"Defense Wins Championships"

Well going into today's Braves game I was rather excited because of their thrilling win on friday and the fact that they were playing at home. Early on in the game Brooks Conrad bobbled a potential double play ball but Tim Hudson was able to pitch around that. The next inning with a runner at third base a routine pop up was hit by a Giant's hitter and Brooks Conrad who has been very problematic in the field lately called off Jason Heyward only to turn his glove the wrong way and have it fall to the ground thus allowing a run to score. I'm not saying it was the easiest play in the world but if you call off the other guy you should be positive that you have the play made, with how bad Conrad's defense has been lately I have no idea why he would call of Heyward, seeking redemption maybe? I don't know but his error came down to fundamentals: the basic skills of playing baseball. He simply turned his glove the wrong way this is an extremely basic skill that you learn when you are in little league he cant master that and he is playing for the Atlanta Braves? Yes sadly. From that point on the game was a pitchers duel for the most part. Some action arose in the 8^th inning when Alex Gonzalez landed a single for the Braves Brooks Conrad followed him with a poor bunt attempt that was popped up and caught promptly (more poor fundamentals by Conrad). Next Eric Hinske would pinch hit against a new pitcher and with two strikes hit a great home run drive to the right field corner off the foul pole to give the Braves a 2-1 lead and making him a hero of the moment. Then the impressive young Greg Kimbrel would come into the 9nth inning to close the game and he would get an out,give up a single and then get another out, then with two strikes on what would be the game winning out rather than throw his unhitable 98 mph fastball he threw a high eighties breaking pitch that was hit thus keeping the Giants alive. I really don't know why he threw a slower breaking pitch when the guy hitting couldn't hit his fastball. He basically sped up the hitters bat so he was kind of asking for it but nonetheless I think Kimbrel should have been left in the game Mike Dunn who appeared next does not get very good movement on his pitches and he gave up a big hit that allowed the Giants to tie the game.Then Peter Moylan came in to finish things off but yet another error by none other than Brooks Conrad on a basic ground ball he backed up on it and it went between his legs (more poor fundamentals!) allowed the Giants to reclaim the lead. Kyle Farnsworth then got the Braves out of an ugly top 9nth and in the bottom half of the inning the Braves momentum was dead and despite a hit by Brian McCann they failed, giving the Giants a victory and a 2-1 series lead.  

Depictions of Youth and a Cultural Phenomenon

Well going into “The Social Network” I was not expecting it to be all that great I mean it's a film about Facebook how good can it be right? and now there are all of these comments like “What's next? 'Wikipedia:The Movie'? Or 'IMDb : The Movie'?” Yes Facebook is a website but its is not just any average site like Wikipedia or IMDb but it is one of the biggest cultural phenomenons and influences of our time. Facebook has changed the way people communicate and changed the way somebody's social life today operates; it's also worth billions and it has generated a following of over 500 Million People. Doesn't a Phenomenon with that kind of description deserve a movie portrayal? Indeed it does and through the experience of viewing this movie I realized I misjudged the potential of this film by a long shot. In fact the only 3 reasons I saw this film is 1.David Fincher was the director (He directed my favorite film) 2.it has a lot of Oscar buzz 3. One of the trailers made it look like it had a shot of being somewhat good.

The film itself is wonderful and quite interesting because the story behind this story of modern youth culture is very entertaining. The Screenplay is very well written by Arron Sorkin the full story arch is nicely done and he is a master of dialog. David Fincher's direction pulls this fine story together nicely by capturing a range of tones throughout the film such as humor,sadness,pity,curiosity,and drama among others. Another thing I did not expect from him (Fincher) was his ability to capture the essence of youth this I found pleasantly surprising.Pulling of the essence of youth isn't exactly easy in film but the ensemble cast helped in this one with some very fine tuned performances. Jesse Eisenberg plays Mark Zuckerberg (the creator of Facebook) and his performance was similar to just about all his past roles but he did put more into this one so I think it tops the rest. Despite that he isn't great like Heath Ledger or anything but he is perfect in this role because it plays his strengths; his naturally quirkiness and nerdy-ness makes him just about the only person to play Zuckerberg. Andrew Garfield the next actor to portray Spiderman in the future plays Eduardo Saverin (Zuckerberg's best friend co founder and CFO of Facebook and he is wonderful with his intense and likeable performance, it even makes me look forward slighly to the new Spidey reboot (I was mad initially when they announced the reboot I enjoyed the Toby Maguire films). Justin Timberlake is surprisingly great as the suave partier businessman Sean Parker, the rest of the cast is good for the most part including a nice supporting role by Armie Hammer and a good transition role for Brenda Song previously seen on the Disney channel and an appearance by Rashida Jones who is just pleasant to look at. As for the more technical aspects of the film the editing and cinematography where great as well as the sound mixing (some of the best ever). It also has a nice score put together by Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) I even downloaded the free 5 track sampler and those five tracks where featured in the film and they are good unique and enjoyable. Overall a well made,well acted very entertaining film that is indeed a must see and I look to see David Fincher and company at the Oscars in February.