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.

Blu3

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.

Blu3