Friday the 12th

Poor Jason. I just wanted to pass this along because I thought it was funny. I’ll be back tomorrow with some college football related posts.

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The Future is Serious Business

Who doesn’t love a good Back to the Future Remix?

Shining Down – Lupe Fiasco

There is a new single going around the Internet by Desert Ball favorite Lupe Fiasco. It is off his upcoming album Lasers. Check it out and let me know what you think. I’m not a fan of the auto-tune, but I do love Lupe:

Ron Artest’s MJ Tribute

I don’t care if it is already all over the internet, if it involves Michael Jackson and Ron Artest it is going to be posted on this blog:

Happty 4th!

You know what I always found funny about the 4th of July holiday? We celebrate the day we declared our Independence from Britain. Not the day we won it, October 19, 1781 when British General Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown. Or the day we officially won it, the signing of the Treaty of Paris on September 3, 1783. Or the day we officially set up our first government (those gawd-awful Articles of Confederation) on March 1st, 1781. No, we celebrate the day we decided “eh, we wanna do our own thing now”.

You Got a Winner in Town

Wouldn’t this be like Boston Celtics fans celebrating the day they traded for Kevin Garnett over the day they won the championship? Imagine if we didn’t win Revolutionary War, the Declaration of Independence would look pretty silly. It would be like when Buddy Ryan held his first press conference after becoming the Cardinals’ coach in 1994 and said “You got a winner in town”. Now I have a mental image of George Washington standing before congress in 1776 saying “You got a sovereign nation in town”.

The 4th of July is about celebrating our freedom as a country. There are still a few aspects of freedom we need to achieve. We need to achieve freedom from the baseball steroid scandal, because I am sick of hearing about it. We need freedom from awful NBA officiating (not going to happen anytime soon). Us Arizonans need freedom from Josh Byrnes, Steve Kerr and Robert Sarver.

We also spend the 4th of July supporting our troops. Yes our troops overseas deserve our support and love, but I am not going to say too much about that because that’s all anyone on TV will be talking about this weekend and they can say it much better than I can. The troops that need our support are guys like Steve Nash, who deserves a championship but has to deal with some awful management completely destroying a team that he was meant to play for. We need to support every member of the Arizona Cardinals, probably the only watchable Valley sports team right now. We need to support Dennis Erickson is his efforts to rebuild ASU football and support Herb Sendek in his efforts to keep ASU basketball in the limelight.

So Happy 4th of July to all you loyal readers. Go sit by a pool, eat some BBQ and maybe read some Desert Ball! Enjoy yourself!

The Missing Links

I went on vacation and something funny happened, my blog started to get a lot more traffic. Not that I am anywhere close to making it big, but I would like to keep the momentum up by posting more. That brings me back to my vacation thing, I don’t really want to blog on vacation because I need to at least think I have some semblance of a life. Therefore I will give you another short post, a few links I have found interesting from around the internet:

• Vince Marotta over at Fanster.com tells us the 10 best and worst Suns draft picks of all time. There are a lot of centers on the “10 worst” list and a lot of icons on the “10 best” list.
• I love the Transformers and I love the MLB, so of course I love this post about Transformers: Revenge of the MLB Fallen. The only think not to like is it centers on Red Sox and Yankees, that is sooo 2004.
• Let’s hope Jimmy Fallon’s golf game is better than his awful monologues. He will be facing off against Tiger Woods in a Wii Golf challenge. I’ll give Fallon some credit, he is always doing something cool on his shows.
• A Street Fighter IV tournament at the Phoenix Convention Center and I am out of town!!!! Dibs on Ryu.
• Now we are even accusing cartoon characters of juicing. Spoiler Alert: I don’t see how the Hulk isn’t number one on this list.
• I predicted the D-Backs to take the NL West this year, now D-Backs guru Nick Piecoro is talking about them being in the race for the #1 pick . . . what a season.

Off to enjoy the rest of my vacation!

Recasting Cheers

On recent episodes of Bill Simmons’ B.S. Report podcasts, Bill has talked with Kevin Wildes about remaking Cheers. Wildes makes a good point, saying that since every Hollywood movie is remade now days why not remake a sitcom. I agree with Wildes‘ point that the show would have to move from Boston and Chicago would be a perfect location. Updating the scripts would be nice too, bringing a new era type of comedy and updating the topical 80s humor that existed in the show. Who would be the new cast? Let me take a crack at it, the only rule being is the casting has to be somewhat realistic:

Sam Malone – Vince Vaughn

Wildes whole idea is based on Vince Vaughn playing Sam Malone and this is an absolutely perfect casting decision. Vince Vaughn embodies Chicago and he could easily play the role of Sam Malone. Vaughn is a big guy, this is key because Sam Malone has to be an ex-athlete in the city that Cheers is located in. Vaughn also is a sports fan and identifies with the Cubs, making him a former Cubs relief pitcher would work well. Pay Vaughn a absurd amount of money to basically be himself (which I am assuming is his character in the Chicago based movie, The Breakup) and the show has instant credibility.

Diane Chambers – Rachel Taylor

I’ve heard names thrown around like Rachel Bilson, Amy Smart and Elizabeth Banks and while they are all good candidates I think the Diane cast has to be an under-the-radar hire. I love Bilson, who was Simmons’ choice, but there is no way she can pull off the intellectual elitist that Diane is supposed to be. This is an iconic role that has to be handled with care. I would choose Rachel Taylor, probably best known for her role as a NSA Hacker in Transformers. Taylor is gorgeous, and she would be huge hit on network TV. She has the ability to play a brainy girl and she is currently starring in an upcoming HBO comedy, Washingtonienne. Just for the hell of it, let her speak in a accent like she did in Transformers. That would drive men crazy!

Coach – John Mahoney

Here is the problem with current blogs that are talking about recasting Cheers, they always recast for Woody and completely forget about Coach. If there is going to be a true recasting of Cheers, the Coach character has to be in it. As good as Mike Dikta would be in this role, I want someone who could actually act. Bill Simmons brought up John Mahoney and I think this is the perfect fit. Mahoney is a veteran sitcom actor (worked on Frasier) and could pull of Coach very well. He is old, approaching 70, but there is no doubt he could play this role.

Cliff Clavin- Mos Def

I am totally behind the idea of making Norm and Cliff of African American decent, because the original Cheers cast didn’t have that much diversity (nor really did any NBC show during that time period). Mos Def is a rapper turned solid actor who has been nominated for an Emmy and Golden Globe Award. After recently watching his character in the movie 16 Blocks I could easily see him playing the off-center mailman role that Cliff Clavin was.

Norm Peterson- Cedric the Entertainer

This could be a tough get for the show and I am unsure if Cedric wants to return to sitcom life, but he would be the perfect African-American counterpart for Norm Peterson. Cedric is a funny guy and would easily fit in sitting at the end of the bar stool running up an endless tab. The only thing we would have to change is his character’s job, Cedric the Entertainer isn’t going to play some accountant in a TV Show. Maybe we should give him a new-era job like Web Developer or IT guy.

Calra Tortelli – Michelle Rodriguez

I want to make Carla of Latino decent and I think Michelle Rodriguez could do a good job of bringing the flair needed for this job. She is never going to match Rhea Perlman’s original, but she has always done a good job of playing a girl with an attitude in every movie or TV show that she has been in. Plus, it will be a nice change for her not playing a cop of some type. She may be a little young to play Carla, but we can always re-imagine Carla’s age in our new Cheers show.

Frasier Crane – Will Arnett

This is another guy that would be a tough get for the show, but I think he would make a fantastic Fraiser Crane. Arnett has a lot of sitcom experience and was a series regular for Arrested Development, one of the best comedy shows of the decade. Take one look at this picture and tell me you don’t see a Frasier Crane in his face. Arnett would be so good as Frasier the character might have to be expanded a bit.

Lilith Sternin Crane – Erica Durance

In the original Cheers Lilith is a pretty bland character on the surface but is an important part of the show. Erica Durance might have too much of a screen presence to pull off Lilith. Her sarcasm and attitude portraying Lois Lane on Smallville, which is pretty much the only reason to watch that show, makes me think she could handle this role. It is possible she would be a little to young looking to pull of being a doctor or being married to Will Arnett, but TV is all about suspension of disbelief.

A lot of these actors probably wouldn’t want to be in this show but if I were to use no-name actors it wouldn’t nearly be as fun. We are also assuming Rachel Taylor wouldn’t leave the show and John Mahoney wouldn’t die, therefore there wouldn’t be a need to cast for Woody or Rebecca. Who would you cast in these roles? Do you think a Cheers remake would ever be possible?

Hadouken!

Just in case you ever actually wanted to see a real-life version of Ryu taking out the car from the bonus stage in Street Fighter II:

Death of Autotune

Sorry Lil Wayne and T-Pain, auto-tune is dead. Jay-Z says so:

Leave it to Jay-Z to say what everyone has been thinking

Where Amazing Happens . . . In Movies