew Luck - QB (Stanford)

4. Kellen Moore - QB (Boise State)

5. Tyrann Mattieu - DB (LSU)

Others in Contention: Robert Griffin III - QB (Baylor), Marcus Lattimore - RB (South Carolina), Melvin Ingram - DE (South Carolina)

My Post Week 5 College Football Top 25

1. Alabama

2. LSU

3. Oklahoma

4. Wisconsin

5. Clemson

6. Stanford

7. Oklahoma State

8. Boise State

9. Oregon

10. Kansas State

11. Georgia Tech

12. Texas

13. Michigan

14. Illinois

15. Arkansas

16. Auburn

17. Arizona State

18. South Carolina

19. Nebraska

20. West Virginia

21. Virginia Tech

22. Baylor

23. Florida

24. Michigan State

25. Houston

New Kevin Smith film, Red State, trailer

Saints Defense a bunch of bitches?

Am I the only one watching the Saints @ Seahawks who think that the Saints defense is playing like a bunch of bitches. Forget about the fact that they are giving up yards and points at will, it seems like on every play they are hitting well after the whistle. They are also trying to push people around and throw the occasional cheap shot. Is this the new "America's team" that everyone was trying to make them out to be after winning the Super Bowl last year?

Take a cue from your opponent in the game, the first team to ever make the playoffs with a loosing record. Hell, they weren't even one of those teams with a bad overall record that made a mad dash at the end like the Chargers seem to always do. They were just pretty average all season when not flat out bad.

However, in this game, Pete was able to rally the troops and make them believe that the playoffs reset all records and that nobody will remember the season if they put it all on the line now and move forward. The offense seems to be clicking on all cylinders and guess what? The defense is playing good, tough, and hard nosed like you want to see at this point in the season.

In conclusion, Saints defense, you don't look good. You look like a spoiled brat or an old fighter who takes a few strong blows to the head and responds by punching the other guy in the nuts. I never bought into your new status and it looks like not even the media will be able to carry on this charade much longer. I have no love for the Seabirds, but I hope in 15 minutes you will become the first team to loose a playoff game to a team with a loosing record, congratulations.

A Standing Ovation for The Black Swan

The film started a bit slowly as you get to know a bit about Nina. She lives in a childlike atmosphere with an overbearing mother who tries to trap her in the world of her youth as she relives her past through her daughter.
Nina does little to escape from this world and allows her mother to keep her there as she has never known anything else. This is why she makes such a good white swan as she has basically kept herself pure and naive.
However for the part of the black swan needed to combine with the white swan to make the Swan Queen, she needs to find a darker side of herself. The virginal perfectionist, must give way to the raw, flawed, sensual side that she has never known, to truly encapsulate the role.
In order to do this, her mind begins to play tricks on her, to show her the evil, the twisted, and the sexual that she needs. She reels from this and tries to fight it and flee at any possible chance.
The closer she gets to the first performance the farther from reality she goes. You begin to lose track of what is real and what is imagined in every action. Her trip down the dark path vastly increases her ability to perform as the black swan, however, her grasp on reality continues to slip away.
The performance itself is a bit shaky early on as she has slipped so far away from who she was that she can no longer completely embody the white swan. Her fall during a lift symbolizes her fall from grace and occurs at a point in the performance where she can begin to morph into the black swan.
She is a wreck after her fall, but her mind uses this opportunity to throw one heck of a mind trip her way that allows her to slip fully into the role that nobody thought she had in her. Her performance as the black swan is as chilling as it is intense. However, have the lengths that she has gone to in order to perform such a feat forced her so far down the road to insanity that she will never return.
The Black Swan was a very good film that picked up on a fragile, unstable girl, brings you through familial and sexual revolutions and drops you into the middle of madness.
Natalie Portman was amazing as Nina. The movie rests solely on her shoulders and she carries it throughout. That is not to say that others did not step up as well. Mila Kunis was fun and carefree in her role as Lily, Nina's possible competition. Barbara Hershey was intense and overbearing as Nina's mother Erica who gave up her career as a dancer when she became pregnant with Nina. The relationship between the two is chaotic and at times a bit surreal, but the bond seemed real and you could see the same intensity in Portman as the Black Swan as you see from Hershey as her mother.
The Black Swan was a great film to start my Awards Season marathon and I will be surprised if I see many that are better. I would be shocked if Portman isn't nominated many times for awards this season and wins at least a few. The performance by Portman as the Black Swan is amazing and worth the price of admission alone. Her metamorphosis is stunning. With the raw power of her performance along with the visual effects and sound, I was blown away. I give Black Swan a 9.

Debra Morgan (Dexter) on Babies

"A Baby!, A mother fuckin' roly-poly, chubby cheek shit machine."

Jennifer Carpenter as Debra Morgan on Dexter on hearing that her brother's girlfriend is pregnant.