Tiger and Batman

So I had to attend a pretty mind-numbing local awards ceremony tonight for the magazine, but the side benefit was that it took place in a hotel near Indy's Apple store, so I was able to swing by after the ceremony and check out the release party for the new operating system (nicknamed Tiger). They've added a huge amount of new stuff (like this wicked cool Dashboard app), and the level of integration between all the different native applications is pretty much unprecedented. I even won a free iTunes download just for showing up. Woo-hoo. I was lucky to get out without buying an iPod Shuffle or some totally unnecessary Bose speakers for my current iPod. But the coolest thing in the store was the new 30" flat-screen monitor, which might as well be a plasma TV. They were running movie trailers to show the quality of the picture on one of these things, and I have to say, I was blown away. I'm ready to trade in my TV and my iMac for one of these things.

Between picking my jaw up off the floor and wiping the drool, I got the chance to see the latest Batman Begins trailer. I have to say, I was pretty skeptical about the casting of girl-next-door Katie Holmes, but this trailer makes me feel a little better about how she'll fit into the movie. Her performance almost looks good enough to make me forgive her for dating Tom Cruise. Almost, but not quite. I can't figure out what bothers me more: the fact that she's dating a guy almost twice her age, or the fact that I care enough to blog about it. Oy. Regardless of Katie's off-screen romances, Batman Begins looks like it's going to kick some ass. It's shaping up to be a great summer for tortured badasses in black armor and capes.

Oh no

The first look at Brandon Routh as Superman in the upcoming Superman Returns. Internet buzz among the fanboys seems to be fairly negative. I'll reserve judgement until I see the movie, but the belt? Overdoing it just a bit.

Nice recap episode of Lost tonight. I caught a few things I missed the first time around, but enough with the reruns already. I'm champing at the bit for next week's new episode.

Spring cleaning

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I'm continuing the improvement and purging of my apartment tonight, selling a bunch of XBox games and installing a new shower head. So in that spirit, here's a variety of things that have been banging around in my head for a while.

Chuck Dugan is AWOL: A Novel with Maps, by Eric Chase Anderson. I've mentioned this book once already, and I've got it in my Favorites over on the right side. Eric Chase Anderson is the brother of Wes Anderson, and if you've seen the Criterion Collection edition DVDs of The Royal Tenenbaums or Rushmore, you may recognize his illustration style. This is his first novel, illustrated throughout with maps to guide you through the story. It's fun, quirky, and very much in the vein of his brother's work. What it lacks in polished writing style, it makes up for with the delicious details of the illustrations.

Barnum! In Secret Service to the USA, by Howard Chaykin and David Tischman, art by Niko Hernrichon. My friend Kory hooked me up with this graphic novel which reminded me a lot of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen graphic novels. The general idea is that Barnum uses the circus which made his name so famous as a front to travel around the country on secret missions for the government. His enemy? The inventor Nikola Tesla. Major points for creativity.

"Lips Like Sugar", Echo & The Bunnymen. I can't escape this song lately, so I had to download it tonight. Totally gorgeous 80's pop that I first heard many years ago on a mix that an ex-girlfriend gave me. Now that there's some distance from those memories, I can appreciate it for the great song that it is.

"Wires", Athlete. I heard this song on woxy.com recently, and I'm completely haunted by it. It will be on their forthcoming album, Tourist, which as usual has already been released in the UK, but hasn't made it over here yet. Soft, followed by softer vocals, wrapped up in strings and echoing guitar. It's a great Coldplay-esque song, which brings me to my next item...

Coldplay. The new single "Speed of Sound" is no great departure from the last two albums, and why should it be. Stick with what works. They just announced an August date at Deer Creek (I refuse to call it by its stupid corporate moniker). Count me in. And even better, I just found a live mp3 of Coldplay covering "Lips Like Sugar". So good.

Indianapolis on the cultural radar. Rumor is, an H&M is opening here in the fall. What with a new 7-screen independent movie theater opening soon, a good lineup of bands for the summer, and a variety of other stores like Crate & Barrel on the way, Indy's beginning to look a little more like a real city. Now if only somebody would open a worthwhile independent restaurant this year.

New York, New York, it's a helluva town

Whew. Back in Indiana, and ready for about 3 days of sleep. I had a great time in the Big Ap, and a very large thank you to everybody who took the time to hang out and drink, eat, or shop with me. A special and much-deserved shoutout to my hosts Neil and Amy for giving me a place to crash and entertaining and feeding me for the last four nights (not to mention hooking me up with all the Family Guy, American Dad, Sealab 2021 and Brak swag). You guys are da bomb. I'll wrap up the trip more tomorrow, but here are a few quick vignettes from the past few days:

• Rosie O'Donnell playing a retarded woman is not sad or cute. Just annoying.
• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell, Walt "Clyde" Frazier, Robert Parrish, and other former NBA greats apparently like to hang out in front of the NBA store on the back of a flatbed truck with a fake NBA trophy. At least on the day I walked by. (NOTE: apparently Dr. J was there too, but I missed him. Damn.)
• The Hotel QT bar has a swimming pool. Swimming pools in bars are only a good idea if you fill them with good-looking people. Hotel QT has not yet gotten the memo.
• These places really do exist. Neil, Amy and I attended a party at a private club after leaving Hotel QT that was like American Psycho meets Eyes Wide Shut. Beers cost $20, and there was a girl in a ball gown, but mostly it was full of insanely rich people who looked like they had just stepped off their yachts.
• If you have the time, The Strand bookstore is a gold mine. I found an advance copy of Chuck Dugan is AWOL for half-price.
• For the last time, there are no penguins in Alaska.
• The world's most powerful hand dryer can be found at the Jersey City Fatburger.
• David Hassellhoff + badly faked facial hair + bad accent = Michael Knight's evil twin. Duh.
• The world's greatest 5'4" Asian quarterback can be found at the Times Square ESPN Zone racking up 250 points per game on the passing accuracy game.
• MCA (of the Beastie Boys) and his wife ate lunch at Curry in a Hurry today at the same time as I did. Yes, I feel special.

On the road again

Well, I'm off to New York tomorrow. Should be a fun couple of days: see some old friends, shop in stores that Hoosiers have never heard, and see movies that might show up here in three months or so. I'm pretty jazzed about the trip, so being the Type A personality that I am, I'm already packed and ready to go.

The National Soccer Hall of Fame class for this year was announced today, and it's three heavy hitters in US Soccer history: John Harkes, Tab Ramos, and Marcelo Balboa. All three were a big part of the 1994 World Cup team, and played in various leagues around the world until MLS was formed in 1996. Harksey was also a big part of DC United's first two championships, so I'm happy to see him get the nod, and Tab and 'Celo combined for one of my favorite National Team goals of all time, in a must-win World Cup Qualifier against Costa Rica back in 1997. However, while this is a well-deserved honor for these guys, it's a little bittersweet for me. All three of them have been around long enough that I was looking up to them in high school, and nothing makes you feel as old as when they start sending your heroes out to pasture. When Cal Ripken Jr. goes to Cooperstown, it's all over.

Yay!

Here's some good news that I'm totally biting from Chromewaves. Fountains of Wayne is releasing a B-sides compilation, Out of State Plates, on June 28. Read all about it at Billboard. The release date has been bumped back several times, but it's going to be worth the wait, because it's a double-disc set. Twice as much power pop goodness! Now if only Matthew Sweet would take a cue from these guys. He's got about 4 discs worth of soundtrack songs and tribute album tracks just waiting to be collected. At this point, I'd be happy with an update to his website.

Yummy

Here's two great tastes that taste great together: WOXY and Jem. WOXY used to be traditional radio 97X, 97.7 out of Oxford, OH. For 23 years, they rocked the college kids at Miami University and the Cincinnati/Dayton area with, well, pretty much whatever they wanted to play, but mostly college rock stuff. I have a lot of good college memories with 97X as the soundtrack, and a large portion of my musical tastes were shaped by this station. After I graduated, I was able to keep listening via their streaming web-based broadcasts and eventually through iTunes. In January 2004, the physical station was sold and they went exclusively internet-based. But funding quickly disappeared, and the station signed off in May of 2004, only to return rather quickly due to the intervention of two anonymous investors who relocated the studio to Cincinnati. It's a pretty interesting story which is rather better told on the WOXY website. They do a great job of updating the website with current playlists and new releases.

Anyway, the new studio has become a stop for "modern rock artists" (as they like to call them at WOXY), and they've featured a lot of cool music (Ben Lee, Sondre Lerche, Joseph Arthur, David Lowery of Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven) in their Lounge Act series, where as you can see from the photos, bands literally set up and play in the lounge at the station. Back in November, Jem stopped by to do one of these shows. I may have mentioned my crush on her before, but as much as I already liked her and her music, the acoustic set she did made me love her even more. You can listen to the songs on her site. She may not jump out at you as a traditional beauty, but when she sings, she's dead sexy. Mee-yow.

D'oh!

Had an enjoyable day today: went to Bloomington, did a little shopping, walked around in the sun, came home, went running, and watched Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. All in all, a pretty good day, especially since I'm been battling a bit of a spring cold, so it was nice to get outside. The only problem was, I was having so much fun, I forgot to set my DVR and missed the last Arrested Development of the season. Unless Fox reruns it, I guess I'll just have to hold out for the DVD, since I can't get BitTorrent to work on my Mac.

So Sky Captain was a pleasant surprise. It was visually stylish, but also a pretty enjoyable film. Sure, it was totally cliche and openly stole from Indiana Jones, Star Wars and a wide variety of 1930's serials, but I expected that. Knowing what I was in for, it was easy to enjoy it as the fun popcorn movie that it is. Plus, the bonus features had some great stuff about the art direction and design, and included the original six minute test film that writer/director Kerry Conran made back in 1998. His next project should be cool as well: Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars.

Ouch

This has been a rough week to be a DC United fan. Two days after they took one of the worst beatings in the history of the club, DC limped into Columbus tonight. Despite some rough patches, United created a lot more offense, but were unable to finish their chances and were stymied by some stellar play from John Busch, Columbus's goalkeeper. One goalmouth scramble at the other end gave Columbus a goal, and that was all they needed. It was an ugly match, marred by several bad fouls, lots of yellow cards, and a red card to United's head coach, Peter Nowak, who's been having a pretty tough week himself. The fans feel your pain, Peter.

Hasselhoff Solo? Gary Skywalker?

Finally, someone has found a way to put the power of Photoshop to good use!

U-G-L-Y, you ain't got no alibi...

DC United played the second leg of its CONCACAF Champions League match against Mexico's UNAM Pumas tonight, and they were beaten like a rented mule. Like a red-headed stepchild. Whipped up one side and down the other. Taken behind the woodshed. I could go on... and on... and on. It was so bad nobody has even posted a summary yet. Sure, there are plenty of excuses. DC is missing several defenders due to injury and illness. It was their fourth game in 12 days. They were playing at 7,000+ feet of altitude. But I'm not giving them a break on this one. They just plain sucked. They couldn't string two passes together, they constantly gave the ball away in bad positions, and the few times they did threaten the Pumas' goal, they couldn't get a shot off. Once they fell behind by two goals, the defense just disappeared. They looked awful. Very disappointing.

Here's a fun article that appeared in The Washington Post a few weeks back about the author refusing to ever be cut from any basketball team he tried out for. He ended up refusing his way into a collegiate career at my alma mater during the 70's. I loved the story; just wish it had an ending. Score another one for my mom for the heads-up.

Do not adjust your screen

Just a test to make sure my photo uploading is in effect. And to expose you to Tony Meola (circa 1990) sporting what may possibly be the greatest American mullet of all time.

While on the subject of soccer, there were some Champions League matches played in Europe today. Unfortunately, most of the wrap-up articles are totally focused on the fact that the AC Milan-Inter Milan match had to be abandoned because Italian fans are idiots. I love soccer, and hate that the media in this country tends to jump on every example of hooliganism in Europe, but this is becoming a serious issue that needs a spotlight shined on it. Violence, racism, fascists demonstrating during the games; there's a lot of issues that need to be addressed with regards to Italian fans, and maybe it's time for FIFA to take a hard look at the Italian Federation.

No surprises

Well, as I figured, League was a complete disaster. I turned it off after 20 minutes and watched a couple episodes from Season Four of The Simpsons, highlighted by the "You Choo-Choo-Choose Me?" episode (#415). Good stuff.

As you may have heard by now, Britney has confirmed on her rather pretentious website that she is, in fact, pregnant. This news makes me very excited because it's an opportunity for The Superficial to spew some more bile in her direction. Nothing's up yet, but the news is fairly new. Or maybe it's just too easy a joke.

I've been spending some time with my new CDs today, and so far, I'm most pleased by M. Ward's Transistor Radio. This mellow, old-timey set feels like it would be a perfect album for a warm summer's afternoon, but holds up just as well on this cool and rainy spring evening.

Lunar visit

Made another trip to Luna Music tonight in my continuing quest to purge my CD collection of all but the bare essentials. I traded in a good hundred or so CDs and walked away with a couple of new discs, a few older ones I've had my eye on for awhile, and close to $200 in my pocket. I even managed to stump Maggie, the sexy-in-a-totally-High-Fidelity/Empire-Records-way clerk, with a few bands I was looking for. I think that may have even impressed her for about 20 seconds until she remembered that she has a photographer/musician boyfriend whose hipster status will never be threatened by my meager musical knowledge. So, we had a nice chat about our musical tastes, and then I took my money and went home. New discs are this:

The Decemberists, Picaresque
Glen Phillips (former lead singer of Toad the Wet Sprocket ), Winter Pays For Summer
Low, The Great Destroyer
Silver Sunshine, (self-titled)
M. Ward, Transistor Radio
Matthew Sweet, Living Things
Matt Pond PA, Winter Songs

Add to that Kaiser Chiefs' Employment and Gift of Gab's 4th Dimensional Rocketships Going Up that I picked up this weekend, and I've got a solid playlist for the next couple of weeks.

I'm off to make my Netflix subscription worth its while and see how badly they butchered The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I expect to be disappointed, which is why I haven't seen it until now. If it sucks as bad as I expect it to, I can always read the books again.

More talent

The Washington Post ran a great profile of Adam Schlesinger, the creative force behind two of my favorite bands, Fountains of Wayne and Ivy. Thanks to Chromewaves and, well... my mom for the heads up. Hi, Mom. :)

I'm giving The Kaiser Chiefs' Employment a first listen. So far, I'm underwhelmed, but not to worry. The British press (with NME leading the way) will have a new darling in a week or two, and then I can forget all about these guys.

Eagle Eye

My friend Tom has some new bald eagle photos from a recent Alaska trip posted at his website, Rock36 Photography. From the home page, click on the Shutterfly link, then the Eagles album, and the new shots start with number 33. I love Low Fly-By, Waving Eagle, and Eagle Eye II. Rather an apt title for someone with such skill behind the lens. And be sure to check out the other albums while you're browsing.

Talent

Had a very enjoyable weekend visit from my youngest brother, and we were witness to the work of some very talented artístes. Friday night, we went to the Gift of Gab/Lateef the Truth Speaker show. As I've mentioned before, they're the two MCs from Blackalicious, who create much more intelligent hip-hop than the average crap you see on MTV. Blackalicious is to 50 Cent what Radiohead is to Matchbox 20, so the whole show was dedicated to opening people's minds to the music, not about who had more gold chains and bigger guns. The opener was a local crew known as Twilight Sentinels. Their beats were a little raw, but they had a good flow and were high energy enough to get the crowd going. They were followed by DJ Mike Relm, who did things with the turntables that I've never heard before. He was completely sick. He spun for about 20 minutes, whipped the crowd into a frenzy, and then brought out Gift of Gab, Lateef, and a second DJ. Relm stayed on stage, and the group proceeded to bring the house down. On the Blackalicious records, Lateef usually plays a secondary role and Gift takes the primary raps, but on stage, Lateef was in his element. His style is similar to Eminem in terms of the rhythms he rhymes with, but lyrically, there's none of the clownish rhyming that Eminem gets into. Just straight venom. Lateef took lead on about two out of every three songs, and Gift of Gab chimed in on every third song or so. I haven't been at a show where the crowd was that into every song in a long time. It was one of those concerts where I got so lost in what was going on onstage that none of the typical stuff that I hate about concerts (people standing too close to me, pushing past to get closer to the stage, blowing smoke in my face) was even an issue. It was all about the music.

Saturday night, we saw Sin City. Plenty has been written about this movie (Rotten Tomatoes has gathered a lot of the reviews in one place), so I won't rehash. I will only say, it's worth seeing. It's extremely violent (a side effect of being completely faithful to the graphic novels), and you may not like it, but I walked out of there blown away by the vision that went into the making of that film. Visually, it was one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time. As my brother said, "Every comic book movie from now on should look like that, because it was like watching a moving comic." While I think there's still a place for something like the Spider-Man or X-Men movies, I agree that I hope Sin City will be influential on Hollywood's visual style for a long time to come.

As an aside, in a further example of Hollywood's hypocrisy, this was one of the most incredibly violent movies I've seen in my entire life. Guys getting shot in the crotch, people being tortured, hung, decapitated, having their limbs hacked off, even someone being eaten alive by a wolf. Yet to get it released without an NC-17 rating, they had to tone down... the nudity. Yeah. Another victory for the moral majority.

Well... damn.

In two weeks, I'll be in New York, which means I'm going to miss the Star Wars Celebration convention here in Indy the same weekend. Now normally, I'd probably go check it out just on the off chance that there might be one hot girl in the Princess Leia bikini, or to see these these guys march into the Convention Center, but it's just been announced that this year, there's actually a worthwhile reason to go. That's right folks, The Man himself is actually making an appearance. Lucas has notoriously avoided these sort of fan events in the past (and rightly so after some of the backlash from Episodes I and II), so that makes me think it's one of three things: either he's really excited about this movie and feeling brave enough to face the mob; he's worried about how it will do and realizes his future royalties lie in the success of this film; or he's going to make a big announcement. My guess is it has something to do with his plans to remaster the movies in a 3D format. He'll probably debut some footage. Oh, well. Guess a weekend of getting drunk in Manhattan is probably a better way to spend my time and money, but I'd be curious to see how Lucas is received by the crowd... and how many nerds spontaneously explode from being in the same room with him.

Lost is good

I mean scary good. Holy crap. I just got around to watching last night's episode (WARNING: links to a page with spoiler info). If there's a better hour-long show on TV right now, I'll eat my hat. And don't try to sell me on that Desperate Housewives crap, 'cause I ain't buying. I haven't watched a show that's consistently surprised me this much since Season 3 or 4 of The X-Files. I just hope J.J. Abrams and the Lost folks don't fall into the same trap Chris Carter did and wait so long to reveal their secrets that by the time they get around to it, nobody cares anymore.

So my favorite song of the past few days is a pretty faithful cover of Oasis's "Champagne Supernova" by Matt Pond PA that shows up on The O.C. Mix Vol. 4. I have no idea what the show is like, having never watched it, but I can count on buying at least two songs from the soundtracks when they show up on the iTunes store. Whoever's putting these together has pretty good taste.

Because one reality TV show about a ditzy blond pop star and her less-talented husband just isn't enough...

The words "media" and "whore" spring to mind. Lisa de Moraes at The Washington Post brings us the joyous news of Britney's latest venture. God, by the end of her train wreck, no depths will go unplumbed. Just remember, people: if you don't watch, she might go away. But whither then our schadenfreude?

And because he loves the Britster so, here's The Superficial's take.

Long, long, long

My day at work, that is. Just got home, and I'm surprisingly not that tired. It's amazing what a run at lunch will do for you. Unfortunately, that means I missed Lost and DC United's CONCACAF Champions' Cup game against UNAM Pumas, a Mexican team. Again, loving my DVR. I already know the sort of disappointing DC result (they tied 1-1), but I'll watch it anyway at some point to see the goals.

I'm certainly not condoning the action, but this has got to be one of the best headlines of the year. Nice to see that his character on the Sopranos wasn't much of a stretch. Thanks to Nikki for passing that along.

Being at work for so long today gave me a chance to spend some more time with Bloc Party's Silent Alarm, and beyond the fact that I like this disc more and more every time I listen to it, I think the early U2 comparison I made was pretty apt. Kele Okereke sounds nothing like Bono, but lyrically he covers the same revolutionary ground as Bono's early work. Russell Lissack's chiming guitar occupies the same sonic range as The Edge's distinctive sound, and while Bloc Party's rhythm section is a little funkier than Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. ever were, they both provide a solid anchor for the melodic call to arms of vocals and guitar. But Bloc Party obviously have other influences, and they wear them proudly on their sleeves as well. If I listened to "Price of Gas" without knowing the artist, I could easily believe it was an old PiL track.

Typical

Well, at least I had a chance to win a pool this year. Usually I'm out of contention after the first weekend. I'm not too bothered by the fact that North Carolina are national champions. Roy Williams probably deserves it for how quickly he turned that program around. And at least it wasn't Duke.

UPDATE: Looks like I still managed to win one of my pools. Guess I was the least bad at picking, because there was definitely no skill involved.

Twelve more vein openers

Again, we return to ugo.com for the artwork and track list for the new Coldplay album. It's called X&Y, and it will be out on June 6th. I wonder if this one will be any cheerier than their last two. The release date has been pushed back twice, probably because it's safer to release their albums during bright and sunny times of year. Don't want any mass spikes in the suicide rate of their fans.

I've got the NCAA Final on in the background. I don't really care much about the outcome, except that if Illinois wins, I win two of my pools. So go Illini, I guess.

Got the new Paste magazine yesterday, and I've been listening to the included CD tonight. There's some good stuff on there from Doves, The Decemberists, Mark Geary, Glen Phillips, M. Ward, and Hammock. But the biggest surprise is Deana Carter, who previously fell into the Shania Twain/Faith Hill category of pop country songstress. Her track, "Atlanta & Birmingham" from her upcoming album The Story of My Life shows a surprising depth and grit that makes me curious to hear more. Since every one of these Paste discs results in me buying a couple of CDs, I'd say Glen Phillips and Hammock are my first choices. But if I'm feeling adventurous, I might give the story of Deana's life a try.

Get up and dance

Just downloaded Bloc Party's new album, Silent Alarm from the iTunes store. It's an album I've been meaning to get for a while, and I'm glad I did. Almost every review I've read has compared Bloc Party's sound to that of Franz Ferdinand, since they both play a type of dance-rock. But where FF hold their songs at arm's length in a too-cool-for-school-style detachment, the songs on Silent Alarm have an earnestness and warmth that makes them incredibly enjoyable. I dig the first single, "Banquet", but I've been struck by the quality of "Positive Tension" and "Blue Light" on my first listen, and "The Pioneers" brings to mind War-era U2. But the great thing about this album is, if you strip away the hipster hype machine factor, it's still a great bunch of songs to dance around your apartment to. Even if your neighbor across the way is watching you through your window. And laughing. Really hard.

Wacky album titles are his specialty

While searching for an mp3 of Ted Leo's cover of Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone" (which I finally found at A Whole Lotta Nothing), I noticed ugo.com has the details on Billy Corgan's upcoming solo album, THEFUTUREEMBRACE. I've been a fan of the former Smashing Pumpkins and Zwan frontman for quite a while now, so I'm curious to see what he does on his own (y'know, other than his poetry). If the rumors are true, Gish was technically a Corgan solo album anyway, so I hope this one is half as good.

DC United picked up yesterday where they left off 5 months ago, rolling to an uninspired and not at all pretty 2-0 win in LA. The game was originally supposed to be on ABC, but got bumped to ESPN when the pope died, which was all right, because it was probably not the type of showcase the league wanted. The game wasn't a sellout, and the play made it obvious that it was the first game of the season. Everybody on both sides looked a little ragged, but 3 points is 3 points. It's long season, so there's plenty of time to improve. I also caught several other games last night thanks to MLSNet's streaming video, which lets you watch the local broadcasts live through Windows Media Player. I felt like very much the technogeek with my TV tuned to Fox Soccer Channel for the Columbus v. LA game and two other games playing on my computer.

As much as I enjoyed a oh-so-refreshingly solid 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep last night, I do miss the puppy a little bit. But aside from the fact that I'm not allowed to have one in my building, I wouldn't impose this small space on a dog anyway. I'm very much in the room-to-run camp when it comes to canines. I am looking forward to getting back to a more normal schedule this week. I want to try to get to see Sin City, but since it's our close week at the magazine, it may have to wait until the weekend. My brother will be in town for the Gift of Gab show on Friday, so maybe he and I will catch it at some point.

Coming home for Opening Day

Well, my stint as suburbanite dog-sitter is coming to a close. The owners will be back this evening, so I'm hanging out during the day and cleaning the house, but as of 5:00, I'm free. I'll miss having a puppy to play with, but I also can't wait to sleep in my own bed tonight. And sleep uninterrupted for the entire night.

Today is Opening Day for Major League Soccer. Woo-hoo! All 12 teams are in action, highlighted by DC United taking on Chivas USA on ABC at 3:00 Eastern. There are lots of interesting storylines to watch this year. How will Landon Donovan play after returning to the US? Will Eddie Johnson's play for FC Dallas match his torrid streak for the National Team, and if so, which big European club will swoop in to buy him? How will the expansion teams (Real Salt Lake and Chivas) do, both on the field and at the gate? Will Freddy Adu develop into the type of player people expect him to be? Can DC United repeat, or will a new team step to the forefront? However all of these questions are answered, what's most exciting to me is that this is the 10th season of MLS, and instead of the pre-season articles talking about whether MLS will make it, what it's financial situation is, or what teams are being contacted, the focus is on the game. Player movements, new stadiums, and two new teams have helped that, but 10 years gives the league some credibility, and as long as the level of play continues to improve, the future is certainly looking rosy.

There's plenty of articles out there about the 2005 MLS season, but one place I've been getting my news lately is from a fellow Blogspot member. SoccerPundit does a nice job of gathering the latest American soccer news in one spot. And it helps that he and I happen to agree on a lot of issues.

I had some friends over and watched The Ring last night for the first time, and I figured staying by myself in a big empty house in the woods, I'd be scared out of my wits. Instead, I fell asleep 10 minutes after my friends left. I guess I'm getting old. "Horror" movies just don't have the same effect on me as they used to.