After a couple of episodes full of drama, mostly between Nia and other various roommates, it’s time to tone things down this week. This week’s episode is all about Anastasia, (aka Bird) and unfortunately it’s a little on the dull side. There is a decent fight with her boyfriend who is in town visiting though, so let’s get down to business.
This week we open up on the day after the major blow out between Jessica, Nia, Averey and Johnny. In confessional Jessica downplays the bathroom argument she and Averey had, and complains about Johnny being mean to her by calling her names. She also expresses to Nia that she is still upset about the fight, but Nia is more interested in checking her email than in Jessica’s feelings, much like the majority of the viewing audience. Ana is also still upset about the fight, and wishes the roommates would stop attacking each other, and would instead spend their time getting to know one another. (Apparently she’s never seen the show before). But after Marlon appears clueless about who they are discussing when Ana’s boyfriend comes up, Ana is forced to admit she may be expecting too much out of people.
A Day Late and A Dollar Short – The Sad Tale of Finally Owning an Elite Fantasy Athlete a Year Too Late
May 21, 2013
There have been two times in my life I’ve land a very highly regarded fantasy player only to end up being totally bummed out. The first was in 2009 with LaDainian Tomlinson, the second was this year with Albert Pujols. I’ve chronically been stuck with bad draft position in all sports, and remember being stoked to finally get the first pick and land Tomlinson in 2009. Too bad he finished with under a thousand all-purpose yards and just 12 TD’s. A far cry from the 32 touchdowns and over 2.000 all purpose yards from the 2006 season that were dancing in my head when I picked him. The season was the beginning of the end for Tomlinson. After the 2009 season he headed off to the New York Jets, and was out of the league by 2011. Now I’m well aware that NFL running backs have the shortest shelf life of any position in pro sports, and that it’s not at all uncommon for a player’s career to go down hill in a hurry. That’s why I didn’t pick Adrian Peterson this past season. Clearly I’m a genius. (Right now I’m planning to finally land Peterson around 2015, the same year I plan to finally get Kobe, assuming he’s still around).
Forced Friendships are the Best Kind of Friendships – or not (The Real World Portland Episode 8 and After Show Recap)
May 16, 2013
So first things first, totally my bad on saying there probably wasn’t going to be an episode this week, clearly I was wrong. Hopefully no one just took my word for it, but if you did you’re in luck since MTV replays each episode about a dozen times, and you can watch online, but once again sorry about the bad info.
Now that I’ve gotten the apology out-of-the-way lets move on to new business. This weeks episode continued to be a step in the right direction for this season in the drama department. Johnny, Averey, and Anastasia, who have mostly been trying to stay out of the drama in the house thus far were thrust into the action this week. (And judging by the preview for the rest of the season it looks like they’ll be staying in it).
The drama gets started this week when they group heads out to the motocross track to take in one of Jessica’s favorite pastimes. While they’re at the track (and throughout this episode in general) Averey and Anastasia spend a lot of quality time together. Averey and Anastasia being friends is upsetting for Jessica who laments that girls always clique up around her, but she never gets to be part of the clique. Most people could accept that someone just doesn’t like them that much and move on, but in Jessica’s mind Averey and Ana are mean “fake b*tches,” and that is why they aren’t spending time with her. During the after show Averey says she just didn’t have anything in common with Jessica, and that made it hard to want to spend time with her. That answer is also not good enough for Jessica however, she thinks the only reason they didn’t want to hang out was because they hated her and were too fake to admit it. (Personally I don’t think I’d have much trouble letting Jessica know I hated her. She’s moving up the “most annoying cast member in history” scale at a record pace, and her appearance on the after show this week certainly didn’t do anything to help her, but we’ll get to that later). Jessica can’t get over Averey and Ana excluding her while they were at the track and decides to confront Anastasia about it while they are at work the next day. Ana says she thinks it’s a good thing to get to know the roommates one on one. Jessica disagrees and says when you’re in a group setting you need to include everyone. (I’ve never seen someone try to force people who obviously don’t like them to be their friends more than Jessica). Ana finally just has to say “I’m all talked out about this” to get Jessica to drop the topic for a minute. (It would have been much better if she’d said “bitch just shut up” like she did in her interview during this segment, but she was too diplomatic for that).
To open this week’s episode we’re in the midst of hour 97 (at least that’s what it’s starting to feel like) of the Nia/Jordan battle royal. It’s the next morning and people are still heated. The girls didn’t even have time to get dolled up before the fighting, and the debate over who’s more to blame, started up again. Nia has a solid morning after game plan, she gets to the roommates first and starts to spread her side of the story around. Nia’s side of things is aided by the fact that Jordan almost instantly starts screaming and becoming aggressive when confronted by Nia and Marlon about his actions (specifically the monkey stuff) from the night before. Luckily for Jordan there was a witness to all the events that took place the night before who can vouch for things not being all his fault. Anastasia speaks up and points out that Nia repeatedly went into Jordan’s room and egged him on, causing things to escalate before the explosion with the lamp and the monkey noises that many of the roommates witnessed. Anastasia even manages to understand where Jordan is coming from regarding the monkey/n*gga situation. Jordan agrees when Anna says he was just trying to make a point after Nia used the word first. However, since it’s generally fairly accepted in society that a white person should never use the “n word” regardless of the situation, it’s hard to side with Jordan and Anastasia on this one. Things end up remaining fairly unresolved with Jordan and Anastasia on one side, and Nia, Marlon and Jessica (she loves a good bandwagon) on the other side, with Johnny and Averey attempting to stay clear of the situation.
Ok, so running a little behind schedule on the weekly updates, but needed to wait for something good to happen before I posted about the sox again. It took extra innings, but things finally got back on track last night when Stephen Drew hit a game winning double in the 11th inning to snap the longest losing streak of the year for Boston. The game also featured some redemption for Clay Mortensen, who pitched 2.1 scoreless innings to close out the game, and to make up for the game winning hit he served up to Adrian Beltre the night before. Another positive take away from last night is David Ortiz hit a double in the 8th inning to keep his hitting streak alive, currently at a career long 26 games. Some negatives from last night. For anyone who missed it, Clay Buchholz, who has been looking like the staff ace so far this season, has some under some scrutiny for the past week. Last Wednesday during a masterful 7 inning, 2 hit, 8 k performance from Buchholz, Blue Jays announcer Jack Morris accused Buchholz of throwing a spit ball (a violation of major league rules). Buchholz has stated that he is using a combination of moisture from his hair, (which he wets down between innings) and rosin on his forearm (this combination shouldn’t be a rules violation). So far Buchholz has not faced on punishment, and it doesn’t seem apparent that there is any coming, but it seems like the accusations may have been enough to throw off the pitchers mental game. Of course even the best pitchers have an off night, and Buchholz performance last night certainly wasn’t terrible (he went 6 innings giving up 4 runs on 7 hits while striking out 9), so it may be nothing to worry about. Finally for anyone who may be concerned about Buchholz possible cheating, I refer you to this video of Dennis Eckersley telling Jack Morris (and other detractors) to “zip it” (amongst other things). (On a side note, Eck was my favorite player growing up, and he still never disappoints me, his post game stuff is just gold).
After a little break last week, we get to dive back into the Nia/Jordan drama with this weeks episode. Things start out testy between these two right from the beginning this week, and by the end of the episode we get to the all out battle that was teased at the end of the last episode. This week’s episode is definitely a step up in the drama department from last week, so let’s get started with recapping all the action.
The episode opens with Nia discussing the book she is writing, “How to Play the Game,” a book about finding, dating, and keeping professional athletes. Nia said she has dated and befriended various athletes, and that is the major source of her research for the book. When Jordan finds out what the book is about he quickly labels Nia as a gold-digger, a name he will repeat several times this episode is regards to Nia and his view of her work ethic. And to give some credit to Jordan, Nia’s work performance at Pizza Schmizza is pretty sub par. But in Nia’s defense she say’s she made a lot of money modeling, and has “friends in high places” who will give her money, and honestly how many people would work in a pizza place if you didn’t need money.
Boston Red Sox have best record in the major’s and I may have some apologizing to do (but not yet)
April 28, 2013
All is well in the nation on this lovely Sunday afternoon, as the Red Sox have completed their first 4 game sweep since July of 2011, and in doing so tied the franchise record for wins in April. Today also marked the triumphant return of John Lackey, who gave up just one run through six innings of work in his first start back after a bicep injury that sidelined him on April 6th. Today’s game even featured some offensive support from the struggling Stephen Drew, (hitting just .146) his 2 run triple in the 4th gave the Red Sox a 3-1 lead. Today’s game also featured another strong performance from little used Mike Carp, who went 2-3 with a double and walk, and who is now hitting .455 for the season with 7 of his 10 hits going for extra bases. Finally, David Ortiz has continued to look like David Ortiz circa 2006 (only with a better BA). In the 8 games since his return, Ortiz is hitting .516 with 2 home runs and 11 RBI’s (and this is coming from a guy who claims to not feel comfortable at the plate yet).
The Calm Before the Storm (and we better really get a storm) The Real World Portland Episode 5 Recap
April 25, 2013
After the promising arrival of new roommate Nia last week, this week took a step back in the excitement department. Never fear though, the preview for next week showed a lot of promise featuring a continuation of the Nia/Jordan battle for dominance. But that’s next week, for right now let’s stick with going over anything you might have missed from this less than scintillating episode. (Side note, if you’re a big Jessica fan this episode will be great for you, not so much for everyone else, which means about five people enjoyed this episode).
As expected, we open this week with the conclusion of Jordan and Nia’s sex battle, where Jordan was trying to prove Nia wouldn’t go through with her offer to suck his d*ck, and Nia was trying to prove Jordan acts like a jerk because he has a small member. Nia won apparently, if you believe her account of things, and her comparison to a french fry later in the episode. Jordan claims Nia couldn’t get him “up” all the way and that’s why he was less than impressive. (Apparently his d*ck likes to play hard to get with the ladies). No one seems to really be buying this excuse though, as Marlon and Johnny assert they would have been ready to go in a similar situation. At the very least it seems Nia was successful in mind-f*cking Jordan, and after the preview for next week it’s clear the battle between them is far from over.
The Arrival of Tropical Storm Nia (We really haven’t reached hurricane stage yet) – The Real World Portland Episode 4 Recap
April 18, 2013
“It’s time to stop being polite and start getting real.” Following one of the most boring exits in Real World history last week, this week promises to bring in one of the more anticipated arrivals in the shows run. This weeks episode is all about new cast member Nia Moore, and while she doesn’t seem quite as crazy as she was made out to be, (and it’s really too early to tell) she does seem like someone who will add some excitement to a season that’s been pretty dull thus far.
The roommates seem a little unsure about how they feel about Nia at first (except for daisy – the dog, who seems pretty set on hating her). She makes Averey and Anastasia so uncomfortable that they have to pretend Daisy needs a walk so they can talk trash behind her back. Also, on a side note, Anastasia continuously claims she is outspoken and opinionated, but the boldest statement I’ve seen her make on this show is the red beanie she wears later on in this episode. So either she’s not as outspoken as she thinks or the producers are doing a lot of editing. Back to Nia, the general consensus seems to be that she has a big personality and could possibly cause drama (which seems like a fair assessment). I think Marlon summed things up best when he said: “we exchanged one nice booty for another,” Marlon always has his mind on the big picture.
At Long Last – The Food Portion of this Blog (featuring a recipe for artichokes with hollandaise sauce)
April 16, 2013
Some of you may have noticed that in the header for this blog it says it’s about sports, pop culture and food (along with other things I want to talk about). Some of you may have also noticed, there hasn’t really been any food. And aside from talking about the food I ate during my woefully shortened “Diner’s Drive-ins and Dives” tour of America, (link here) those people are correct. Well get ready, because that’s about to change (at least for today). The problem with the food aspect of this blog is that despite loving to cook, (and eat) I’m really not a recipe person, which makes sharing food ideas difficult. There have been several times when I’ve made something I thought was delicious and thought “I should blog this,” only to remember I have no idea what the amounts were for virtually every ingredient I’ve used. The other problem is that I often get ideas from other cooks, and base my recipes off of theirs. In these situations I just imagine being sued by the Barefoot Contessa for stealing her recipes. (This would really be a bummer, at least after getting over the initial excitement of the Barefoot Contessa reading my blog). So those are all the reasons the food portion of this blog has been lacking, but I decided I would make a change by sharing my all time favorite food with you.
