Clip of the Week - February 25/08

The 80th Annual Academy Awards were held last night and the big winner, which I predicted, was No Country For Old Men. They took home four awards including Best Picture.

Actually, I did fairly well overall this year with my annual picks, but I digress.

This year's show had a few memorable moments.

When host Jon Stewart brought Marketa Irglova back on stage after her fellow winner hogged the microphone during the acceptance speech for winning for Best Original Song, I thought that was a nice moment. She was given a chance to say her thank yous.

I think you'll also agree that anyone can make their dreams come true and this was quite evident when former stripper Diablo Cody won for Best Original Screenplay for the movie Juno.

I have to admit I was slightly surprised when The Bourne Ultimatum walked home with three Oscars. I liked the movie but I have to admit I didn't think Academy Award after seeing it.

As far as the host goes, I thought Stewart did a great job and I'd love to see him do it again next year. If you can't get Billy Crystal who is the best in recent memory then Stewart is the next best one for the duties.

I didn't have a clip from this year's show so I picked one of my favourite moments from 2000 Oscars where Robin Williams sang the Best Original Song nominated tune from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. The song was Blame Canada.

Clip of the Week - February 18/08

Time for another Clip of the Week.

The Super Bowl is over...New York won in case you missed it.

Sadly here in Canada we don't get to view the funny Super Bowl commercials as the local Canadian network carrying the game would rather show their crappy old ads instead. Thankfully the internet provides us with an opportunity to see what we missed out on.

From what I heard this year's crop of commercials weren't the best but there were a few good one's. Below is the one I thought was pretty good. It features actor Will Farrell in a Bud Light commercial as Jackie Moon, the new character in his latest movie. I think you'll find the humour in it.

Slight Fear Of Flight

When it comes to flying, I'm more apprehensive then nervous when I step foot on a plane.

The two things that make me nervous are take-off and landing. Of those two, the take-off is the worst part for me. I'm fine going down the runway but as soon as I feel the plane leave the ground I tend to grip my arm rest a little tighter.

I'll try to avoid looking out the window as the plane ascends or banks left or right probably because in my mind if I can see the ground and all I can think about is falling to the earth below. Now once we're at a cruising altitude of 30-plus-thousand feet, I'll stare out the window at the ground, the clouds and other passing aircraft.

Landing isn't too bad I guess but on my first ever flight years ago we had some pretty bad turbulence as we descended through a thunderstorm and that freaked me out a bit. Just ask the lady in the seat ahead of mine after I grabbed for the seat on one particular drop and grabbed her hair instead.

I'm not a veteran flier by any stretch of the imagination but I've done it at least a dozen or more times. I've even flown in a Canadian Air Force C-130 Hercules a couple of times. Once I rode in the cockpit the whole time as I knew the pilot. That was pretty cool and oddly enough, the take-off or landing didn't really bother me in the least.

I have been fortunate to land at airports which aren't too scary either. The St. Petersburg / Clearwater International Airport in Florida was a little freaky the first time as you come in over Old Tampa Bay and not until just before you land do you see the ground. Up until then I thought I was going to land in the water and I had checked my bathing suit.

The Tampa International Airport is similar but not quite as bad. You circle over the water to line up for the approach to the runway but you see the land a bit sooner.

There are some airports that I would probably want to avoid. Among them would be the Courchevel Airport located in the French Alps. It has a very short runway of only 525 m and you have to land going up-hill and take-off going down. Only small private aircraft and helicopters are allowed to land there and the pilots need plenty of skill.

The other location I have in mind is one you want to avoid landing at and you also want to avoid laying on the beach near it. Princess Juliana International Airport is located on the Dutch part of the island of Saint Martin. It is the second busiest airport in the Eastern Caribbean.

The airport is famous for its short landing strip — only 2,180 metres, which as you might guess, just barely leaves enough room for the big boys to land. The planes approach the island flying just above the water and moments before landing they go right over the Maho Beach.

You may have seen pictures of the big jets just missing the tourists at the beach and think they were manipulated in some way with Photoshop but that just isn't the case.

Below is a video of a jet landing at the airport. After watching it you might be surprised to learn that there have been no major aviation incidents at the airport. I think I can avoid landing there any time in the near future.

Wild Winter Weather

Shelf Of Ice
Located at Presqu'ile Park in Brighton.

Enough already!

Maybe I've just been spoiled by the mostly mild winters of recent years but I am officially sick and tired of the snow and cold this season.

As I'm writing this, we are receiving our third major snowstorm in just a short period of time. It will be months before my back returns to normal and I return to pain free activities.

To be honest, other than having to shovel all of the snow that falls I really don't mind the white stuff. Snow is relatively harmless but after spending 3 hours trying to clear the driveway it loses it's charm.

I can handle the snow but what really bothers me is the cold weather. With temperatures the last two nights around minus 20 and wind chills of minus 30 or worse. It gets a tad bitter.

I work mostly nights and spend a lot of time outside so you can understand my discontent with the frigid conditions.

As you can imagine, my thoughts at this time of year are always of warmer summer days and driving with the sunroof and windows open on my car. Right now...they're all frozen shut so that's out of the question.

Clip of the Week - February 11/08

Bobby Knight, the winningest coach in Division 1 NCAA Basketball has called it a career.

Without a doubt the most colourful and quick-tempered college basketball coach of all-time, he retires with 902 wins and 3 National titles.

He may be retired but no one will forget his chair tossing skills or use of foul language in post-game interviews.

Enjoy your retirement Bobby!

Here are some of his more uplifting moments and words of wisdom over his career.

18 Wins - 1 Giant Defeat

How many of you decided to skip Super Bowl XLII because you knew the Patriots were going to have a cakewalk to their 19th straight victory? Boy did you miss a beauty!

I'm not going to say I predicted the Giants were going to win but I was certainly hoping they would. Of course now we know the two teams combined for one of the greatest 4th Quarters in Super Bowl history and New York came away with a 17-14 win in Phoenix.

The Game
Let me start at the end. I can understand Tom Brady being upset with the loss and not being in the best of moods after losing but as a leader and a professional he showed complete lack of class. By leaving the field without acknowledging or congratulating the tremendous effort of his counterpart on the other side of the field he made a bad choice. Brady has won in the past and Eli Manning had just picked up his first championship.

Sure, the game was over after Brady's last pass didn't find its mark and sure the field was prematurely filled after oodles of people stormed the gridiron but there was still one second left on the clock. Instead the pretty boy undid his helmet and headed for the locker room. Of course once the field was eventually cleared, Eli Manning dropped a knee and perhaps one of the biggest upsets in sports history was complete.

All that aside, the game was a defensive struggle and the New York Giants did something that no other team was able to do during the season...stop Brady and beat New England.

The Catch
If not for the most amazing catch I can recall in any Super Bowl, the outcome would have been much different.

David Tyree had caught the first touchdown pass of the game for the Giants which is pretty good for a guy who was little more than a special teams player most of the season. The grab he'll always be remembered for now was pivotal as it set the Giants up for the game winning TD.

The Giants trailed 14-10 with only 1:15 left when Manning faced a third-and-5 at his own 44. The Patriots brought pressure, and Manning somehow shook loose from two defenders.

Scrambling to his right, he made a desperate and scary toss deep down the middle where two defenders were waiting. Tyree jumped up and with one guy on his back slapping at the ball, he managed to get both hands on it, pinned it to his helmet and fell backward to the ground. He had the presence to hold the ball aloft to show it was his. A spectacular catch that will be on everyone's top ten catches list for a long time to come.

Halftime Show
I was happy to see the NFL made it through another Super Bowl Halftime Show without any wardrobe malfunctions. Where's Janet Jackson when you need her?

Instead we had five guys who make me feel young, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Don't get me wrong...I love their music and at one time I belonged to their Fan Club. Don't ask.

It would seem that the powers that be are doing everything they can think of to guarantee no accidents during the Halftime Show. Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Prince and now Tom Petty. I guess the only accident they might worry about with these guys is someone falling off the stage and breaking a hip.

I have to admit they had an excellent performance and played four of their most popular songs which seemed to delight the crowd. I just wonder how much the crowd was payed to look that excited. I'd be surprised if the teenagers and twenty-somethings that surrounded the stage had even heard of Tom Petty before the game. I laughed when I saw the close-ups of the crowd and you could see they were trying to sing along but they obviously had no clue of the lyrics.

I'm not saying the NFL blew it with their choice as I thought the show was fine but I would like to see them take a chance on a band known more for their stage shows and a group that might whip the crowd into a real frenzy. They can do this without even breaking the string of old rockers if they just go out and confirm AC/DC for next year's Halftime Show. Now those guys will put on a good show guaranteed.

Final Thoughts
Overall I thought this year's Super Bowl was great from start to finish. I still think two weeks of pre-game hype is too much and starting the pre-game show at dawn is a little early but in the end the game is what counts and the fans got more than what they expected. Well...everyone except the New England fans any way.

Clip of the Week - February 4/08

My thanks to Joyce, a frequent visitor to my blog, for bringing this clip to my attention.

It is a humourous look at how the brains of both men and women work and I think you'll enjoy it.

Just ignore the advertisement along the bottom of the video.