Travel, Movie Reviews

To some people traveling is a glamorous thing, to others it is just part of their professional life and then to others it is just habit forming and becomes a combination of both. To some it just plain sucks!! Since my traveling life really started back in my high school and college days as a member of the collegiate football and track team that would total over 56 years and still going. The early travel was of course by automobile, train, and buses. Airplanes were invented at the time but air travel was for the very rich and just didn't make any sense for my kind of travel. My parents were not into doing much travel so I didn't catch my bad case of having to travel from them, it just came naturally. After graduating from college and then entering the US Army I found my travel became even greater and I knew then that packing and unpacking a bag would become part of my lifestyle. Since that time I have traveled to most of the USA states(48 to be exact) and 20 countries. Most of this was done while competing in some kind of athletics or in my profession, but very little for just outright vacation fun. It seems as though I try to make my business travel into some kind of fun travel and just forget about vacations. This past weekend I traveled to Florida for no business purpose and my sole reason for going was to see two of my old time friends and even see one of them re-marry, so I guess that was a pleasure weekend. When I started by sales career way back in 1966 I was given a new automobile to travel in and since cell phones didn't exist and long distance calls were very expensive we were expected to drive anywhere in our territory to see customers rather than call them on the phone. Gasoline ranged from 15-25 cents so it was pound the pavement and no worry on fuel cost. Now after all these years everyone has a cell phone stuck in one ear or the other, gasoline is $2.65 per gallon, computers keep us informed and business travel has a whole new angle. Back in the days of travel when my kids were young I traveled every week and when arriving home one week from a sales trip my youngest daughter, about 5 at the time, looked at her mother and ask, "is he going to stay here tonight?" Traveling can also make you a little disoriented, one week when I had stayed in 3 different hotels and finally got home at the end of the week I found myself getting up in the middle of the night to go take a leak I went to the approximate same area where the rest room had been the night before. Turns out in our house this was the same area that our laundry room was in, so I reached down to pull the camode seat up and it turned out to big the clothes dryer. Luckily I woke up enough to realize I was fixing to go to take a leak in the dryer, and then worked my way back to the real rest room. Most of the time when people age they kind of taper things off and especially do not travel as much; however, my travel has increased and just during the month of February and March I will be gone 6 of the possible 8 weekends. For March I am making a 3 weekend run, and then possibly in the last weekend will remain in Ransom Canyon. Now I am in Dallas for the Rock N Roll half marathon, actually running in it and monitoring the Athletes Honey Milk booth. Then next weekend I will be competing in the first triathlon of the season in Alpine, Texas, the gateway to the Big Bend Country of Texas. My point for all this useless gibberish is that I have been behind in my blogging because of all the travel and not being able to use my lap top computer to post on. Now I have that fixed and will be blogging like crazy again. There are all kinds of new news(that is why it is called news) coming to past, i.e. Tiger will go back to playing golf and limit his playing around to his wife, there is no football on TV, former Texas Tech coach Mike Leech(sp on purpose) will get his settlement from Tech and probably receive much more than he deserves, Athletes Honey Milk will become the most popular drink on the planet, and I will be traveling to many more points of interest in the next 9 months of 2010.

Movie Reviews: "Cop Out", **, Bruce Willis should be ashamed of himself for this boring, stupid movie. He is just passing the time of day and collecting his big bucks in the poorly done movie. He and Tracy Morgan play veteran New York(always New York cops, never do they do a show about cops from Lubbock) cops on the trail of a stolen, rare, mint condition baseball card, and wind up facing a merciless, memorabilia-obsessed gangster. Actually Willis owns the card and is going to use it to pay for his daughters wedding($48,000.00), so this story is so stupid it stinks to high heaven. Rated R for pervasive language including sexual references, violence and brief sexuality.

"Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief", **, The gods of Mount Olympus and assorted monsters walk off the pages of high school student Percy Jackson's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. And they are not happy campers. Zeus' lightning bolt has been stolen and Percy is the prime suspect. Percy adapts to demi-God status: his father is Poseidon. Lots of action to find the lightning thief and I can't believe I watched the whole thing. Rated PG for action violence and peril, some scary images and suggestive material, and mild language.

Academy Awards: Last week while in Florida I actually watched the Academy Awards ceremony that seems to last for hours and hours, well actually it does do that. This year there were no real surprises and I was real pleased with the results and thought they were right on. Crazy Heart was a big favorite of mine and Jeff Bridges won the best actor for his performance. Avatar won the best picture and that was probably a good pick. Even though I didn't mention them on this blog site I agreed with most of them, even though there was a couple of movies I didn't get to see since they didn't come to Lubbock. The Hurt Locker was a big winner and if it came to Lubbock, it came and went while I was traveling, so I must find it some where since it was a big winner.

greerman

Christians???? Movie Review

Christian congregations always amaze me in the way they profess to love one another, love God and Jesus even, but then go contrary to what the good book teaches in their relations with each other. To illustrate my point there are a couple of things that come to mind. In the 6,000 population town that I was raised in the Church of Christ congregations got mad at each other every few years and then split and formed a new church. The last count I had they had created 7 Church of Christ congregations in this small town. Seemed strange to me since I was raised in the Presbyterian Church and we never split, guess we must have taken the teaching in the Bible a little more serious. But I always wondered what the deal was here and why they just can’t get along. But from a business stand point I also noted that this created jobs for 6 more ministers, choir directors, business managers, and required building another building, furnishing it, and buying all the hymnals for the choir and congregation Guess that is not all bad!! Yesterday I came in from my bicycle ride and as I entered the main entrance to Ransom Canyon I noticed that the new chapel was being completed for another Christian congregation for Ransom Canyon (population 1,000), Now I know the full story on why it was created so I know it is not because of growth in the original chapel but simply because they got mad at each other and it basically divided in half and they had to have a place to meet, so they built a new chapel. It is also built on a location that it is the first or second thing you notice when turning in to the main road. That had to be done to spite the original chapel since it is located within the population of the town. I also noticed where the building is built like a gasoline service station and I wondered if they were going to sell Chevron or Shell gasoline in the drive up over hang. Then I noticed that they had added a cross to the front of the build so this must sanctify the building into some kind of official worship service. It really seems so stupid to me since they are Christians, and the Bible is the bible and it doesn’t call for anything like this. I am sure that God sits up there somewhere and really enjoys watching all of this ridiculous hypocrisy. When they first divided I went to one of their meetings and walked away shaking my heads wondering how grown adults could call themselves Christians with all of the name calling and negative conversation that was going on. Instead of joining either of the dividing factions I chose to stay home on Sunday morning and enjoy a good run, or even do a blog article on the subject. While I realize we must have things to disagree over and even fight over it seems to me that this is not what God intended. But who really knows until we meet the maker in a more formal atmosphere, i.e. we all hope in that place called heaven.

Movie Review: “Shutter Island”, *, this movie had great acting in it but it was probably one of the most mind twisting, depressing movies I have even seen. I gave it a one star for the acting and Leonardo DiCaprio will probably be nominated for his acting. The setting for the story was in an institute for the extremely hard core criminally insane, the worst of the worst type of criminal. The story was hard to follow and was as gruesome as you can imagine. It all revolved around the search and investigation of one of the inmates who had brutally killed her three children, but as the story unfolds you will find that this is not really the story at all. It twists around like a pretzel and finally has a conclusion nearly 2 hours later. Supporting roles by Ben Kingsley, and Mark Ruffalo are excellent but still not worth the mental misery we are subjected to. We also had to sit on the 3rd row and I think it hit harder that close in. Bottom line, if you go after reading all of this you are one sick puppy! Rated R for disturbing violent content (understatement), language and some nudity (I missed that)!!

greerman

To Ramble, Movie Reviews

Since it has been nearly a month without posting on this site I am going to blame it on just being real busy; however, I could just say that I didn’t have anything to say or maybe had some writer block. Nothing could be further from the truth since I always have something to say. But the kicker is I want to say something that is close to being worthwhile so maybe I was just hanging in there for that light bulb of worthy subjects to happen. The fact is I have been traveling a lot and the computer I took with me just didn’t do the job for me. Now I am back from a very successful business trip to Colorado and now I am ready to write. My meetings in Colorado Springs included the USA Triathlon annual race director’s conference and it was very good. I was voted the oldest race director at the conference and probably the world since people my age have a different life than what I do. They spend time with their grand kids, work in the garden, play checkers or go to the senior clubs to compare the latest surgeries, etc. While I am not criticizing this activity at all it is just not what I want to do in life. So it is fun to go into a meeting at least 20 years older than most, but the cool thing is that there is always something to talk about, yep, my age. Since I have no intention of “retiring” or “quitting” I guess my unique topic of discuss will continue to be my age. From what I have gathered most people will retire and these people that are now 20 years younger than me will be retiring right before my eyes and then I will be dealing with people who are 40 years younger than me. Now I am having to work my way through this technological society who sit around and twitter their face book till their fingers are numb then they consult their e-mails and do that irritating texting and then lo and behold they might actually carry on a conversation at some point. In another 40 years I suppose we will just walk in a room to talk and we will have some kind of computer on our chest that you just touch for communication, so then we will not have to make any effort. Since I just completed my annual physical and my doctor declared me a freak of nature (the only surgery I have ever had was my tonsils out at age 8) and he would gladly trade the blood tests results for his. Excuse me doc but I am not in the trading mood, especially for my blood test results. He declared me very fit and said my ekg showed that my heart was doing the same thing it did last year during the test; it was beating at a reasonable rate and was healthy. Glad to hear that since I swim, bike, run, ride my motorcycle, and bowl. Please take your annual physical as soon as possible. The good news if you have nothing wrong, you will know it and feel good about it, but if you have something wrong you can catch it early and then do something about it. My simple solutions for staying healthy are not just exercising, since you must also exercise the brain and eat the right kind of food, no matter what. One of the things that I did a lot of during this nearly one month of not writing is go to the most current movies, so now I must get to the movie reviews. A record number, of seven will be reviewed.

Movie Reviews: “Tooth Fairy”, ***, actually a cute movie but really for those aged kids that still believe in the tooth fairy. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has the title role, introduced as a minor league hockey player who discourages a youngster and is sentenced to one week’s hard labor as the real Tooth Fairy. Kind of stupid really but again the kids will really enjoy it. It is still playing in Lubbock so that means people are going to see it. Rated PG for mild language, some rude humor and sports action.

“Crazy Heart”, *****, This is a real good one starring Jeff Bridges as richly comic, semi-tragic, romantic anti-hero country and western singer Bad Blake. He has had way too many marriages, far too many years on the road and one too many drinks too many times. He finally reaches for salvation after a near disaster with the help from Jean played by Maggie Gyllenhall, a journalist who discovers the man behind the musician. Bridges has been nominated for best actor; he deserves to win in my opinion. Rated R for language and brief sexuality.

“The Lovely Bones”, **, For once I agree with the local critic on this one. Kind of a weird story where a teen age girl is murdered and then looks down on her family from heaven. Some of the scenes are repetitive, long and boring. Not even good acting makes this worth the high priced ticket. Good popcorn didn’t save it either. Rated PG-13 for mature thematic material involving disturbing violent content and images, and some language.

“The Edge of Darkness”, ****, This is a very good movie with lots of brutality and stars Mel Gibson as a veteran Boston police detective, whose adult daughter dies from a shotgun blast on his front porch. Convinced that he was not the target, Gibson delivers a character fueled by his own grief to find out the real story and why this happened. He is perfect for the part and does a great job of acting. The ending is worth waiting for since it is a 2 hours long. Rated R for strong bloody violence, language (to say the least).

“From Paris With Love”, ***, This movie is okay but I wouldn’t spend prime time bucks on it. It is a story of a low-ranking intelligence officer, working in the office of the U.S. ambassador in France. To spice the movie up he is assigned with a partner that is a wisecracking, rule breaking, fast-shooting, high-ranking American agent played by John Travolta. Sometimes the movie script is overwhelmed by the Travolta dominance of the scenes. Go see on bargain ticket. Rated R for strong bloody violence throughout, drug content, pervasive language and brief sexuality.

“When In Rome”, ***, Kristen Bell stars as an ambitious New Yorker who, disillusioned with romance, takes a whirlwind trip to Rome, where she defiantly plucks magic coins from a foolish fountain of love. She inexplicably ignites the passion of an odd group of suitors: a sausage magnate, a street magician, an adoring painter, and a self-admiring model. Makes for a cute story and Kristen is very easy on the eyes. Go see during prime time just to see her!! Rated PG-13 for some suggestive content.

“The Wolfman”, ***, Funny how there are movies galore about vampires, then it goes to werewolves. The acting is beyond reproach with Benicio Del Toro, Gwen Conlifffe, and Anthony Hopkins. Of course the story is about the monster that is killing everyone in grand bloody style, and then passing on the bad blood that makes this killing a requirement to wear the hairy armor of a werewolf. A remake of the original classic and very well done. Rated R for bloody horror, violence and gore.

greerman

Leecher, Butts & Guts II, Movie Reviews

Rumor has it that ex Texas Tech Red Raider football coach Mike Leach has changed the spelling of his last name to Leech. Well after looking up the definition of leech and finding that it is defined as a worm that feeds on blood; a parasite. I wonder how that computes with the definition of a pirate who robs and steals and happens to be idolized by Ex Coach Leech. Another rumor is that Coach Leech has moved to Key West, Florida the land of warm weather, lots of sun, a beautiful ocean and lots of real happy people (you know like fun loving, gay, happy, and stuff like that). We wish him well and regret the fact that he didn’t get to be in Lubbock during our last 40 mph dust storm, he deserved that. The courts also did not shine down on him this past week in that they denied his request to get preferential treatment to have his case moved to the head of the line. Seems as though he did stuff like that all the time in Lubbock whenever he approached a line he just told them to get the hell out of the way since he was the Head Football Coach at Texas Tech. Thank God the court system was not impressed with his former stature. Their claim is that by being tied up in court he is having trouble getting a job coaching football. Well Coach, sorry to hear about that since you had a very good job making $2.7 million per year until you exercised your practice of being insubordinate (this practice actually started in year one of your employment) to those people you were employed by and then you locked some poor entitled football player up in a carpeted, air conditioned shed on campus so he could recover from his apparent head concussion. Good luck in Southern Florida but you also missed the job opening at Southern Florida, who also dismissed their coach for choking and hitting one of his players. Now fans out there in college football land don’t think for a minute that this practice just started. The real facts are it is just now coming out of the closet; they were beating up on us in the 1950’s and ‘60’s. But rather than complain and go bawling to our parents we just played a little harder and took out our frustrations on the opposing team. Good luck leecher, you will probably need it.

As an epilogue to the Butts and Guts story I failed to mention that the positive functions of the butt and gut. Well the butt was really put there by the creator for a few reasons, with the most important purpose is to sit on it. The other thing is the butt is made to fill out jeans and other apparel. If you look good in this type of apparel then it is a blessing. If you don’t then good luck! On the other hand is the big gut really good for anything? Since what most people do that have them is not good for them anyway. Okay so you can kill a six pack of beer very quickly and have lots of room for it, is that really a good thing? I think not, but who am I to really know? The other thing the big gut is for is to eat more than your fellow man. But again, is this a good thing? No I really don’t think it is but again I am just writing not judging. I have a friend that has a real big beer gut and I noticed he rubs it all the time, especially when he starts talking about drinking some beer or eating some BBQ. So, I guess there is some soothing stuff that goes on by rubbing the gut and getting it ready for consumption. Sometimes I am tempted to reach over and start rubbing that big gut myself, but the temptation leaves very quickly when I wonder why I would even think that. Good luck to all of the population out there with big butts and big guts, God loves you!!

Movie Review: “Legion”, **, really a well done movie, but in the same breath really useless and you wonder why you spent good money to see it. When God loses faith in mankind, he sends a legion of angels to bring about the Apocalypse. Now the action begins and it is really just about a bunch of blood and guts and you forget who the good guy is and who the bad guy is. The way they slaughtered each other they forgot also. We even have a re-birth of the savior by an out in the sticks diner waitress. This movie is a weird one. So many unanswered questions for the movie goer, i.e. what happened to the rest of the world as this was going on? What was the purpose of the insect attack? Go at your own risk. Rated R for strong bloody violence, and language.

“The Book of Eli”, ***, this is a good movie worth seeing but did not earn a fourth star from me. Denzel Washington plays a roaming (prophet, evangelist, preacher) good/bad guy heading West to deliver “The Book” so as to save the scorched earth and degenerate population. His methods of delivery and his own defense for his safety are very impressive and very deadly. He is a good guy defending himself in troubled times just for the purpose of heading West and delivering the “Book.” Go see, you will be intrigued. Rated R for some brutal violence and language.

greerman

Cross Dressing, Movie Reviews

Recently someone ask me what motivated me to ride a motorcycle, bowl, and do triathlons which of course requires swimming, biking and running. My immediate reply is that I must be a cross dresser and like the atmosphere of the three disciplines of life. Actually motorcycle riders are a lot like triathletes in that they do three things very well, they drink beer, eat BBQ, and ride the Hogs or whatever brand of two wheel terror they can muster up. When you ride a motorcycle you have a chance to put on the black leather (sometimes brown, but 95% black), let the beard and hair grow a little longer, and look real tough. Maybe even getting a little dirt under the finger nails and a slight odor of sweat and exhaust fumes. When you bowl you wear clothing that makes it easy to throw the ball down the lane and knock over those stupid looking pins, so you are again doing three things. You attempt to knock the pins down, drink a beer, and eat Mexican food afterwards. Then there is the dress of the triathlon world. Since you swim you must have a tight fitting Speedo type swim suit, a form fitting tights tri-suit for the bike ride and then wear the same on the run. Now a days the Speedo is used for work outs and the tri-suit is used for all three disciplines during competition. Then of course there is the customary carbo loading meals and low calorie beer. So, as anyone can see I am in high heaven with cross dressing. Not long ago I was being interviewed by my life coach and since she didn’t really know me very well she ask some personal questions. After these questions were answered she as if I had anything else to tell her. So, I took the opportunity to advise her that along with all of my little eccentrics I was a cross dresser. Yep, you got it, extreme silence on the other end of the phone. After what seemed like 30 minutes (really only a few long seconds) I explained my position on this subject and where I really fit. After giving her the full story she seemed to sigh with relief, but on the other hand she was from California and it is full of fruits and nuts, so what is so bad about a cross dressing West Texan? Now to wrap this all up and to explain what motivated me to write about this awesome subject I just got an ad on my e-mail from Victoria Secrets, Viagra, and Boy Toys. Of course I looked through the offerings in VC, enjoyed the many joys I was told I can get as a result of using the Boy Toys, after gulping down a Viagra pill and my day was complete. Please excuse me while I venture into the 900 number world to further enjoy my new purchases.

Movie Review: “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus”, ***, the last movie that Heath Ledger made before his death. Actually he died during the making of the film and was replaced by Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell (interesting combination but effective). This is really a far out movie about a character named Dr. Parnassus played by Christopher Plummer who possesses the extraordinary gift of being able to guide the imaginations of others. The movie has a magic mirror, and a quaint devil played by Tom Waits. One final bet with the devil finds friends and foes passing through the imaginarium. Well done movie but I think you have to enjoy these mystery things before you will really enjoy it. Rated PG-13 for violent images, some sensuality, language and smoking.

“Youth In Revolt”, ***, Michael Cera stars in a romantic comedy expected to defy traditional January cinematic doldrums. It is an irreverent story about the wild adventures of teen-aged(extremely horny, and a virgin) Nick Twisp, who meets the girl of his dreams while on a family(not a typical family) vacation, and must turn everyone’s lives upside down just to be near her. He also has an imaginary alter ego that pushes him into doing the things he has really wanted to do but was too shy to do. Rated R for some mild rude humor (also some sensual sex scenes).

greerman

Butts & Guts, New Coach

The longer I live life the more I like it and the more I am amazed about what evolves, IF we keep our awareness buds flowing. Yesterday I competed in a five mile road race at the Buddy Holly Park in Lubbock. This race is called “Loop the Lake”, which is a series of small manmade lakes created from the flow of natural springs, and rain water. The main inhabitants of these lakes are the Canadian geese that fly south every year so they can have three square meals a day during the winter, and poop all over the sidewalks and wherever they please. What made this a special run of awareness was not the 15 degree weather or the competition from the other runners but simply the fact that I run so slow now I have time to really think and create new ideas for my blog. In years past when I was zooming around the lake and being competitive, I never came up with any solid thoughts simply because I was breathing too hard and experiencing the good pain of running like hell and not having to think. But yesterday I became so bored with my speed that I started becoming aware of those that were passing me and the idea came to my mind about the physiology make up of the male/ female species and bingo I had a subject for the week. To me it is ironic that the human body was created with two obvious flaws and it takes miracles to do anything about them. These obvious flaws concern the female butt and the male gut. Over the years the female butt portion of the body has gained prominent recognition and has been described in many ways, i.e. nice butt, fat butt, big butt, tight butt, cute butt, broad butt while the male butt is usually referred to as “ass.”(Could that be where the term “he is an ass hole” came from?) Actually my nick name in college was “apple ass or apples for short.” Sometimes female athletes have what is called a “nice ass” or “tight ass” (for some reason butt is not used for female athletes) and I recall two professional triathletes that had REAL nice asses/butts, or whatever term you want to use, and then some suffered from “no ass at all,” not a real common problem amongst the general population nowadays. So as I ran around around the lake and these butts were passing me I took inventory of the nice butts, the big butts, apple butts and the tight butts. It amazed me that all categories were present and they were all passing me. Well all I have to say is no shame towards me since I was gathering pertinent information for this writing. Now to give equal time to the male gut I must admit I didn’t have any big gut guys pass me because they were either ahead of me to start with or there weren’t any in the race with big guts, so they never had to make that move. But in reality I didn’t see many big gut guys there so I would have to rely on my bowling friends for the big guts to enhance this story. Most long distance runners do not have big guts, but bowlers seem to carry that distinction with pride. So we have the beer gut, big gut, fat gut, gross gut, flat gut or maybe six pack gut, but regardless of what you call it the gut of the male sometimes becomes very obnoxious. What I have found is that with aging the gut tends to move around a little and reposition itself. Since I have always had love handles they have been part of my love/hate for that part of my body for a long time. Now I find that these two dudes have moved a little bit to the front of my gut and I really do not like that. Fact is I have never been in love with my love handles and I have never figured out how to rid myself of them. Someone once told me that they are actually muscles so I should be proud of them. While I am not convinced that they are muscles I will continue to keep working them and see what happens. In conclusion to these two deep subjects I find that the female butt can be very attractive, and aside from the upper assets, called the boobs, it is one of the most noticeable features of the female anatomy. On the same token the male gut if properly maintained and groomed can also be attractive; however, if it becomes the large, round, over the belt fat gut then it is not attractive at all. Professional triathletes very seldom have large guts; however, I have notice that the professional football players who play in the line do have guts. So let’s give credit where credit is due and say that there is room in the world for all size butts and guts, and everyone has their preferences so we can all be happy. Enjoy the view the next time you are out somewhere where these two features of the human anatomy are in blossom.

Thank God Texas Tech has hired their new coach and the rest of us can go on with our lives. After the untimely firing of the city’s favorite pirate (disguised as a $2.7 million a year football coach Mike Leach) the administration hired Coach Tommy Tuberville from Auburn, AL. This probably didn’t get him the job but his initials are TT, duh, the same as Texas Tech. His mother was probably thinking of this 55 years ago when she named him I am sure. Regardless he has great credentials and should be very good for Lubbock and Texas Tech. The other favorite on the existing staff was Coach Ruffin McNeill and an un-official poll of the players indicated that 90% wanted him as their next head coach. The final decision tells you that the administration did not make their decision based on the player’s vote which also illustrates that the inmates can’t be in charge of the prison. While no firing is pleasant the firing of Leach turned into a blood bath, and will finally be settled in court at great expenses. Everything that I have read on the subject, and information I have received from insiders, indicate Leach deserved the firing. Of course he has been guilty of insubordination since he arrived 10 years ago so I wouldn’t call this firing that sudden. The problem should have been solved when he arrived as opposed to 10 years after he had been here. Of course the diehard Leach fans have organized a Team Leach group now numbering 60,000 on Twitter and other electronic magic, etc. They wanted him re-hired (wasn’t going to happen in a heartbeat). Funny thing is there were quotes of fans from around town in various bars & grills and the interviewer said that as the day wore on the responses were less violent and mellower. Duh, you interview people who are sitting at a bar drinking and you think that their responses will not mellow a little bit. That is why they are drinking, to drown the sordid details of the day and forget about who gets the next millions to coach a football team. Hear me Raider Nation/Team Leach, everything that has been made public indicates that the mighty pirate deserved to be stripped of his sword, had his good eye poked out, sent to the end of the plank, had all of his stolen treasures taken away, then fired. Besides he was only a mediocre coach and the highest paid 8 wins a year coach that I know of. He never won a Conference division title, he never won a Conference title, he never won a National Championship, and even in his best year he didn’t win either of the above, lost the last game of the regular season and also lost the Cotton Bowl game. So let it rest and get behind the new coach. Of course fans are so fickle all the new dude has to do is put a few wins on the board and they will be saying, “Leach who?”

greerman

Ironic Bowl, Movie Reviews

Drama, drama and more drama. Okay so the football team of the mighty Texas Tech Red Raiders, of the Big 12, and the once double mighty Michigan State Spartans of the Big 10 meet in the annual Alamo Bowl in San Antonio tonight! What is the big deal and why the drama? Well to start with the football team of the Spartans decided a few weeks ago to have a gang fight with one of the fraternities on the Michigan State campus. For some reason the administration of MSU decided this was not in the best interest of the football program and so they dismissed 14 of their players. So, that created a lot of drama for MSU and most of the pre-press was about these appalling acts and how it was going to affect the game. Needless to say the Red Raiders were licking their chops and looking forward to blowing them past River Walk, on past the Alamo and out of this historic city that prides themselves in reminding us of “remember the Alamo and we kick butt if you don’t.” Then the impossible happened and the Texas Tech Red Raiders showed the mighty Spartans that they could “one up” them on the drama scene and placed their head coach, Mike Leach, on suspension from coaching the game and then a few days later adding more salt to this oozing sore, fired him with cause. The cause being he mistreated one of their high profile prima dona players who just happened to have a prima dona father who just happens to be on ESPN as a color commentator for college football. Since all of this has been presented in the news for the past week I will not go into all of the details and I would encourage my readers to consult LubbockOnline.com for all of the gory details. What I will do is offer some of my opinions on the subject, then move on to the movie reviews. My first point will be directed to those Red Raider fans who think Mike Leach is an offensive genius and the Tech program will never go on without him. Coach Leach is very much a smart, strong minded, hard headed, eccentric that did put together a productive offensive team, but never produced a conference championship, only finished in the top 10 one year, and never won a conference Championship or National Championship. While his offense was productive, to say the least, his overall team efforts(called defense, running attack, blocking, punting, kicking, reduced penalties, being disciplined or summed up with one word “balanced” just wasn’t there) which enables a team to win it “all” never materialized in his 10 years. My opinion is also motivated by the fact that he was being paid $2.7 million per year plus some nice bonus money. For that kind of money I feel we can ask for a lot or even demand it. My second point is that even though Mike Leach is the winningest coach in school history his overall record is only mediocre with an average of 8 wins per season. His best year was in 2008 and it did not produce a Championship of any kind and they even put the icing on the cake by losing in the Cotton Bowl. Their last game of the regular season, they still had the chance of winning the Big 12 but showed up in presence only and looked like a Pop Warner team that was just issued their uniforms the day before the game. They played so bad they created another definition of “stink.” My other point on this “mediocrity” thing is that the diehard fans have accepted this and make excuses for why their record is not better, i.e. if they had only scored more points again Houston they would have won 9 games, and these kind of stupid statements. Of course if they had scored more points than all of their opponents in 2009 they would be undefeated right now. Of course they wouldn’t have their coach because his firing had nothing to do with on the field performance or results. My third point is that Leach was a guy that demanded that his players have unquestioned discipline but he was not a good example of this attribute himself. Now, here are some things the fans are going to miss about him. He did put a very exciting productive offensive football team on the field of play. He was a very eccentric coach (he did not play in college, one in only a handful of coaches that didn’t; he was actually a rugby player). His program did have a very high graduation rate and that is a very good thing. He guaranteed the fans that he could produce 8 wins per year season, and a bowl bid out of 35 bowl games(wow wee what a feat!) While his heroes are pirates that will now become a dead issue in Lubbock and the retail stores will probably get stuck with some flags, boots, and pirate attire we normally didn’t have around until Leach brought his pirate ship to town via Buffalo Springs Lake. We will also miss his dull, dry interviews and his ability to say something that really didn’t make much sense, i.e. “the players feel like they are heroes because their fat little girlfriends tell them they are.” While this got a lot of press I really didn’t get it. First of all the football players don’t generally have fat little girl friends, and second of all this was a very offensive statement to “the fat little girlfriends of the basketball team, or maybe the track team, but not the almighty football players.” Now that I have vented my opinions I will say that Coach Leach was invited to ride his new Cannondale bike out in the canyons with a few of our triathlete friends; however, he never made it. Guess he couldn’t read the map!! His loss!!! Regardless, Texas Tech football will continue to play the game, and coach Leach will continue to coach football somewhere in the universe. He will sue the university big time; get a larger settlement than his salary since it appears that the administration made some bad legal moves in their suspension and firing play calling. Imagine Tech has a law school, a Chancellor that was a very successful practicing lawyer and a full team of lawyers employed by Tech, and they make what appears to be some major blunders!!! Oh well it is not the end of the world folks, it is just “As the Football Turns” in the Hub City of the South Plains of Texas.

Movie Reviews: “Nine,” ****, this is probably a five star movie but I don’t really know how to rate musicals, but this is good one. It got my attention because of Daniel Day Lewis, plus I went to the Michael Jackson thing and had a better appreciation for music. The movie centers on film director Guido Contini (played by Daniel Day-Lewis-one of the great film actors of the day in my opinion) as he reaches a personal crisis of epic proportions. He must balance his numerous women in his life, including his wife(Marion Cotillard), his mistress(Penelope Cruz), his film star muse (Nicole Kidman), his confidant and costume designer(Judi Dench), an American fashion journalist(Kate Hudson) the whore from his youth(Fergie) and of course his mother (Sophia Loren). What a mouthful that can only equal a lot of tension, no wonder the guy was having trouble balancing his life. This film will be nominated for an Oscar for sure. Rated R for sexual content and smoking.

“It’s Complicated,” ****, an entertaining movie about love and divorce, co-starring Meryl Streep, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin. Jane (played by Streep) is the mother of three grown children, and finds herself drifting into a sexual affair with her ex-husband, remarried Jake (Baldwin) after a decade of divorce. Caught in the middle is a likeable divorced architect played by Martin, who has fallen for Jane, but discovers he’s become a part of a love triangle. Some very humorous scenes and fun to watch. Rated R for some drug content and sexuality.

“Avatar,” *****, this is a five star rated movie with lots of special effects. Obviously it is a sci-fi movie set on a moon called Pandora. This moon has a mineral that is essential for the survival of earth, so the military earthlings and some insensitive scientists are there to harvest this stuff regardless of the local 10 foot tall, blue humanoids call the Navi. Of course the battle begins between the intruders and the locals who are the nice good guys and gals. While we have the overbearing earth intruder military types (throw in a marine or two), the one military hero who is trying to earn his legs back (literally) and the scientists. Of course there is a love story, and a real villain. Go see, but be prepared for a long one, 2 hrs and 40 minutes. Also, it is offered in 2D and 3D (I would recommend this even though it is $3.00 higher). The only real recognizable actress is Sigourney Weaver, not a stranger to sci-fi and tough battles with the villains. Rated PG-13 for intense epic battle sequences and warfare, sensuality, language and some smoking.

greerman