The Band's Visit / Final 4

As you can probably tell by the title of this post, the Final 4 is set. For the first time in history, all 4 #1 seeds will face off in the Final 4.

Indeed this was a year of great parody in college basketball, so this is quite unexpected. Memphis was absolutely dominant over Texas in what easily became the biggest surprise of the Elite 8. We all know that Stephan Curry is an inhuman shooter and that Davidson can play as well as any team in the country, so the fact that they played Kansas closely all night was no surprise. What was surprising though was the fact that they wasted the last 16.8 seconds and showed an uncharacteristic lapse in judgment to ultimately lose the game by 2. I picked UNC as my champion and I still feel strongly that they will win in a championship game matchup against UCLA. As March Madness winds to a close, I tip my hat to the Wisconsin Badgers for an excellent season and Stephan Curry for the single most outstanding performance by a player I have ever seen.

Now then, I'd like to speak a moment about The Band's Visit (Bikur Ha-Tizmoret). This is a truly delightful film with a genuine message. Written and directed by Eran Kolirin (Israel), The Band's Visit tells a simple tale of a group of Arab musicians. Hailing from Egypt, The Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra has been invited to play at the opening of a cultural center in Petah Tikva, Israel (a major center of culture). Due to a miscommunication, the band mistakenly arrives in Beit Hatikva (a fictional village far out in the desert) on the last bus of the day and is left no choice but to stay a night in this quiet, rural village. The film deftly avoids the obvious conflicts between Arabs and Jews and instead develops into a quiet, poignant, snapshot-of-life comedy. The characters and conversations are well developed and heartfelt. Indeed, just like real life, sometimes you will laugh and sometimes you will cry. Both the people from the village and the members of the band have much to say. Expressing a wide range of human emotion, the beauty of music, and the pain that resides in every one of us, this beautiful film is not one to be missed.


I highly recommend The Band's Visit; it is the first truly great film of 2008. If you'd like further proof, head on over to Rotten Tomatoes and take a look at this film's summary page. Any film that scores over 80% is fairly remarkable, but with a score of 98%, The Band's Visit is truly something special.

Cheers.

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C'est La Vie

Well, I'd have to say my personal life at this point is less than stellar due to a few not so insignificant issues. Something I think we can all relate to is how bitter the state of Wisconsin is about ending winter. On 21 March, the first official day of spring, there were several centimeters of snow as if to say "haha, I'm just getting started!" Meanwhile most of my friends returned from vacations in the sun where they obtained a golden tan and told me lovely stories of the beach. At any rate, that is neither here nor there. Moving on.

The Sweet 16 is set and the Badgers did well to make it past a tough Kansas State team. Reports are already surfacing that Michael Beasley will go pro. If he does, he has almost a certain lock on being the #1 pick. The heroic performances were slightly less prevalent in the second round of play, but Stephan Curry of Davidson again played like a superstar, scoring 30 points against a Georgetown team that prides itself on stifling defense.

Davidson, Villanova, and Western Kentucky all played like top seeds and put three teams seeded 10 or lower in the sweet 16 for the first time in ages. This year also becomes only the third time 2 teams seeded 12th or lower have made it to the Sweet 16. North Carolina (my champion pick) looks just incredible, scoring over 100 points in both of their first two games and shooting 67% from the field against a disciplined and athletic Arkansas team. UNC is looking to put together one of the most dominant runs in tournament history as they continue to enjoy home court advantage.

For all you fellow gamers out there, it's Wednesday, so Yahtzee is back with a new review on Zero Punctuation. This week he discusses Zack & Wiki, a fairly enjoyable Wii title from a few months back into 2007. In case you are new to Mr. Croshaw's colorful reviews, it is worth mentioning that the language is rather NSFW.

I've started to listen to some new Trance music lately and I'm really into Armin van Buuren (Leiden, Netherlands). Each week he does a stellar Internet broadcast (to over 30 countries) of "A State of Trance," a 2 hour mix of carefully selected tracks. I'd love to hear if you know of any other artists that sound similar.

To conclude, I've got two images for you. First, XKCD continues to be the funniest nerdcomic on the 'net.


And second, this is the first tennis match ever played on water. Yes, that's right. In a pool. Rafael Nadal (my favorite tennis player) played an exhibition match against Serena Williams. Ahem, I quote: "The water-covered court was constructed in the 110-foot swimming pool set in the Gansevoort's exclusive 22,000-square-foot rooftop retreat. A specialist underwater team took five days to construct two invisible platforms at either end of the pool using a combination of bespoke acrylic sheets and supporting acrylic tubes. " Sweet.


/end

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Opening Weekend. XKCD.

Ahh... the best weekend of the year is only half over. The first round of tournament games are done and there were some truly epic contests. Western Kentucky won on an extraordinary shot at the buzzer by senior guard Ty Rogers. Rogers got the ball with under a second left and launched up a prayer from about 25 feet over the outstretched hands of 3 defenders. It was one of those shots that you only see in March. Over in the Midwest region, Davidson overcame a huge deficit to upset the Gonzaga Bulldogs. Sophomore Stephen Curry strapped the team on his shoulders and carried them to the finish line with 40 points in what can be easily considered the most outstanding individual effort of the first round. The last truly exciting upset was San Diego's overtime victory over UConn. UConn is a disciplined team of tournament veterans, and San Diego pulled off a 1 point victory on De'Jon Jackson's 17 foot jumper as time wound down. Of course it would be quite unfair to not mention the Siena Commodores. Siena absolutely hammered 4th seeded Vanderbilt, never trailing in the game and finishing with an impressive 83-62 victory.

Some seeded teams played exciting games as well. UNC and UCLA both won their games by about 40 points with the other two top seeds also easily taking care of business. Duke of course looked like rubbish, only beating Belmont by 1 point due to some shameful miscues by the inexperienced Belmont players near the end of the game.

The Wisconsin Badgers dispatched a very athletic team from Cal-State Fullerton and look forward to facing the best player in the nation in Michael Beasley. The Kansas State Wildcats won on Thursday over a red-hot USC Trojan team that was heavily favored to win. Hopefully some combination of Landry, Krabbenhoft, Butch, and/or Steimsma can keep Beasley in check.

On a parting note, check out the latest XKCD... you may or may not be guilty of this faux pas:


Cheers.

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Bounced / Death of a Format

Good day, readers.

Arsenal was devastated today in the 5th Round of the FA Cup when they were handed a stunning 4-0 defeat at the hands of Manchester United. The enormous pile of injuries clearly took their toll today, as Arsenal was able to field just 14 players. Arsenal was missing several key players, including superstar striker Emmanuel Adebayor. In addition, Manuel Almunia, Tomas Rosicky, Bacary Sagna, and Gael Clichy were not able to play, crippling Arsenal's defensive capabilities. ManU quickly took advantage of the Gunners' defensive weakness, putting the game on ice with two goals in the first 20 minutes of play. The supporters had it right though as they sang "we'll be back to win the League!" as time expired. The Gunners hold fast to a 5 point lead in the Premiership, and they are still alive and well in the UEFA Champions League.

On a more positive note, the UW Men's Basketball team bounced back this week after being defeated by Purdue for the 2nd time this season. The Badgers posted a pair of solid wins this week over 13th ranked Indiana and the much improved Minnesota Golden Gophers. The Badgers look to finish strong after an impressive 21-4 start. The only game that should really give the Badgers much trouble is Michigan St. on 28 February. Looking on the bright side, we are playing at home, and it is exceedingly rare for us to lose games at the Kohl Center.

Finally, to any folks who have followed the HD movie format war, it is finally over. This week, Netflix and Wal-Mart both announced plans to stop supporting HD DVD, and reports are now coming out of Japan that Toshiba is stopping production of its HD DVD players. Reuters is responsible for the Toshiba report, so the source is indeed credible.

As such, HD DVDs are awfully cheap, and I was able to pick up several on Amazon at $15 a go. I was able to view two of my recently acquired films this week: Shaun of the Dead and The Pianist.

Shaun of the Dead became an instant cult classic in 2004 under the brilliant directing by Edgar Wright and witty performances by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. The trio of Brits created Shaun to be a spoof of George A. Romero's landmark horror film, Dawn of the Dead. The film does just about everything it needs to do to be effective: it has a wry script filled with sarcastic characters and it never, ever takes itself too seriously. The film purposely includes all the standard bits and pieces of a generic horror/action movie, only it is hilariously funny and incredibly well crafted. I highly recommend this film along with Wright/Pegg/Frost's follow up effort, Hot Fuzz. Hot Fuzz is essentially built off the same idea as Shaun, only it spoofs generic cop action films such as Bad Boys II and Point Break. It is infinitely funnier and higher quality than the rubbish it pokes fun at.

On a more serious note, The Pianist is a moving and emotional tour de force. If you are not moved to the point of tears while watching this film, you have no soul. Adrien Brody turns in a performance for which mere words can do no justice. Indeed, the Academy did well by awarding him the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role in 2002. Brody plays Wladyslaw Szpilman, the famous Polish composer on whose memoirs the film is based. The film opens with Szpliman at the height of his career as a talented pianist who plays for a popular Polish radio station. The film quickly moves on through the occupation of Poland by the Germans in World War II, and we spend the next 90 minutes or so watching the incredible true story of his survival in the Warsaw ghetto. The end is immensely rewarding as we see his triumphant restoration to prominence. The film can be considered nothing other than essential viewing. Saving Private Ryan is the definitive film on the brutality of the German war machine, Schindler's List is the definitive film on the over-arching idea of genocide and the obliteration of the Jews as a people, and The Pianist takes the idea of Schindler's List and focuses it down to a single person, providing the most intimate and truly human perspective of what it was like to be persecuted in such a way. Indeed, the film begs to be seen because after all, history means nothing if we do not learn from our mistakes.

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What a Day

The Big Ten has never disappointed me quite as much as it has this year. Wisconsin lost in a game of too many missed opportunities, Illinois was humiliated at the hands of USC, and Ohio State was just handily defeated by LSU tonight in the BCS National Championship game. It was especially frustrating after watching OSU go up 10-0 with barely 3 minutes gone in the first quarter and then allow LSU 31 unanswered points. This of course continues to lend credibility to commentators who slam the Big Ten, which many of them have undertaken as something of a personal hobby (especially on ESPN). Better luck next year I suppose. I would like to say that this year more than any other makes it painfully obvious that we NEED a playoff at the end of the season to determine the true #1 team in the nation. I think that surely Georgia, USC, Kansas, Missouri, and most of all West Virginia deserve a chance to prove themselves as potentially being the nation's best. I do not think that LSU was clearly the best team this year, especially when you consider the fact that they lost. Twice. And one of those losses was to an unranked team. Bah.

Earlier in the morning, I watched Shoot 'Em Up. Clive Owen and Paul Giamatti are absolutely brilliant actors (especially Owen in Sin City and Children of Men and Giamatti in Sideways), but even their presence could not save this poorly scripted and poorly directed pile of cinematic manure. The CGI is atrocious, the fight scenes are horrendously choreographed and the dialog seems to have been written by an angry teenager who has just learned curse words for the very first time. I don't think I have been so... disappointed by a film for a long time. I frankly cannot believe how well people review this film on IMDB... it makes me sad that people enjoy such rubbish.

And of course after the game, I finished up Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction on the PS3. It is one of the system's finest games and I quite enjoyed myself. You can catch my review here.

That's it for me.

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Pan's Labyrinth

In the wee hours of the morning, I decided to give Pan's Labyrinth a spin. I had not seen this movie all the way through, and I certainly had never seen it in HD. The Blu-ray does an outstanding job of conveying the different color motifs as the palettes change radically between the different settings in the film. The HD transfer was excellent overall and I have no serious complaints. The film itself is visually stunning and well acted. Captain Vidal makes for just about the most evil villain in recent memory and Ivana Baquero gives a particularly good performance as the young and imaginative Ofelia.

The Wisconsin Men's Basketball team beat Iowa yesterday, which is more good news. After the Broncos disappointing season, I need some sports victories. The win consolidated the Badgers #25 ranking and will hopefully allow them to move somewhere up near #20. And today, Arsenal produced a convincing FA Cup win over Burnley, 2-0. Youngster Nicklas Bendtner scored his first goal in several games, while Eduardo continues to prove his worth as an all-star striker by scoring his sixth goal in the last four matches. Go Gunners!

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