must watch

one of my favourite films of the past year is coming to dvd. it's called Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. It stars Nicholas Cage and Val Kilmer. Cage is perfectly casted in this role as a deranged, drug-addled cop. I highly recommend it if you enjoyed the original with Harvey Kietel. Keep in mind this film is rated R (a rarity these days) for its explicit drug use, explicit language and explicit performance. (Cage uses a crack pipe multiple times.)

the only bad thing i gotta say about this movie is that xzibit is in it.

the team: nolan ryan headlock

my 12 team, head-to-head fantasy baseball draft was last night. i had 4th pick. heres the roster:

C – Oakland – Kurt Suzuki
1B – SanFran – Pablo Sandoval
2B – Florida – Dan Uggla
3B - New York – Alex Rodriguez
SS – Cleveland – Asdrubal Cabrera
IF – Minnesota – Michael Cuddyer
OF – Atlanta – Nate McLouth
OF – Boston – Mike Cameron
OF – Detroit – Magglio Ordonez
OF – Detroit – Johnny Damon
UTIL – Colorado – Todd Helton
BENCH – Atlanta – Melky Cabrera
BENCH – Philadelphia – Placido Polanco
SP – Seattle – Felix Hernandez
SP – Arizona – Dan Haren
RP – New York – Mariano Rivera
RP – Detroit – Jose Valverde
P – Oakland – Ben Sheets
P – Los Angeles – Fernando Rodney
P – Philadelphia – J.A. Happ

my strategy going into the draft this season was get a real slugger in the 1st round that would crank out home runs and massive RBI's all season (A-Rod) then immediately spend my next two picks on pitchers (Hernandez and Haren) then draft a decent 2nd basemen (Uggla) since that position is quite shallow then fall back on pitching. what happened was that I ended up with the strongest overall pitching in the entire league. Loyal readers will remember Rivera was on my wishlist (as with Suzuki). Ben Sheets is a boom or bust.

I did however suffer in the outfield drafting low picks to fill in those positions (Damon was a pick that made me cringe). Luck would have it that I picked many former Detroit Tigers (my favourite team). I have 4 players affiliated with the team! I am banking on McLouth and Uggla to have career stolen bases this season but I am thrilled with my roster.

that show is terrible

I think it must be a golden rule that whoever watches the show How I Met Your Mother must also tune into The Big Bang Theory. Most people I’ve met watch the two avidly. It doesn’t really matter since both are horrendous. The thing that bugs me about both shows is that it seems as if the males on the show don’t act like real guys. (same thing with Friends after the first couple seasons). Both shows have mostly male writers that must be experts in creating characters of what-they-think-women-think-men should act like. Make sense? Feel free to agree with me on this.

listen to this.

my buddy steve ward plays on the new caribou album, swim. please check it out. he is a wonderful, experimental trombone player and plays all the time around toronto.

hot dog! we have a wiener!

I obviously love hotdogs (look at the URL). Since baseball season is approaching I wanted to post something about the best ballpark grub.

I recently read about a place called Japa-dog in Vancouver which features Japanese-style franks. Some examples are:
Okonomi – Pork sausage, Japanese Mayo, Fried Cabbage, Bonito Flakes (wha?), and special Okonomiyaki sauce. (?)

Oroshi – Pork sausage, Special Soy sauce, green onions and grated radish.

A great spot to get some creative hotdogs in Toronto is a place called Buddha Dog on Roncesvalles. The place has got organic, local dogs (which are kinda small) which can be topped with gourmet sauces and toppings like cherry ketchup, red pepper jelly, garlic aioli…

mmmmm.

Beach Boys Fact #4

Paul McCartney has said that the song "God Only Knows" is the greatest pop song ever written.

art

Over the break I saw some great art. Below are some photos of exhibits by Diane Arbus and Gerhard Richter.