Ramblings

I'm sorry for the two-week hiatus (I am speaking to my 6 readers). It's time for some ramblings:

• Contrary to overwhelming popular opinion, I thought Michael Phelps was decent as host of SNL. He flubbed a few lines, but considering he is a freakin' swimmer, he did fine. He was surprisingly poised during the monologue, and most of his awkwardness during the skits was a direct result of shitty writing. SNL actually has a lot of funny actors now, but the writing is weak. TIME magazine listed Phelps as the #10 worst host ever on SNL. I have watched SNL for about 16 years now, and I think TIME is way off on this one. Maybe it's still the Olympic Fever talking, but I think people are hating too much on his performance. They had Nancy Kerrigan (figure skater) at #1 from her 1994 hosting fiasco -- I am in complete agreement with that choice.
• How about the Ryder Cup last weekend? The U.S. defeats Europe for the first since 1999. I always forget how pumped I get for the Ryder Cup until it actually starts. The Ryder Cup is to golf what the World Cup is to soccer, at least from my perspective. I watch golf majors and some random soccer games (matches?), but i get consumed with those sports during the Ryder Cup and the World Cup. There were some good college and pro football games on this weekend, but the Ryder Cup completely took priority on my TV. Boo Weekley doing the "Happy Gilmore" bull dance after teeing of on the first hole on Sunday was one of the funniest things I have ever seen on the golf course. Doin' the bull dance, feelin' the flow. Workin' it. Yeah.
• Will albums ever go platinum anymore now that we have iTunes? I wouldn't think that iTunes count toward an album's platinum status -- maybe if you buy the whole CD, but who does that when you can just buy the three or four good songs? How can you sell 1 million albums when fans can buy individual songs? The artists probably make the same amount of money, if not more, than they used to but it's still an interesting thought. If this is all true, no album will ever pass Michael Jackson's "Thriller" album in sales. That makes me happy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_albums_worldwide
• I've only watched the two newest episodes, but "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" is a disturbingly funny show. It's solidified itself it my weekly rotation.
• I know I talk about "90210" way too much, but the first four episodes have met my high expectations. I wouldn't say they've exceeded my expectations, but they're at least at the level that I set in my mind. I appreciate the 3 levels of drama that the show portrays -- 1) high school drama (the usual but still intriguing), 2) 30 something drama (Kelly, Brenda, Ryan, Dylan as Kelly's son's father), and 3) parent drama. No other show -- including BH9er -- have given us all three of these levels. Stay tuned for more analysis.
• This might be old news by now, but referee Ed Hochuli clearly blew a call during the Broncos-Chargers game last week. He blew the play dead right before the Chargers would have recovered a fumble and won the game. Denver got the ball back and proceeded to score and win. I understand that Chargers fans are pissed, but the Chargers still had chances to make a play and they didn't. Moreover, no matter how pissed you get at the refs, you have to be a huge loser to send hate mail or angry emails to a ref. Apparently, Hochuli got thousands of cursing emails -- and instead of ignoring them like most people -- he has been trying to respond to every single one. Clearly, he feels bad about the call. Refs make mistakes. I have wanted to punch refs in the neck many times, but if I ever sat down at my computer and took the time to write an email to a ref about missing a call, I would feel like the biggest booger-eater in the world. It's time to move on, Chargers fans.