The Rundown
The Rock finds himself trying to build upon his acting career by playing a retrieval expert simply paying back his debts in order to receive the money he needs to start his own restaurant. The job that will put him over the top sends him to Brazil to find the boss' son. He's played by Seann William Scott. As a poor man's Indiana Jones, he believes he has found a priceless ancient artifact somewhere in the jungle. Before he can get it, the Rock swoops in to get him. While he got permission from the local tyrant (Christopher Walken, acting like his usual self) who's working the people in the mines and treating them harshly, Walken nixes the deal to let Scott find the artifact. That's no good according to the Rock and they start to leave only to be chased. After an accident and getting lost in the jungle, they're intercepted by the rebels hoping to overthrow the tyrant, led by Rosario Dawson. The three soon stumble upon the treasure and go on to try to save the town as well.

Sure, you'll have a lot of fun when you watch this film. But too much of a good thing can be a problem. And by the 7th or 8th fight scene, I got a bit bored by the whole thing. The first one was great with the Rock dealing with a bunch of football players. But by the time you get to the last one, the Three Amigos-ending minus the villagers helping out, you'll wonder what the point was. Well, it's simple. The point is to watch The Rock. He's got the look of an action star and comedian all in one. And in this showcase, he overshadows everything including the flimsy plot. Scott is a one-trick pony and that's in the dumb guy role, something he does well in this film. Dawson seems a bit miscast as it seems the role called for someone with more toughness. It's an entertaining venture that gets a bit tiring as it crosses the finish line. 2.5 stars

Matchstick Men
Roy (Nicolas Cage) is just another con-man with problems, a host of mental problems ranging from obsessive-compulsive disorder to panic attacks. When his drug supplier suddenly skips town and is in need of some medication, his partner in crime Frank (Sam Rockwell) recommends a therapist he knows. Dr. Klein (Bruce Altman) strikes up a conversation with him and it soon becomes known he has a daughter named Angela (Alison Lohman). The encounters Roy has with Angela soon become crash courses in fatherhood as she comes by to stay with him. At the same time, Roy and Frankie are setting up a long con with a rich guy (Bruce McGill) dealing with foreign exchange. If it goes well, millions will be earned. Inevitably, these two storylines will combine. The outcome, on the other hand, is not so predictable.

Like I've said before, I've read the book by Eric Garcia prior to watching the film and I'm happy to see the screenwriters, the Griffin brothers, and director Ridley Scott mostly stay faithful to the book, aside from the ending and the effort to make it a little more comedic and easier to follow. There were a lot of things to keep track of in the book and to watch it on screen, complemented by the performances of these actors, was such a joy to watch. Cage particularly shows his range as a neurotic neat-freak to a clueless but caring father to accomplished con-man, something hard to balance. Rockwell plays his funniest role to date and Lohman shows both the poise and spunk of a 15-year-old teenager, a role 24 years in the making. While the ending somewhat works for this movie, as the book's ending works with only the book, it doesn't in the sense that everything seems right at the end of this whirlwind. It was nice to see, but wasn't necessary. But what is necessary is to appreciate this film for its ability to tell one truly great story in a truly great way. 3.5 stars

Man, what a bust. I was all set on watching The Rundown tonite. Yes, it was being shown at Wheeler, but I chose to go to Van Ness in the city. But the traffic killed us. We got there at 7:00 for the 7:30 show. One huge line awaited us and so we waited patiently as the line started to move. We were almost there with 6 people in front of us and then...it was a full house. No more people were allowed in. I was crushed. I'll actually have to pay money to see a movie by the Rock or, at the very least, watch it as part of a double or triple feature. I did get to see Matchstick Men, one of the few movies where I read the book prior to viewing. I know, what am I doing reading books? But hey, it was a really good film. I'll sit down and write some kind of review later.

Various torrent sites have the Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King trailer from Asia. It looks like a nice, relatively low-key trailer to a grand, if long, adventure. Sure, we know it has a Braveheart type battle and the resolution of Frodo's travels, but I don't think I can, or care to, spend 10 hours in a theatre to watch the whole trilogy again to see simply that before the film alone will be released, something more than a few I know want to do. Sure, the first two were good, but weren't they just boring?

Also out is the new Matrix: Revolutions trailer at the official website. This looks like the more adventurous third parter to see.

I'll be home this weekend, but it's all business. There's a midterm on Monday to study for and I'm here for my cousin Nathalie's wedding at Villa Montalvo.

So I took that first midterm on Monday. It really did seem early. My friends felt it was early; most of them don't have their first for another few weeks. And when I walked out of that math test, I felt awful. Even with open everything a la a CS exam, it was 5 long questions in 45 minutes. I'd only finished 3 of them before there were 5 minutes left. The two I skipped I didn't have a clue on how to do and it was buried deep in my notes. So I gave a one sentence guess on both of them and turned it in. Ugh, at least the whole class didn't feel well.

Fast forward to today. The professor commented he was surprised with the results. Though no one finished in 45 minutes, he thought the exam would take no more than 5 (!) minutes. And on a 5 point scale, it you got a 4, you did well. If you got a 1, there's work to be done. If you're stuck in the middle, the future looks cloudy. I'm in the clouds, but in the brighter side of the scale rather than the darker side. I did better than I thought since he graded on general ideas instead of exact answers. Though on one where I guessed, I had to find the best approximation of a Euclidean norm with a polynomial of degree zero in the interval from 0 to 1, a mouthful indeed. I looked at it and scribbled down 1/2 without explanation, which luckily was the correct answer.

Evans Hall is to be torn down soon and be remade into 2 smaller buildings. And while this project may not be finished until 2020, it's still too late in my book. Whoever put that building there in the first place should be shot. It's not just its ugliness but its terrible to get up when elevators break down like it did today.

Now that that is behind me, there's other things to talk about. Tonight is the final debate among California gubernatorial candidates now that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has reinstated the election date of October 7. If you haven't registered to vote, it's too late! The deadline was last Monday. Arnold Schwarzenegger is actually in this one and while the questions are given in advance, the format is open and prone to interruption so expect a free-for-all. Of course, the one who can compose himself or herself the best will take the debate. 6:00 tonight on most stations.

Darrell Issa contributed $1.7 million to the recall effort but may vote no on the recall. If Schwarzenegger and State Senator Tom McClintock stay in the race, it will split the Republican vote and allow Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante to coast to victory. Issa obviously thinks Bustamante is worse than Davis in that Bustamante has proposed raising taxes considerably and would rather support Davis than allow Cruz to cruise. But you know, I actually think Bustamante would be better than Davis due to his legislative experience which may be helpful in working with that body, something Davis has failed to do in his tenure and something that has shown with the constantly tardy budgets.

So be true, go watch, and be informed.

Lost in Translation
In this delightful and masterful character study, Bob Harris (Bill Murray) has arrived in Tokyo to shoot a whiskey commercial for $2 million. He's an unhappy and out-of-work actor, bored out of his mind, and alone in a different world. Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) has arrived in Tokyo with her husband, a phtographer (Giovanni Ribisi). When he leaves for his photo shoot for a few days, Charlotte is unhappy, bored out of her mind, and left alone in a different world. On one of their many trips to the bar on the hotel rooftop, they meet and instantly develop a rapport with each other. Together, they discover Tokyo and embrace its food and culture while, despite their differences in age and maturity, discovering love for each other.

This is Sofia Coppola's second directed feature (The Virgin Suicides) and it shows that when she has a great idea, she runs with it and is ultimately successful. It's the rest of the movie where it somewhat falls apart. The film is built upon the chemistry of Murray and Johansson and it is strong. Murray, with his roots as a comedian, has always been underappreciated for his recent works, especially Rushmore, as a serious actor. Here, he shows off both of his acting sides to rousing approval. Bob and Charlotte turn out to be very smart and perceptive of their roles in their relationship knowing one is firmly rooted with a family at home and the other is still young and still establishing a direction in life. And even so, they are a perfect match for each other. But when Coppola's attention turns away from this relationship and into their individual lives, she doesn't quite finishes what she starts. Ribisi suddenly disappears in the middle of the film. His friend, a ditzy movie actress played by Anna Faris, shows up but I haven't a clue what she's doing there. And what of that singer? But again, the focus is on the two main characters and that's all you really need to laugh going in only to become so poignant at the end. 3.5 stars

At the start of this week, it will be the 5th week of instruction. Time really does fly. With so much time passing, it was inevitable that a midterm would be posted and wouldn't you know it, my first one is on Monday. And considering I'm completely lost in that math 128 class, it's not gonna be any fun.

While researching other 128 midterms, I noticed one math professor has a running contest up Evans, that 10 floor monstrosity. Now, I get winded going up two flights of stairs, let alone ten. No clue why anyone would want to do this. But on his list, it says a student ran up 10 floors in 48 seconds, which for some reason, sounds amazingly impossible. This semester's race is scheduled for this Thursday.

In the 6th week, there's another midterm in finance econ. That class has degenerated into nap time for me. Maybe it's because Datman got out and isn't bothering me anymore. It doesn't help that the professor is dull. He's a paper type man, not a presentation type. With his monotone voice and his laughs after every little mistake he makes (too numerous to count), its prime sleeping time, something my classmates around me agree with. Yesterday, he lectured and gave a summary of what he said and said he was done with 10 minutes to spare. Nobody moved. 10 seconds of eerie silence. It took him to say, "ok, you can go now" to get the crowd to leave.

Survivor started Thursday night and it looks interesting. They stranded them in Panama with only the clothes on their backs and a little money to buy supplies at a fishing village. The ladies are pretty attractive and there's this one guy who looks like he's been stranded on an island for months already, with his long beard and pirate-like voice. It just so happens it's a pirate theme this year. Two things I noticed: Lots of Abercrombie and Fitch clothing worn. Why is that? And during the challenge, the Morgan tribe did it naked so it was funny when Drake was leading, the chiron showed "Drake ahead" and then "Morgan behind" with the camera showing their blurred butts.

Everyone's got these Prop 54 buttons to show their opposition to them and it was the topic of this week's 179 lecture. It's a nice idea to continue toward a color-blind society by stopping collection of racial data by state agencies. But this vague, wide-ranging constitutional amendment may be too far ahead of its time. Racial inequality exists in some form in some agencies and to stop collecting racial data would hinder efforts to stop the inequality.

Freddy vs. Jason
Many years in the making, Freddy Krueger, he of Elm Street who gives you nightmares, and Jason Voorhies, he with the machete and hockey mask, come together for the fight of a lifetime. In the way, of course, are dumb teenagers looking for a good time. Freddy brought the fight on himself though. You see, he preys on people's dreams in order to exist but the police's effort to make the townspeople forget about him (of course, drugs) seems to be working. Enter in Jason, whom he calls to come to rile up the town to make people remember. But Jason does his job too well, killing everyone in sight. As a result, it's Freddy vs. Jason in a fight to the death. Since both can't really die (you can only hope to contain them, ha!) and considering the amount of money it has made so far, they'll be back again, no matter who wins this round.

At the height of their so-called popularity, Freddy and Jason did their best to scare audiences. But by now, both characters are old and tired in a society where other horror and horror spoofs have spoiled our young minds. So while we crave for more to scare us, "Freddy vs. Jason" offer typical slasher material in typical teenage situations. Even the featured matchup, though taking up about half the movie, seems awfully short and takes so long to get to, I didn't care when they would start fighting each other, I just wanted to know who wins and get out already. 1.5 stars

Thirteen
Tracy (Evan Rachel Wood) is your typical 13-year-old girl. She's the good girl living with her brother and her divorced mom Melanie (Holly Hunter), who's trying to make ends meet by running a beauty salon/babysitting service in her own home. When Melanie starts bringing home her boyfriend, a recovering drug addict (Jeremy Sisto), the bonds between mother and daughter begin to crumble. It shatters completely once she hits junior high. Instead of living her life out normally, the pressures of being with the "in" crowd while seeking direction from someone different than her mother leads her to Evie (Nikki Reed), the bad girl everyone wants. One purse snatch and a fashion change later, Evie and Tracy are out on the town, experiencing a lifetime in a short period of time. Pain, piercings, drugs, and sex fill her life while Melanie is unable to adapt quickly enough to her daughter's sudden changes. It soon may not be the question on if she will become a lost cause, but when.

The transformation of Wood, best known as the lesbian teen in Once and Again, from a good girl to bad is an eye-popping one. Her performance breathes life into a film that desperately needs realism so that it doesn't look like an after-school special on what not to do. But while Tracy is the character we're supposed to be worried about and the one we learn the most from, writer-director Catherine Hardwicke and co-writer Reed pay little attention into understanding the character of Evie and her foundations. (It's Reed's experiences from her childhood in the role of Tracy that are the basis of this film.) It's easy to conclude that in a household led by a working divorced mother (cousin?), bad things are bound to happen. But many things she does, including the little twist of character at the end, left me wondering why she did such a thing. The film does an equally terrific job of watching the worried mother trying to deal with her rebellious daughter. Like Tracy, Melanie becomes lost in a new world and must find someone who can help her, but unlike Tracy's growing relationship with Evie, Melanie isn't able to succeed with anyone she reaches out to, whether its her ex-husband, boyfriend, son, or her salon customer who's some kind of therapist. It seems life goes down many paths but you need the right person to head down the right path. 3 stars

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has delayed the California recall election to March 2004. The basis of this ruling stems from the antiquated punch card ballots that raised much ire during the Florida election fiasco. Since the error rate is higher than that of optical scan or electronic balloting, punch card ballots were deemed obsolete and were to be replaced by next March. This finding of obsolescence by the Secretary of State was based on the fact that there were to be no more statewide elections until then. However, with the recall in October, 6 counties including Los Angeles, San Diego, and Santa Clara, could not get their new systems up and running by then, meaning they had to go back to the punch cards. This, proponents argue, would violate the Voting Rights Act in which every person has the right to have their vote correctly counted. Thus, the 9th Circuit, known far and wide as the most left-leaning appeals court in the country whose decisions have been overturned by the Supreme Court more times than any other court, agreed with the argument and delayed the election. Opponents argue punch card ballots in California have not had as big of a problem as Florida has had and in most times, run smoothly. If the process can be used to elect the governor, why can't it be used to recall him?

What does this mean for the poor voter? Interested parties have a week to appeal. The election for now is going on as planned. But if the decision holds, we may have to go through this recall stuff for four more months, by which time we'll be out of our minds while Davis most likely would stay in office since the Democratic Presidential Primary would be occurring the same day, sending out Democratic voters in droves while Republicans not interested in the recall would have even less incentive to vote since President Bush is running opposed for the party ticket.

Two unrelated side notes: Did anyone see the statue of Mark Twain/Samuel Clemens in Doe? It looks freaky, just staring at the wall like that. It should be in a more high profile spot. And another cuz of mine has a birthday today, this time it's Christy who turns 20.

Once Upon a Time in Mexico
Director Robert Rodriguez unleashes this latest part to the El Mariachi saga by bringing in Johnny Depp to prop up an otherwise dull drama. Depp is a CIA agent in Mexico to prevent the rise to power of General Marquez, whose army is being bankrolled by cartel king Barillo (Willem Dafoe), after a planned assassination of the President. To accomplish this, Depp recruits people far and wide to do the dirty work. The principal figure in this is, of course, El Mariachi (Antonio Banderas), who has lived in his home village ever since Marquez killed his wife and daughter and El was merely shot. Now he's out for revenge and this is the perfect opportunity. Depp also involves a retired FBI agent, whose partner was killed by Barillo, and Eva Mendes as the police officer who doesn't get any respect from her peers.

The first two installments of "El Mariachi" and "Desperado" had an air of confidence when you watched it. El Mariachi stood before the face of danger and shot it to pieces in simple stories of bad vs. badder. But here, Rodriguez, who wrote, shot, scored, and directed the film, tries to spin a tale worthy of epic proportions, a lofty goal that both complicates the plot with its twists and turns, that moves away from the brilliant gunfights that highlighted the first two films, and even shifted the story away from its main character. Even though the action was few and far between and sometimes inexplicable as to its motive (i.e. Banderas and Hayek chained together and swinging down a building), Rodriguez always had an eye for these types of things and is well-done. As for the performances, most do wel with what they're given. Hayek gets something like 5 minutes of screen time. Depp's distinctive style seems inventive and fresh until the material blindly tries to mine laughs out of his predicament. And Banderas, who is who he is, a gunfighter and patriot to the end. 2 stars.

Funny thing happened on the BART ride home today. Yes, I'm at home this weekend instead of, what I'm sure to be, the "festive" VSA picnic. Apologies to those who care, probably a select few. Anyway, the train made its way past Ashby station when it suddenly stopped. It usually never does. So we're sitting there in the tunnel when the AC turns off and the lights go out. An eerie silence hushes the passengers as the emergency flood lights in the tunnel illuminate the bewildered passengers. I was half-asleep with my CD on full-blast so if the lights didn't turn off, I wouldn't have noticed anything. About 5 minutes later, this technician comes out of nowhere just running through the trains getting from the back to the front in no time. Soon after, the conductor says the train needed to be turned off to reset its hydraulic braking. Why someone would design a contraption to turn off the train in order to reset the brakes is beyond me. It seems a bit unnecessary. So we started and stopped and started and stopped all the way to MacArthur station before returning to normal. But with no word on what was going on, sitting in that dark tunnel was just scary. At least there wasn't tons of water above my head.

Also pretty scary is David Letterman becoming a father at 56. The lucky woman is his long-time girlfriend Regina, who isn't that young herself at 43. He may be right when he says he'll be the father and the grandfather. Well, this is much better than the idea proposed by Richard Simmons when he came on the show. Himself childless and in his fifties, he proposed he and Dave combine their sperm in some test tube and then artificially inseminate someone. Eww.

After Letterman's announcement, Simon and Garfunkel performed and announced their reunion tour. Watching Art sings reminded me of the time when he and his son performed to sing the National Anthem at some tennis match, I think it was last year U.S. Open. The thing is, his son looked just like him, right down to the thinning curly hair and the mannerisms. Eww.

Finally, there were new poll numbers released by the Los Angeles Times about the recall. Recalling Governor Davis is now within the margin of error with yes on recall leading 50-47. Bustamante is at 30% support, down from 35%. Arnold went up by 3 to 25, but the real surprise is McClintock, who went up 6 points to 18%. If I were voting with my political beliefs, I would be for McClintock but the pragmatist in me may lead to a vote for Arnold, even though I'm still not convinced he's right to be governor.

They say time heals all wounds and while those directly affected haven't and probably won't be completely healed from the tragedy of September 11th, the muted reception of the second anniversary shows the country as a whole has moved on. The bells on the Campanile won't be marking any 9/11 events as it once did last year but will do what it usually does: mark the passage of time.

New York City was as crowded as ever when I visited there last month. Politically, togetherness has given way to partisan bickering as the President's approval ratings have gone down to their original levels from 2 years ago and people fret about the worsening budget deficit and the enlarging Iraq money pit. Agonizing on whether the worst can happen tomorrow has given way to worrying about when Ben and J. Lo will get married (now postponed indefinitely). But always in our hearts and on our minds, the victims will never be forgotten.

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.

One of the better aspects of Berkeley life is the weather. Cloudy mornings lead to sunny afternoons. Fine by me though I wish it were cloudy all day. But you know, ever since leaving New York, it seems I brought the hot and humid weather with me. The thermometer may say 70 but it feels way too uncomfortable. The lightning last week made things a little weird. I wouldn't know it since I didn't hear any of it, a testament to the tons of insulation that makes my apartment quiet (yeah, right) or I just slept really well. Today was even weirder. Class started at 2 and when I walked out of the apartment, the sky was blue and the sun was shining albeit it was a very small spot of blue. Lots of clouds and fog. The bus wasn't there so I started walking. Here, the clouds dominated. Then it started to sprinkle. A friend of mine told me to bring my umbrella earlier in the day. I didn't understand why. I didn't hear anything about rain. Once I hit Evans, it was a pretty heavy mist. What the hell happened?

Peter Ueberroth, the savior of the 1984 L.A. Olympics and former baseball commissioner, dropped out of the California recall race. While he denies it, reports were that the Republican party was pressuring him and State Senator Tom McClintock to drop out to allow for Team Arnold to lead the way to Sacramento. The latest Field Poll has Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante with a 5 point lead over Arnold, 30-25, with McClintock at 13, Ueberroth at 5, Arianna Huffington at 3 and Peter Camejo at 2. Revealing second choices if McClintock dropped out showed Arnold with a 2 point lead, so the pressure's on. In the meantime, Davis is looking more gubernatorial, signing bills and holding town hall meetings. It remains to be seen how his remark that the governor of California should be able to pronounce California (an obvious remark against Arnold, who makes it sound more like Cauliflower) will affect the campaign. The State Senate voted 19-2 with 19 abstaining, condemning the remark and demanding an apology. And sorry, but to me, signing that bill which allows illegal immigrants to obtain driver licenses is more pandering than effective law, especially after Davis vetoed it twice before and signed it after making the law weaker.

Do you know who the 9 Democratic Presidential Candidates are? Did you know there were 9? Did you know the election is in a short 14 months? Which is why they're holding debates now on their way to the first caucus and primary in Iowa and New Hampshire in late January. Tonight's wasn't particularly noteworthy. First, why was it hosted by Fox News, a network that pretty much caters to Republicans, even with its Fair and Balanced slogan? They were asked about Bush's $87 billion request for military funds and while they were looking for a yes or no answer, nobody would give it to them, many citing the need for more information. That's what's called ducking the question. Interrupting the debate were Lyndon LaRouche supporters, a perennial candidate who has a niche following but never makes any headway in the (at least) 4 times he has run for President. I say niche since I always see the same 3 people trying to give me flyers about him in Sproul. About every 10 minutes, a man or woman start yelling at whoever's speaking, usually Joe Lieberman, and speaks his mind, all of which was amusing especially seeing the candidates' reactions. Last week's was much better, simply to see white people try to speak Spanish.

Spike TV has a new show called the Joe Schmo show, which has an innovative idea but the execution is a bit lousy. One guy believes he has entered a reality show, when in reality, the people around him are all actors in on the joke. It would have been a better show if they were serious about the premise of the show and played more into making fun of other reality shows, but the material has succumbed to being more ridiculous and outrageous than its counterparts. While it may be Spike's mission to see two girls fondle each other or see how long it takes people to take their hands off a porn star, but ultimately it hurts a fairly original show.

It's sad to see the passing of Warren Zevon, 56. A man who put death in the forefront in most of his songs succumbed to terminal lung cancer. Doctors had given him 3 months to live, but lived a year + a few weeks. Werewolves of London was his best song but that Hockey Song was memorable too, especially since there couldn't be more than 8 or 9 hockey songs in the world.

The Restaurant was a fine show, but Mark Burnett wants to try it in a casino. Sorry, won't work.

Finally, happy birthday to my cuz, Trang, up in Davis, enjoying the last few days of summer school.

What a day for sports. And NFL Sunday hasn't even begun yet.

Andy Roddick was about to be eliminated from the rain-delayed U.S. Open, having lost the first two sets and facing match point in the third set. But you know, he won that tiebreak in the third set and easily cruised over Argentine David Nalbanian in a short 3 and a half hours with his 140 mph serve. It's too bad it won't be an all-American final as Andre Agassi couldn't win his semifinal match, leaving Roddick to face Juan Carlos Ferrero in the finals tomorrow.

In college football, Cal lost. Colorado State totally dominated the game with its quarterback Van Pelt leading the way. It was amazing to see the score as close as it was (23-21). The way the Rams moved the ball and the Bears couldn't, it should have been a blowout. But lucky bounces for the Bears' defense allowed them to contain the Rams offense late and keep the game close. SJSU lost. After scoring the first 10 points, Stanfurd scored the next 31 and may have found its new quarterback in local product Trent Edwards replacing senior Chris Lewis midway through the game.

But all eyes were on the Miami/Florida game. Brock Berlin used to be Florida's quarterback but transferred to Miami. Now both teams were highly ranked and eagerly awaiting a battle. It looked as though a blowout would occur. After jumping to a 10-3 lead, Florida scored the next 30 points. Miami's double-digit regular season and home winning streaks were in jeopardy. This was when it hit the Canes to do something. And with that, they scored 4 touchdowns to win the game, keeping Florida and its true freshman quarterback from scoring at any future point in the game. And so the streaks are still intact with its 38-33 win.

With the ugliness of the Manny Ramirez situation out of the way, the Red Sox seems to have gotten it together at such an opportune time. They crushed the Yankees again for a second day, leaving them only 1.5 games out of first place. Heck, even the O's won. How crazy is that?

And does anyone realize come October, Sharks season will begin?

Gigli
Larry Gigli (Ben Affleck) is your typical hit-man. Get the information you're hired to get and then get rid of him. This time, he gets a different job. He's hired to kidnap the mentally challenged brother of a powerful district attorney. By mentally challenged, think Dustin Hoffman in "Rain Man", but at a much lower level. What he doesn't know is that the guy has also hired another person as backup. Enter Jennifer Lopez as the lesbian partner in this scheme. As you can expect, without sex in a relationship, there's fighting and plenty of it. But at some point in the movie, they bond, and quite shockingly, learn to live with one another. Along the way, writer-director Martin Brest puts in some cameos as Christopher Walken is typical Walken, Lainie Kazan is her typical funny self but totally unneeded, and Al Pacino is more over-the-top than usual as the New York mobster who's the top man in this operation. And I think the ending is just like the one from "The Wizard" when the weird kid finally spots where he wanted to go all this time while riding along on the freeway.

So here's hoping that when Affleck and Lopez fell in love, it was on the set of Jersey Girl, because if their real love life was like their on-screen chemistry in this film, there wouldn't be talk of marriage but of breakup since there is none. Who would like to fall in love with a character like Gigli in the first place? Played by Affleck, this bad guy turned good guy in performed with utter ineptitude. Affleck can't turn this trick. It's either one or the other. IIRC, he's only played two bad guys. He was a car thief in Reindeer Games, though he turned out to do the right thing. And he was that evil angel in Dogma and at least he stayed evil in that one. In Gigli, watching Affleck try to pull off the mobster role is just as cringing as trying to watch Hayden Christensen court Natalie Portman in Attack of the Clones.

The dialogue is plain awful. I won't even dignify it by quoting from it. The transitions in the script from the crime part to the relationship part are pretty bad though you wouldn't know the crime parts if it hit you on the head the way the two kept chauffeuring the kidnapped boy all over L.A. You mean to tell me the cops never make a peep about it? Okay, so it's bad, but it's so laughingly bad, it'll get something for that. 1/2 star

Major gubernatorial candidates debated for the first time this afternoon and while 135 people on the ballot and only 5 of them debated, it seemed like a lot to listen to as the entire debate seemed rushed to cover a wide range of questions and a wide array of answers. It was nice to hear candidates speak in one sentence or two instead of mouthing on and on. It was also interesting to hear candidates disagree quite openly on the issues. One person offers support on an issue, another flat out says no. And usually, it seemed State Senator Tom McClintock was the one saying no, from legislation allowing illegal immigrants to obtain drivers' licenses to overtime rules. It all contributes to the circus-like atmosphere that is the California recall.

Of course, Arnold Schwarzenegger wasn't a part of this debate. His strength is definitely not spontaneous question and answer sessions. That's why you'll be seeing him in the only debate that releases questions in advance on September 17.

How's this for spontaneous? Speaking in Cal State Long Beach, someone threw an egg at him, hitting his left shoulder. His response? "This guy owes me bacon now. I mean there's no two ways about it because, I mean, you can't just have eggs without bacon."

Meanwhile, here in Berkeley, PS 179 today offered the voice of Georgy Russell, one of the other 130 people not participating in the debate. She is the woman who offered thong underwear on her website as a way to finance her campaign for governor. A Cal grad with a degree in computer science, Russell's 20 minute speech did not go into detail as to what she would actually do if elected, but instead offered up lessons learned on the long road up to this point; a mildly entertaining talk giving mini-profiles of the major candidates plus recall financier Darrell Issa. I say mildly since while it was an excellent spin on the recall, most of the facts given have been covered ad nauseum by the media as well as in the statements given by the Cal Democrats and the Berkeley College Republicans a few minutes before. What little she said about what she would do included raising taxes for the wealthy and to find alternative sources of funding to eliminate the need for borrowing.

Last weekend in sports saw Cal beating Southern Mississippi 34-2. The Golden Eagles' vaunted defense was heavily favored to dominate the game, led by an All-American linebacker whose name escapes me, but instead it was Cal's defense that stole the show. All facets of the game were great except for goal-line offense, where for the second straight week, could not get a touchdown from the 1-yard line. Colorado State is next on the Bears' hit list. After shutting out Grambling State 29-0, San Jose State returned to its high pay, high loss type game as it earned about a half-million to play Florida. The Gators sport a new look as their star quarterback Rex Grossman went to the Bears. The rest of the team had a lot of turnover as well. However, it didn't affect their winning ways as they beat the Spartans 65-3. Up next for SJSU is Stanfurd.

Two shows generating buzz over the last few weeks are Playmakers and the O.C. Playmakers is ESPN's first drama series. I always thought ESPN was about live sports but it looks like there's a shift going on. Playmakers examines the lives of a football team while being concerned with ripped-from-the-headlines issues. For example, this last episode was about drug testing. The star running back, who's been seen taking all types of drugs multiple times so far in the series, is concerned with the piss man coming. (Old Nick fans will notice it's Omar Gooding, host of that game show Wild and Crazy Kids, a show where kids did wild and crazy things to win cash and prizes.) So what does he do? Does he get clean? Yeah, in a way. His buddy gives him a fresh bottle of urine and he injects it into himself with the help of a doctor. Though you don't see it, it's pretty cringing. Otherwise, so far, it's a pretty average show. An addicting show is developing in the O.C. cause that's how it's done in the O.C. I must wonder if the rich people of Newport Beach actually act like the people on the show. Do they actually have fancy beach parties almost every night? Casino nights where a house turns into the Bellagio? A cotillion? What the heck's a cotillion? I'd never heard of such a word before. It gets a little whiny yes, but the storylines are pretty interesting.