Owning a PS3 means the fact that I don’t have Grand Theft Auto IV yet is an outrage. (I’m still working on getting into the Major Leagues with my pitcher in The Show.) For those of you who don’t know about this installment of GTA (because I’m sure that everyone knows the premise of the game), this particular version is set in Liberty City, a fictional New York City. But just how fictional?
Goodostuff.com shows us just how inspired Liberty City is from New York. Check it out, it’s pretty cool. (Make sure to click on them for full-size.)
It’s fairly incredible. I wish they’d come out with a GTA: Houston!
If you watch American Idol and didn’t see last night’s performance, I’m going to give you fair warning: There might be a spoiler here. Heck, it might have even been a spoiler when I mentioned it a few days ago. Either way, last night Jason Castro brought new lows to American Idol just like I said. It so depressing that he’s made it this far when people like Carly Smithson, Michael Johns, and even Brooke White still could have had a better shot than he did.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen Simon Cowell go off so hard in a post-performance review. And everything he said was dead on. It was even awesome watching Paula stumble through her response because she was having a hard time finding anything nice to say about the performance. Instead, she just told him she loved him.
Here’s his second performance, complete with forgetting of lyrics. Watch it while you can—it’s possible it’s going to get taken down pretty soon:
Don’t forget: This is the Top 4. These are supposed to be the BEST FOUR PEOPLE LEFT IN AMERICA OMG. That performance looked like someone who had just made it to Hollywood with a decent voice and an ability to play the guitar. Simon summed it up best when he was done: “You had better pack your bags.”
The other day I was in my boss’s office waiting on something to print. He has a bookshelf full of books right there, so I pulled one down on How to Entertain Yourself with Everyday Things. It looked generally like a kid’s book, or rather, things you could do in your home. Well, it was absolutely hilarious. I took a picture of my favorite page: Broom sticks and mop handles can be adapted for many uses.
Awesome, I’m thinking. Like to hit a wadded up piece of paper like you’re playing baseball or something. But NO. They had BIGGER ideas.
In case you can’t read that, you can go ahead and cut off the broom part (which I’m sure Mom would love you wrecking her broom and Dad would love you wielding his saw), and then jump over the stick! Wooo-hooo!!! Fun for hours! And if that wasn’t enough, you can go ahead and BANG THEM TOGETHER! Like you’re in a band!!
Here’s a funny story, especially for those of us who like “crappy” beer. If you haven’t seen it yet (and I’m pretty sure most of you have), Miller Lite’s big thing is that they’ve won four beer cups or something some kind of competition they’ve won four times no one really know what they’re talking about. All their commercials are directed that way. (That and convincing you with dalmatians that their beer is better than Bud Light.) But they’ve won this cup, like, four times. It’s so important to them that with their new packaging redesign, they emblazoned it across the neck of the bottle. Emblazoned.
Anyway, turns out they don’t currently hold the title. But you know who does? Old Milwaukee Light. That’s right. OM. Frat beer of choice! Oh wait, it didn’t finish second? Or third? Nope, because those spots belong to Lone Star Light and Natural Light. Natty Light! See? And I knew all along I had good taste. Here’s Miller Lite’s response from the ubiquitous “spokesman”:
Four Gold Cup awards is a very significant achievement. Our positioning as the ‘ultimate light beer’ will not change.”
Well, Miller Lite, I would hope not. Because the only other thing you can do is pretty much shut down your brewery and call it a day. Good work guys, but Natty Light beat us this year. It’s been a good run. I guess $4 for a six-pack of 16 ouncers is what we’re missing out on. We’ll try again next year.
Here’s a story that has been making its rounds lately. There is this girl named Sara Tucholsky who plays for Western Oregon’s softball team. She comes up to bat against Central Washington and finally connects with a ball, hitting her first ever home run. She starts to take her trot around the bases, but as she’s rounding first, she tears her ACL and falls to the ground.
Here’s the thing: In softball the rule is that her teammates cannot help her out, otherwise the runner is out. A pinch runner could be called in, but it would result in just a single instead of the home run. Instead, opposing player, CWU’s Liz Wallace–their first baseman and career leader in home runs for their conference,–realizes she’s hurt and, instead of helping her off the field or getting her help, picks her up and carries her around the bases all the way to home plate. Her short stop Mallory Holtman helped out, thereby awarding her a home run. That home run sent Western Oregon to a 4-2 victory, and ended Central Washington’s chances of winning the conference and advancing to the playoffs.
Here’s the picture:
And if you want to see the interview with the three, there’s also a video.
That is, I feel like, what sports is all about. It’s like the perfect Hollywood story. I am, after all, a sucker for sports movies. Miracle was one of the greatest movies of all-time. Friday Night Lights. Heck, even Facing the Giants had me tearing up.
While perusing some internets lately, I’ve found two things that make me really like John Mayer, not including his incredible ability to play the guitar. (I’d venture to call him the best guitarist of my generation. Don’t discount him because he writes pop music, too.) These are the two things, in no particular order:
This is about the girl in her bedroom who poses in front of the camera she’s awkwardly holding in her outstretched hand. She’ll take a hundred photos until coming up with one she’s happy with, which inevitably looks nothing like her, and after she’s done poring over images of herself, will post one on her myspace page and then write something like ‘I don’t give a f*ck what you think about me.’ “
For one reason or another (mainly because I have a DVR), I’ve watched every single episode of American Idol this season, purely for entertainment purposes. I don’t have a morning radio talk show I have to prepare for and talk about the elimination blah blah blah HOW IS JASON CASTRO STILL A PART OF AMERICAN IDOL?
Seriously, who out there is voting for him? David Archuleta has the teen/tween vote, David Cook should have everyone in America’s vote (he should win–and will), Syesha is about to be kicked off, but she isn’t worse than JASON CASTRO. Everything about him screams weak, naive, frail. He’s not even close to being the best singer. He’s like prancing through this thing magically getting to stay around every week. He looks just as surprised as we do when he isn’t in the bottom two.
Michael Johns had one bad performance with “Dream On,” and all of a sudden he’s gone. There is NO WAY he was worse than Jason Castro. Carly Smithson had a killer voice. Even Amanda Overmeyer could rock through half those songs Castro poorly navigated.
Just watch this. Watch as Castro tries so painfully to get through BOTH of his Andrew Lloyd Weber songs. And he didn’t get kicked off:
If he wins, I will have lost all faith in this Idol franchise (or I suppose America’s voting decisions). But I must be missing something because 48 million votes don’t “accidentally” get it wrong.
