I'm up damn early again this morning as it was yesterday. I popped my kneecap a certain way on Saturday and the pain is killing me. Oh sure, I can walk and life is running somewhat smoothly, but it hurts so much.

Berkeley held its annual "How Berkeley Can You Be?" festival and parade yesterday. It's a way Berkeleyans can show off their diversity, whether it's in terms of race, affluence, or history. And it's held on University Avenue, down the street from my apartment. So how Berkeley was I yesterday? Umm yeah, I fled home to San Jose for the weekend.

Cal lost another football game this weekend, this time to Washington State 48-38, who always beats them here for some reason. They did tie it up at 38 but there was too much time left for the Cougars to recover. SJSU beat UTEP 52 to something. Their football program is threatened by new rules concerning attendance. Every football team needs to be watched by at least 15,000 among other requirements. Even with a big fiesta before the game and the bonus of counting every warm body there (including the ushers, the security guards, the media covering the game), they could only muster 10,000.

I had the privilege of attending the high school football game between Oak Grove and the Alisal Trojans, a team from Monterey, last night. Let's look at the highlights.

$5? You got to be kidding me. That's like a whole day's worth of food!

Seats available! Apparently, the opponent was not well-known enough to attract a large crowd. Plus, about half of the people there were milling around the snack shack or smoking weed under the bleachers.

The football game was mildly exciting. Like almost all high school football teams in the area, all they want to do is run. But Oak Grove quickly makes their few passes count, running up the score to 21-0 at halftime.

Now the reason I was there: band and colorguard. If you've never read this blog, highly possible and likely, my sister is on the colorguard this year, surprising for this family who mostly stayed away from the performing arts. The program this year is Niagara Falls. Appropriately, the colorguard costumes consist of raincoats and paddles. With the occasional missteps and forgetting to twirl the flag a couple of times, she did reasonably well. I taped the whole fiasco, so if anyone wants to come over, they can come and see it.

I took guesses to see how many times she would drop her flag earlier this month. They've ranged from 1 time to 10 times. So, finally the correct answer is ... ZERO. My sister did not tell me that she wouldn't be making any attempts at throwing her flag in the air until after her performance last night. So apologies to everyone who was expecting their guess to be right.

Soon after, the game started again and all the home Eagles wanted to do was run out the clock. The crowd passed the time by watching two little boys playing a little game of tackle football of their own. Every tackle made was followed by a loud ooo or ahhh from the crowd.

The snack shack has a name! Mr. Barbata, the CS teacher, technology coordinator, and announcer, kept making references of stopping by Julio's Cantina. But don't let the Mexican reference fool you, they sell burgers, hot dogs, cup o' noodles for the cold night along with their nachos and tacos. It's so good, according to Mr. Barbata, that it's the number one high school snack shack in the country. I think people will be spending eternity to find a source for that, if they bother to search in the first place.

Tonight's attendance: a very small 2,105. Final score: Oak Grove 35, Alisal 16.

How much more ridiculous can ER get? Watch tonight's episode and count the ways.

Some form of smallpox, a disease eradicated by vaccine years ago, suddenly reappears out of nowhere in Chicago, strickening a little boy and infecting others.

The same strain of smallpox gets found in the African country of Congo.

Fine, it's not smallpox, but the commercials would tell you otherwise. That's because all ER episodes are described as being "very special" or "the most emotional episode of the season" or similar phrases like that.

They're letting people go out even though the hospital is probably infected with the disease because of the ventilation systems.

Dr. Romano's arm is cut off by a helicopter rotor after he stops to pick up a chart.

Dr. Lewis is left alone to care for an old man, who happens to go into arrest exactly the time after the doctor, nurse, and technician leave.

Mekhi Phifer's character breaks a window with an IV stand to get into the blood bank, but when it comes to actually getting into the blood in the glass case, he uses a key after spending time searching for it.

Two midterms back-to-back today. Both had their good sides, but really bad sides. Let's not speak of this day ever again.

On a good note, I have finally spent the mere seconds it takes to take down the summer rankings, to be replaced by fall rankings once I watch more than the one movie I've seen this month. But hey, this is the only time you'll hear that The Banger Sisters is the number one movie. The rankings are still in the archive if you're feelin' nostalgic.

Congrats to the Oakland A's for their Western Division Championship. Sometime in the future, the Orioles will win the AL East. Just you wait. And wait. And wait. And wait.

San Francisco will experience the 10th anniversary of Critical Mass tomorrow. On the last Friday of every month, bicyclists are encouraged to go ride during evening rush hour in the streets of the city. Things got into a fevered pitch in 1997 when the mayor denounced them. Soon after, thousands of bicyclists were hitting cars, stopping at intersections, and even wanted to get onto the Bay Bridge. Now, things have quieted down. But with this milestone, expect things to get more crowded than it usually is.

The Banger Sisters
While some people haven't even started school yet, I, on the other hand, have started the process of test-taking with 3 midterms in 3 days. With the first one, math, down today, I'm takin the night off so that tomorrow will be full of studying for two on Thursday.

Now some people have wondered, why are the summer movie rankings still in the left-hand column? It's almost the end of September! Well, there's a good reason for it. I haven't watched a movie this month to make a new list. And I'm lazy. I can't spare the ten seconds it would take to wipe it away from the code. Plus, the quality of the movies are low. Take for example, Swimfan. Or Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever. Or Stealing Harvard. Sure, there are good movies, but they're independent films or only playing in the city. Igby Goes Down. Apollo 13 in IMAX. Read My Lips. Plus, it's not fun watching movies in the shoeboxes known as Berkeley theatres. And I still want to see One Hour Photo, but let's just say I'm waiting for a grace period to pass.

So with great fanfare, the first movie I saw in three weeks was The Banger Sisters. Yes, an unorthodox choice, but a movie that my good friend Jeanette really, really, really, really wanted to go see. But as I was walking out listening to the sporadic applause, mostly by Kyle, I was pleasantly surprised.

For those not in the know, Goldie Hawn plays Suzette, a groupie who's still living in the past but must face reality when she's fired from her bartender job at the club she partied in many years before. But when she looks back at her past for what seemingly is for one last time, she decides to visit her fellow "sister" LaVinia, played by Susan Sarandon. She has left her past and moved on to marry an attorney and have kids. Needless to say, she's shocked to see her. Along the way, Suzette picks up failed Hollywood writer Harry, played by Geoffrey Rush. He's a wound-up guy who's on his way to shoot his father. Soon, it's pretty evident that everything Suzette touches changes completely. Harry thinks he's found his muse and starts writing again. LaVinia reflects on her life and craves to go back to the way it was, which she accomplishes. Her family has quibbles with this, but soon they adjust and everyone ends up predictably happy.

The comedy is funny. There were a lot of laughs to be had in the film. It's the infusion of drama that troubled me. The director wants us to feel sorry one minute and laugh at the next. The story was a lot deeper than the light-hearted commercials would suggest. As a result, the supporting cast isn't really needed. A comedic movie with just the two stars would have been just as good. Their on-screen chemistry is great. But for example, the family doesn't seem to have much to do. Lavinia's husband seems to be just a man of reactions: happy, confused, accepting, etc. Erika Christensen seems to play her character from Traffic. Smart student plagued by sex and drugs who manages to fix everything and give a heartwarming speech at the end. So remember, "Go! Be true!" 3 stars

Kudos to the Late Show with David Letterman, yes, that show with the guest list to the left of this column, for winning its 5th consecutive Emmy award. Friends totally deserved its award and while The West Wing did have an off year, I never did watch Six Feet Under so I wouldn't know if that deserved it more.

Music groups are only as good as the sum of their parts. This is true for boy bands, who apparently make quality music even if I will never understand why. But this latest run to make music by themselves may be tiring already. Justin Timberlake and Nick Carter have made this leap and boy are these bad. Nick's video is a big jumbled mess and Justin looks awfully uncomfortable trying to rap or make it look like he is. I'd rather be watching any of the adult contemporary on VH1 or even BET than these. Though as for BET, old school rap was much better than what it is now. Case in point? Justin trying to rap.

How did a child abuse case become a national story? Yes, it's a sad thing for the camera to witness, but does everyone have to know about it?

Cal lost its first football game this year, 3 games later than some people predicted. Apparently, the culprit was fried chicken because the wide receivers couldn't catch anything Kyle Boller threw at them. The Sharks began their exhibition hockey season by losing their first 2 of 3. On happier notes, SJSU beat defending Big 10 champion Illinois and Oak Grove beat nearby Live Oak in high school football. Anyone in San Jose over the weekend can join me in Oak Grove's next football game against Alisal on Friday where I will be, camcorder in hand, to catch my sister's first colorguard performance. Who wants to take bets on how many times she'll drop her flag?

Now I respect the work PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) does in the world, but the tactics they're using are becoming a little out there. Consider two developments this week.

It recently revived an old ad campaign of drinking beer instead of milk since naturally, a cow would be better off. They've been running ads in college newspapers with the words Got Beer? Hmm, I guess as long as beer isn't given to the cow. PETA may not be happy in Berkeley with that alcohol ban still in effect or so I remember. It's been keeping parties around here dry and oh so boring.

In Milwaukee, the ballpark over there is famous for its sausage races. Four guys in hot dog, italian sausage, polish sausage, and bratwurst costumes run around the ballpark and see who wins. Well, PETA couldn't stand all that meat running around and suggested why not have a vegetarian alternative? The suggestion out there is a Soysage, but don't expect that to happen anytime soon.

Only in Berkeley. The group featured in tomorrow's noon concert is The Librarians. Heard of them? Yeah, that's what I thought.

Professor Alan Ross needed someone to talk to his Political Science class about the all-important issue of campaign finance reform. So who did he get? The logical choice of course: Adonal Foyle of the Golden State Warriors. You know, the underachieving basketball team from Oakland.

Short anecdotes from today:

This is my math professor from today, speaking in his slow, Russian accent.

"Next week, you will have a midterm on the material up to this week, ya? Now, I will give you one sheet with the list of questions. You will need something to write on. So please bring a bluebook, ya? If not, you can bring some, um, sheets of paper. But I don't know how you're going to fasten them together, ya?" (Looks down at the table for at least 20 seconds. Then a student raises his hand.) Ya?

Student: How about we bring a stapler?

"Ah, yes. Bring a stapler, but only if you use sheets of paper. Not if you're using a bluebook, ya?


This was overheard and published in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Those of you who commute on Shattuck must surely have seen the big posters in the old jewelry store by Ross saying to vote to re-elect Shirley Dean for mayor. In the window is a donkey of all things. Well, a mother and son passed by it and the son asks, "Is that Shirley Dean?" The mother responds, " Well, it's Berkeley. Anything is possible."

In my email box last week came a message from the math and computer science undergraduate assoications on campus. Apparently, they're sponsoring some sort of math movie night Thursday night in Soda Hall. The feature will be Good Will Hunting. Now while I wouldn't be caught dead in there, it would be interesting to see the audience instead of the movie. So if any of you do attend this, I say watch for these few things:

Watch the audience gasp as they see massive amounts of formulas solved as part of the professor's mystery problem.

Hear the rustling of papers as the professor spits out problems while Matt Damon solves them on the chalkboard since the audience will most certainly take some notes.

Listen to the sounds of laughter as some people might actually know what Damon and the guy at the bar are yelling about in some history textbook and could say it themselves.

Watch them cringe when they see Minnie Driver and Damon together kissing, since this will be the closest they've been to that to date.

Seeing as how I haven't watched Good Will Hunting in 5 years, there probably are a lot more things that can be said about these movies for the mathematical mind, but I choose to go on.

Remember the Karate Kid article from last week? Watch Part III of the trilogy on the Disney Channel right now til 10:00.

I'm flippin' through the days after a tiring day today (yep, tennis again...maybe you remember the tennis story from a month ago. It's mostly the same, except it was on the cracking courts of Berkeley. If you don't, you can look for it in the archives.) and look what's on. Perfect Strangers. Anyone remember it? Balki and Larry: a comedy team. Hmm, where are they now? Anyway, this show was hilarious. So for those wanting to set their clocks or Palm Pilots, it's at 12:30am Sundays. When they bring back MacGyver and Head of the Class, the rest of my favorite 80s shows will be on the air. Though I must say, that MacGyver movie they're planning is a really bad idea.

This morning, I was witness to a miracle. California lay waste to the mighty Spartans of Michigan State, the 15th ranked team in the nation, 46-22. During the second half though, I was distracted partly by the many mistakes these freshmen were making on the homework papers. Geez.

Notice how I wrote freshmen. It's the weirdest thing. When people grow up, they learn to write men instead of mans. But when they reach high school and college, its somehow turned into freshmans or freshmens.

In other football news, Stanfurd beat SJSU by a lot. And my high school really doesn't have a good team. Arch rival private school St. Francis beat Oak Grove 28-0.

Finally, on this Sunday the 15th is my cousin's birthday, so Happy 19th Christy. Hopefully, schoolwork doesn't get in the way on this day, especially considering you've had 7(!) days of school in these first 3 weeks of the school year.

Professional wrestling has come a long way. Back in the 80s and early 90s, it was something cool and funny to watch on Saturday mornings after cartoons. Then some guy had the wacky idea to write storylines about it and from then on, drama was introduced to wrestling. In fact, there was so much of it and it became so popular that two more leagues caught on with the public, making three organizations, the WWF, the WCW, and the ECW. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. The latter two have been gobbled up by the WWF, forced to change its name to WWE because the World Wildlife Fund objected. Ratings are down, the stories are uninteresting, and the wrestling is a bigger joke now than it was then.

Last night, while I was channel surfing, I came upon Smackdown, which was featuring a marriage ceremony between two male wrestlers. I don't know which is worse, an organization that has reached rock bottom in terms of stunt programming to feature a gay wedding or two wrestlers, who probably aren't even gay at all, having the world believe they are married.

Musician extraordinaire Warren Zevon has been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. When the writer of "Werewolves in London," "Lawyers, Guns, and Money," and "Hit Somebody" passes on, the world will be a sadder place. Hopefully, he'll be around til the next Bond movie like he wants.

The Names by Billy Collins

Yesterday, I lay awake in the palm of the night.
A soft rain stole in, unhelped by any breeze,
And when I saw the silver glaze on the windows
I started with A, with Ackerman, as it happened,
then Baxter and Calabro,
Davis and Everling, names falling into place
as droplets fell through the dark.
Names printed on the ceiling of the night.
Names slipping around a watery bend.
26 willows on the banks of a stream.

In the morning, I walked out barefoot
among thousands of flowers,
heavy with dew, like the eyes of tears,
and each had a name --
Fiori inscribed on a yellow petal.
Then Gonzales and Han, Ishikawa, and Jenkins.
Names written in the air
and stitched into the cloth of the day,
a name under a photograph taped to a mailbox,
monogram on a torn shirt.
I see you spelled out on storefront windows
and on the bright, unfurled awnings of this city.
I say the syllables as I turn a corner,
Kelly, and Lee,
Medina, Nardella, and O'Connor.

When I peer into the woods,
I see a thick tangle where letters are hidden,
as in a puzzle concocted for children.
Parker and Quigley in the twigs of an ash,
Rizzo, Shubert, Torres and Upton,
secrets in the bows of ancient maple.
Names written in the pale sky.
Names rising in the updraft amid buildings.
Names silent in stone
or cried out behind a door,
Names blown over the Earth and out to sea.

In the evening, weakening light, the last swallows,
a boy on a lake lifts his oars.
A woman by a window puts a match to a candle,
and the names are outlined on the rose clouds --
Vanacor and Wallace,
(let X stand, if it can, for the ones unfound)
then Young and Ziminski, the final jolt of Z.

Names etched on the head of a pin,
one name spanning a bridge, another undergoing a tunnel.
A blue name needled into the skin.
Names of citizens, workers, mothers and fathers,
the bright-eyed daughter, the quick son.
Alphabet of names in green rows in a field.
Names in the small tracks of birds.
Names lifted from a hat
or balanced on the tip of the tongue.
Names wheeled into the dim warehouse of memory.
So many names, there is barely room on the wills of the heart.

I'll be taking a break from this for about a week. I just need to catch up on things like actually getting started on some schoolwork. In honor of those victims of September 11th, I leave you with a poem by Billy Collins, the current U.S. poet laureate.

Heard at a press conference with President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair of Great Britain:

Reporter: Will you Mr. President, seek a U.N. resolution prior to any action against Iraq?

President Bush: Well, I'm going to give a speech next Thursday. And I'd like you to tune in.

I read a study which says that only 3.4% of Internet users use the Netscape browser, down from 95% a few years ago. How could this happen? Sure, Microsoft has its positives, but Netscape has been there to match. It's still a good product and it's not made by Microsoft.

Grading these papers have given me a headache. Sure, it took a couple of hours, but reading 70 ways to answer the same question really plays tricks on the mind.

Cal won again. It's some mystery team playing up there in Strawberry Canyon. They beat New Mexico State 34-13. Next week is Michigan State, an actual football power. Did you know somebody gave them a vote in the AP poll? So, officially, you can call them the 46th ranked California Golden Bears. Wake up early, the game's at 9 in the morning on Saturday.

On the deep end, Stanfurd lost to Boston College and SJSU lost to Washington after leading the first half.

First NFL Sunday tomorrow!

Now that September and October are upon us, all 4 major sports will be in play. Baseball is winding down, hockey and basketball will be starting up exhibition camps, and football started its regular season tonight. If you were watching ESPN, you probably thought doomsday was upon us, but no, it was just the countdown to the kickoff. The 49ers, my fave team, were going up against the Giants. The kicking and the secondary really scared me tonight with Collins seemingly completing every clutch pass and Cortez missing an easy one courtesy of a block. But they hung tough and won the game 16-13. Hopefully, they'll make some corrections in preparation for their second game against whoever they're playing.

USA basketball will not medal in an international competition featuring NBA players for the first time ever. Yawn. With the exception of one person, nobody cares about the World Championships. Even worse, no one realizes it's happening on our soil, Indiana to be exact. Have you seen that empty place? It looks as empty as Cal's stadium when they beat Baylor over the weekend. By the way, Cal faces New Mexico State this weekend.

Hockey season starts today with rookie camp. Only 4 weeks til the regular season starts.

Finally, the newspaper wrote an article about my high school, Oak Grove, and the prospects for its coming football season. For those not in the know, they're really good until they get to the CCS championship game, where they just blow it big time. This year, they start off #11 in the area, the lowest I remember, citing turnover from graduation. They'll be trying for their 6th straight division championship, so Go Eagles!

A small update about the California Governor's race. There's a new poll out saying that people would more likely vote for Richard Riordan for governor if given the option. He was defeated in the primary months ago, but things have gotten so bad for the two candidates, Davis and Simon, that this has happened. In the meantime, Davis' negative ads have succeeded in raising Simon's negative numbers, almost to the level Davis is at right now. So, in the race between dumb guy 1 and dumb guy 2, Davis is leading by 7 points.

Still need some Berkeley units? May I suggest Stat 20? Why? I'm the new reader for Section 3. I promise if I see your name, I'll grade your paper easier than the others. If I don't like you, I might just mark everything wrong.

It was a very hot day today. 98 degrees it said near my house. Luckily, I was driving back today, AC at full blast, and cool Berkeley waiting in the wings. Because it was Labor Day, I was going to savor every moment in the cold car because after all, traffic was going to be a nightmare. But alas it wasn't. No traffic to speak of whatsoever. Yahoo! thinks it takes 1:05 to get to my apartment. On a normal day with traffic, it takes 1:15, 1:20. It took 1:40 last Friday. But today! My gosh, a short 55 minutes! And I know I wasn't speeding that much. 80 tops. Promise. But now look. It's a cool 77 degrees here with the sun setting.

The Good Girl
I know, I said no more summer movies, but this will be the last one. Promise. Jennifer Aniston stars as Justine, a gal in a dead-end job with no direction in her life whatsoever. Her husband, John C. Reilly, hangs out with a really gross man, played by Tim Blake Nelson, where they smoke pot and paint houses. It seems the only thing that will cheer her up is a baby, something they haven't been able to have. Then change comes in the form of Holden, the new cashier of the Retail Rodeo. He claims to be the character from Catcher in the Rye. He's a writer just inching to get out into the world if only he had a little money to play around with. Soon, Justine and Holden see their relationship grow into a physical one. All of Justine's quibbles from the start of the movie are gone. She's on a high that she doesn't want to give up. But that high does disappear and soon Justine is faced with choosing between her past and her possible new future.

I like Aniston's performance in this one. She's ready to break out of her Friends' mold and into some serious roles. Ultimately, the movie can't decide whether it wants to be a comedy or drama. Death is met with laughter. Adultery is just brushed aside. Each of the supporting characters seem to have only one function and play it til it gets tired. I did like Zooey Deschanel's comedic performance as a clerk. But the way the movie is built, the ending seems to come out of left field. But the title is the key and Aniston is a good girl, even if she does some bad things along the way. 2.5 stars

I forgot to mention a hilarious article by sports humorist Bill Simmons at ESPN's Page 2. On the heels of a list of the 20 greatest sports movies of all-time, he writes an in-depth analysis of The Karate Kid trilogy. As someone who watched the trilogy, I found this thing very funny. Here are a few excerpts:

For one thing, there's a terrific plot: Lovable loser Daniel moves to California, feuds with a band of moped-riding karate bullies, gets his butt kicked repeatedly, turns to a Japanese maintenance man for guidance, learns karate, learns about life, falls in love, enters a tournament against the bullies, gets injured in the semifinals, rallies back to fight his girlfriend's ex-boyfriend in the Finals, improbably gets the win. The end. Does it get any better than that?

Elisabeth Shue's character was probably thinking, "Hey, this kid's 5-foot-7, he weighs 100 pounds, he can't defend himself, he has no money and no car, we run in different social circles, his mom has to drive him on dates, and everyone hates him. ... I think I'm in love!"

Three underrated cast members really helped the cause here:

1. Randee Heller as Mrs. LaRusso, one of my favorite Hollywood Moms of the '80s (right up there with Mrs. Keaton and Mrs. Bueller). You know, in a five-year span, Randee played Gabe Kaplan's wife in "Fast Break," Ken Reeves' stripper girlfriend in "The White Shadow," and Daniel-San's Mom in "The Karate Kid," and then she was never seen again ... and I guess my point is this: You don't need to work anymore with a résumé like that.

2. Billy Zabka's watershed performance as the villainous Johnny Lawrence (Daniel-San's nemesis and the head of the Cobra Kai), which launched his much-lauded career as the definitive '80s movie villain. In my opinion, he has entered that rare group of actors who only need to go by one name: Eastwood, Stallone, Hanks, Cruise, Nicholson ... and Zabka.

3. The Cobra Kai flunkie who screams "Get him a bodybag ... yeahhhhhh!" during the climactic Daniel-Johnny fight scene, which emerged as one of the signature movie quotes from the '80s - right up there with "How 'bout a Fresca, hmmmmm?", "Dammit Maverick!", "Looks like the University of Illinois!" and "Two months, Bender ... you're mine for two months."

Some other classic moments: Miyagi saving Daniel-San on Halloween night (and wiping out the Cobra Kai) ... Miyagi and Daniel-San trying to catch flies with chopsticks ... the well-filmed scene when Daniel is trying that balancing thing on the beach ... the emotional 16th birthday party, when Miyagi gives Daniel-San one of his antique cars (awwwww) ... Daniel and Ali's first date, one of those hokey, "We're on a date and having a good time" '80s montages ... Daniel crashing Ali's country club party, then getting a plate of spaghetti on him, prompting another classic '80s device -- the "Everyone's laughing at me, and I need to get out of here" scene.

The inspiring All-Valley Karate Tournament montage (one of my favorite sports movie sequence ever), taken to the next level by that "You're the best ... around ... nothing's ever gonna keep you down!" song. I've probably watched this sequence 455 times in my life, and if it was showing on HBO8 right now, I'd be taking a break for No. 456. I love when Daniel beats Dutch (the white-haired kid, played by Chad McQueen, who would eventually make a name for himself on Skinemax). In real life, would Daniel-San have ever beaten Dutch? Of course not. Even in the movie, they skimp over that fight because they know it's totally improbable.

While preparing for this column, I realized that I hadn't seen "KKII" in years. That led to this exchange between me and the guy answering phones at my local Hollywood Video store:


Me: "Hey, I was wondering if you guys had "Karate Kid II" in?"

Guy: (Dead silence)

Me: "You know, the sequel to 'Karate Kid'?"

Guy (a little frightened): "Um, yeah, we do."

Me: "Great, I'm coming down right now to pick it up."

Guy (picking up his other phone to alert local police): "Sure."


(I'm telling you, you haven't really died a slow death in life until you've entered a video store and muttered the words, "Hi, I'm the guy who called about 'Karate Kid II.' ")

A quick plot recap for KKII: Miyagi's father in Okinawa dies, so Miyagi decides to fly to Japan. Since Ali dumped Daniel-San, he has no friends and nothing to do all summer ... this prompts a painful scene in which Daniel-San arrives at the airport just as Miyagi is boarding his plane, leading to some "Please, let me come with you" begging and this hair-raising quote:

"Mr. Miyagi, you're more important than college, you're more important than anything to me."

(Yup ... this was the point in the trilogy in which the Daniel-Miyagi relationship could officially be described as "a little uncomfortable.")

Back in the '90s, you had a 75.638% chance of catching "KKIII" on one of the three HBO channels at any time. I'll never forget the spring when I was vacationing in the Caribbean -- our hotel TV had six channels, including a Spanish HBO. Needless to say, one morning, "KKIII" was showing with Spanish dubbing. You couldn't get away from it if you tried.

Why in God's name was Daniel-San still hanging out with Mr. Miyagi? How come he couldn't make any friends that were within 45 years of his own age? In one scene, he kicks off a date by bringing the girl over to meet Mr. Miyagi, essentially saying, "Hey, instead of going out, let's go meet my 85-year-old Japanese buddy, Mr. Miyagi. He's weird, he talks in grunts and his first name is 'Mister.' You'll love this guy!"

Read the whole thing here.

With August over, the summer is pretty much over, which means the summer movie rankings come down. Sure, I still might watch a stray summer movie like Simone, The Good Girl, or One Hour Photo, but they won't be in the rankings. Sure, the fact that I watched 23 movies may disturb a few people, hell, maybe all of you, but that's the so-called life I lead. With school completely in my mindset, fall movies will now to try to invade for my time, which I will let it do successfully. According to Entertainment Weekly, there are 153 movies from now til December 31 to be released, some really good, some really bad. Case in point for the latter? Swimfan. I'm starting to think you don't appreciate me.

When I say there's been a blowout during a Cal football game, I bet you'd expect the worst. And you'd be wrong. Cal actually won. We're now living in a bizarro world. You know what else? San Jose State also won too. What the heck's going on? Sure, they weren't exactly championship-caliber teams they beat, but considering past history, this was an accomplishment.

For record keeping, Cal beat Baylor 70-22 and SJSU beat Arkansas State 33-14.