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Well, the Texans are sucking even worse than they normally do. I don’t know what the reaction is down in Houston right now, but I’m pretty much in agreement with the assessment that David Carr has developed as much as Joey Harrington, who was drafted in the same year. I mean, sure, some blame has to go to the geniuses who neglected to acquire some guards for the left side and another WR, but this is his fourth year and Carr should probably be better than this by now.

On the bright side, I did well in my fantasy leagues, winning three games and losing one. The one loss coming in a league where only my pride is on the line. Of course, this week sees one of my main weapons, Tiki Barber, on a bye week and my QBs, Drew Brees and Byron Leftwich, take on Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, respectively. I’m in tough this week.

Bits and Pieces
– Hey, guess what kind of character Silas Weir Mitchell played on ‘CSI’ last Thursday? That’s right, a con artist. What, you think he was gonna be another psycho?
– Signs that I’m old – I recognized Adam Reid from ‘You Can’t Do That On Television’ in a WestJet commercial.
– If you thought that ‘Serenity’ would do better than it did at the box office, you’re kidding yourself. The movie was made for the fans of ‘Firefly’, and the triumph is not in the total money made, but the fact that a movie was made at all.
– And for the record, I could care less about the show or the movie. As long as Whedon keeps pumping out ‘Astonishing X-Men’, I’ll be happy.
– Kal-El Coppola Cage? Sufferin’ Shad, that’s horrible…
– Good episode of ‘My Name is Earl’ on Tuesday. The happy ending was a bit much, but they are really doing well in holding to the karma theme of the show, plus they’re tying in things that happened in previous episodes. I don’t ask for too much continuity from a show like this, but it’s a nice touch.
– I’m not sure what else ‘Arrested Development’ can do to attract viewers. You’d think that Super Dave would attract a couple more people – maybe the same people that watch ‘Jimmy Kimmel’. But the show is not doing well at all in the ratings, and the forced hiatus (due to baseball) isn’t going to help it when the show comes back.

Stuff that’s probably better left to the Music guys
So I went ahead and bought the single Alive from ‘Canadian Idol’ winner Melissa O’Neil, and here are my thoughts, bearing in mind that my musical taste is pretty much Hot AC…

There are three tracks on the single, Alive, an acoustic mix, and an instrumental track.

The single itself isn’t bad – the music is the same as what you heard on the final performance show and on the instrumental track. However the vocal layering and smoothing seems to have taken out the whimsicalness that Melissa showed when performing live. The song is basically Canadian-style pop music that would fit in with Avril Lavigne or Kelly Clarkson’s current image, so I could see them try to push this to U.S. stations, but realistically speaking that’s not gonna happen – the U.S. market is much too enamoured of people who sing who overemote and use unnecessary runs. And also the Pussycat Dolls (but that’s another story).

The second track is an “acoustic mix”, and indeed it is as it’s just another instrumental track added to the same vocal track. It’s not great, but at least it’s not a mash-up.

The final track is the instrumental track you hear on the single. I assume it’s here so you can do some karaoke if you were so inclined.

Overall, I would recommend passing on buying the single, and download the song at Puretracks or other online music stores for about a loonie. Plus GST and PST.

Mozart and Butch Cassidy
Good episode of The Office, although I fear it probably hit too close to home for most of us. Not the Office Olympics part, but the games-we-play-when-we’re-bored-at-work part, or the contrived buying a house bit. Contrived because they needed to get Michael and Dwight out of the office. Still, shouldn’t a guy like Michael already OWN a place?

The MMA Experience
First, there was ‘Ultimate Fight Night 2’, and let’s quickly break this down:

– Drew Fickett def Josh Koschek, submission – rear naked choke: Man, did they give the hard sell to Koschek. I mean, it was a great showing from the guy, but aside from a couple of comments, they completely dismissed Fickett, but this is a guy with about 4 times more experience in matches than Koschek. Koschek was probably ahead on points, but all it took was one well placed knee to wobble him, and a rear naked choke to put him to sleep.

– Brandon Vera def Fabiano Scherner, ref stoppage – Muay Thai knees. Great fight. Both guys seemed to want it, and the fact that they were both lighter heavyweights meant that there was good movement and decent grappling, not the kind of lumbering that you sometimes see with heavyweights. And he cuts a decent promo, calling out Chuck Liddell. I’m sure Dana White loved that.

Meanwhile, it looks like they’re feeding Nate “Rock” Quarry to Rich “Ace” Franklin at the next PPV. Not that I think Nate’s a slouch or anything, but I think that Rich is simply at another level than the TUF alumni. So why is he getting the shot? Well, he’s got Randy Couture in his corner, and it’s likely that his UFC contract is up after this, so you might as well throw him out there with the best.

– Chris “Fratboy” Leben def Edwin “Babyface” DeWees – tapout, armbar. Impressive victory for Leben, as he won this match on the ground, which is his weakest area. Good, quick match for Fratboy, and it moves him further up the ladder in his quest to job to Ace.

– David “The Crow” Loiseau def Evan Tanner – doctor stoppage, cuts. Nasty, nasty elbows from Loiseau. I’m also impressed by his back defence, although I’d think he’d want to maybe not give that up so easily. Overall, a much, much better main event than the Salaverry/Marquadt snoozefest that ended the first Ultimate Fight Night…

…And then there was ‘The Ultimate Fighter 2’. Where once again we saw that the heavyweights are not-ready-for-prime-time players. When the most exciting parts of the show are Seth’s jumping groin to the leg, it’s not saying a whole lot. Remember what I said about lumbering heavyweights? Well, Dan was the definition of one. He should have used his weight a bit more to move Seth around, but Seth’s “unusual kicking style” allegedly threw him off. Anyways, next week we’ll probably see Keith head over to Team Hughes, and Luke fight either Anthony or Jason, depending on which team wins the challenge.

‘Prison Break’
So, did anyone else notice that Anthony Russo’s quick cameo as Vic’s D.C. contact? Oh, admit it, you watched ‘Blossom’. Anyways, it’s a nice way to finish off the first quarter of the season, as we head into the MLB Playoffs (which people in Canada don’t care about, since the NHL kicked off yesterday). We got some dead inmates, a shanked C.O. (been awhile since we had a shanking on the show. As people say, ‘Oz’ it ain’t.), and some tension between Pope and Bellick, which I suppose will lead to Bellick helping the Secret Service later.

And I don’t mean to be nitpicky, but if you’re flying into Washington, they make you go to your seat and strap in a good 30 minutes before they head into D.C. airspace. I’m just saying.


Yep, I’m making you scroll all the way down to get to this now

With the Rogers family gone, it’s time to revise my predictions:

10. Black
9. Rogers. According to their Early Show interview, they were about 50 minutes behind the Paolo family, so credit the editing for making it seem much closer than it was. Classic example of how one mistake can cost you the Race.

Sequesterville:
Bransen
Gaghan
Paolo
Schroeder
Weaver

Reaching the Finish Line:
Aiello
Godlewski
Linz

Winners of The Amazing Race:
Linz

The Godlewskis continue to surprise, and at this point there’s no real reason to count them out of the Final Three. I’ll have more analysis next Tuesday in my Live recap prologue. But be on the lookout for Romo’s World for Matt’s take on things.

“So What Else Is New?” Dept.
So the lovely Stephanie is once again on a losing tribe. But at least on ‘Survivor Guatemala’ she has more than shorts and a Wonderbra to wear. And somehow, I was the only person to think that Morgan would go early. Don’t believe me? Hey the proof can be found at Romo’s World.

Anyways…

18. Jim Lynch
17. Morgan McDevitt
16. Brianna – Definitely not unexpected given the way you handled yourself in the immunity challenge. I mean, Amy turned her ankle yet kept on going. You, meanwhile, were just standing there while Steph and Lydia were taking abuse. I do have to give you credit though – you saw the writing on the wall and weren’t shocked about getting voted off, unlike Morgan.

Out Before Merge:
Amy
Blake
Bobby Jon
Cindy
Jamie
Judd

Jury:
Brandon
Brooke
Danni
Gary
Margaret
Rafe
Stephanie

Final Two
Brian
Lydia

Sole Survivor
Brian

If you watch the Survivor extras on the CBS website, you’ll have learned that there’s an alliance between Brian, Jamie and Lydia, which explains the two men defending her so enthusiastically. Which explains why I keep flip-flopping on her.

And that’s it for this week.

Kevin has been an Insider since 2003, writing on a variety of topics ranging from The Amazing Race to Mixed Martial Arts. His current hobbies include Fantasy Football, Sporcle, travelling, making liberal use of his DVR and wondering what the heck he's gonna do when his two daughters are old enough to date. You can follow Kevin on Twitter (@starvenger).