In a surprise move the weekend before the season, Pat Riley steps down as coach of the Miami Heat (he remains in the front office.) Well, I’m not sure what Riles was thinking but another Coach Van Gundy has got to be a good thing for the NBA.
Month: October 2003
New Hampshire Howard.
Bad news for Kamp Kerry…Thanks in no small part to his fiery antiestablishment rhetoric, which always seems to play well in the Granite State, Howard Dean is now up a commanding 23 points in New Hampshire (13 in this poll), and it’s hard to see how Kerry can gain any traction if he can’t hold his backyard. Perhaps Wesley Clark’s Manchester offensive will shake things up a bit, but you have to think that Dean would have to do something really idiotic to lose NH at this point. Meanwhile, as the increasingly combative candidates prep for their fifth debate tonight, several campaigns complain the nine-person debates are a recipe for treading water.
Nite Moves.
AICN claims John Cusack is cast as the Nite-Owl in the hopefully forthcoming Watchmen. Cusack is a quality actor that I’m glad to see attached to this project. But as the Nite-Owl? Isn’t he a bit young and skinny? The Nite-Owl really should be played by an older actor, or by someone who’s gone a bit more to seed. Tom Hulce?
Pillars of Fire.
ABT and Gill‘s City Center season opens to grand reviews: “Gillian Murphy as Hagar, the repressed heroine, knew that a Tudor dancer emotes through movement, not the face, and much of her impact came through sheer muscular power, especially in her space-devouring leaps…The beauty of Ms. Murphy’s performance was in its contrast, between her dazed outcast and a desperate but not hysterical woman whose emotions visibly surge through her body.” Also in dance news, the Globe profiles Ethan Stiefel, my sister’s boyfriend.
Empire Falls.
To the delight of many, the Marlins dismantle the Yanks in six. Instant Karma’s gonna getcha, George.
Fox in the Henhouse?
Ashcroft gets the inside word on the FBI’s Plamegate investigation. Well, on one hand he is the Attorney General. But, c’mon now – the smart thing to do would be to recuse himself from this case, particularly given his close ties to Rove. As I’ve said before in other contexts, if we were talking about Janet Reno here, Dan Burton would already have fired up the investigation train.
White Bear Down.
Will Ridley Scott direct His Dark Materials? Monty Python‘s Terry Jones seems to think so. Hmmm, I dunno…I suppose a Scott Materials might be interesting, but it might also be Legend. Update: Debunked.
Technical Difficulties.
Hey y’all – The site was experiencing issues this morning, but we seem to be back up now. Sorry about that.
Hot for Teacher.
Via Quiddity, academics fret about attractive professors garnering better student evaluations. Well, beauty is power in any endeavor these days…so I’d be surprised if academia were any different. Still, after three hours of lecture a week over the course of a term, I’d think many students’ evaluations would bypass professorial sex appeal in favor of the more central question: Was the class interesting?
Anger Abroad.
From across the pond in London, my friend Luke starts up a new Expats Against Bush weblog. It’s still in its very early stages, but expect it to grow in the near future.