One of those clubs you want to belong to

Just finished the much feted memoir The Film Club by David Gilmour. It's good, though not quite the SHAZAM! kind of book that it seemed some were claiming.

Story is that Gilmour pulls, no pardon, allows his son to drop out of school at age 16 on the conditions that he doesn't get involved in drugs and watches three movies a week with him.

Gilmour describes the three-ish years that the club continues for: what movies are watched and why, and what is going on in his son's life and his own.

It's well written, and interesting in that neither Gilmour or son have the kind of life that I've had. It's always curious to hear of how others are shuffling along this mortal coil.

Perhaps you need a sampling of the movies that were watched at The [Gilmour] Film Club. They include American Graffiti, Annie Hall, The Bicycle Thief, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Bullitt, Chungking Express, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Dirty Harry, Duel, The Exorcist, The 400 Blows, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, The Godfather, Get Shorty, High Noon, A Hard Day's Night, Ishtar, The Last Detail, The Late Show, Mean Streets, Murmur of the Heart, On the Waterfront, Psycho, The Shining, Showgirls, To Have and Have Not, True Romance, and Volcano: An Inquiry into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowery, among many others.

Speechless, The Prize

Watched Speechless, the romantic comedy starring Michael Keaton and Geena Davis as two political speech writers who hook up during a campaign - initially not knowing that they are working for the opposite sides.

It's pretty good, for a romantic comedy. I saw it when it came out, which was about 1990, but hadn't seen it since.

It might be Christopher Reeves last walking role, as he plays Davis's one time fiancee who's a hot shot foreign correspondent come to win her back.

Also watched The Prize, which is a Paul Newman movie, in which he plays the Nobel Prize for literature winner. It's set in Stockholm with the plot line that the Soviets want to kidnap one of the other winners, who had been working in the USA, so they can get him to work for them.

Newman is a bit of a buffoon - a reputation for being a drunken womanizer, who's stumbling about and isn't believed by the authorities when he begins to see that things are not right in Sweden. Also, he complains of not selling enough books, and supporting himself by writing detective novels under a pseudonym.

It's an entertaining enough film, but another example of how different films are made then versus now in terms of the camera shots and all that.

Waiting 'til next year

*sigh*

Us Winnipeg Blue Bomber fans will have to wait until next year for a Grey Cup championship, as our team lost to those nasty Saskatchewan Roughriders, 23-19, on Sunday.

It was a good game, and could have gone either way. Ryan Dinwiddie was in at quarterback for us, and he did OK I thought, for someone who was starting his first CFL game ever (might as well start at the top, eh? it'll be a bit downhill from here though). Our number 1 QB and nominee for league MVP, Kevin Glenn, broke his left arm in the previous playoff game, so he was out for this one.

Dinwiddie finished up that game, a win over the Toronto Argonauts last week, and got the start this week. He did make some mistakes: 3 interceptions and a fumble, but the mistakes weren't of the "What the hell were you thinking?!?" variety. More like little errors.

Sadly, one of those errors, an interception, got run back for a TD, and the fumble led to a field goal, so the Roughies got 10 points off our turnovers. They turned the ball over a couple of times too, but no points directly resulted from them.

I found the play calling to be questionable, as we didn't give the ball to our star running back, Charles Roberts, enough times. He got in the first quarter, and a bit in the fourth quarter, but not much in the second or third quarters. Also, it seemed Dinwiddie was being asked to throw the ball longer than we typically have this year. Some short 8-12 yard passes might have been better.

The pass calling might have been justified by the scouting report that the Saskatchewan defense was weak - relatively - in the secondary.

Our defense played well. Quite a bit of pressure on Kerry Joseph, the league's MVP, who produced their only big plays in the first half by scrambling out of the pocket to run the ball for large gains. He made a couple of medium size completions in the second half, but that was about it for their offense.

We also did fine on special teams, with Troy Westwood having a good game, punting very well and hitting both of the field goals he attempted.

So, it was a good effort, where we just didn't get the one or two breaks necessary to come out on top. The saddest result from this is that our star receiver Milt Stegall, the CFL's career touchdown leader, will likely end his career without a championship ring, as the Grey Cup was probably his last game. He's been threatening retirement for about three years now, but I think this will be it for him.

Stegall's had a great career, and will surely be missed if he does decide to pack it in.

If only he could have gone out with the cup.

*sigh*

What kind of monster am I?

You Are a Witch (or Warlock)

You are deviously brilliant and a perfect manipulator. You somehow always end up getting what you want - without anyone knowing you're working behind the scenes. Crafty and cunning, you can work your way out of any jam. And it's easy for you to get people to do what you want, whether you're working for good or evil. Your greatest power: Mind control Your greatest weakness: Making people your puppets You play well with: Ghosts

What Kind of Monster Are You?

The man you don't want to be today is...

... Steve McClaren, as the English football team officially failed to qualify for the 2008 European Championships on Wednesday. As head coach, or manager as they like to say for footy teams, McClaren will likely take the blame for the failure and may well be out of a job only a year after taking over from Sven Goren Erikkson, who I have to say I liked - although many didn't.

Say what you will about Sven, he did get England into all the relevant competitions - European Championships and World Cup, and then always past the first round.

In reading about the match on the Beeb sports site, I came across two funny quotes.

One was the answer to a question put to Peter Crouch, the tall striker for England and Liverpool.
Q: What would you be if you weren't a footballer? A: A virgin.

The other was English (and Liverpool) midfielder Steven Gerrard's response to being asked what his favorite cheese was. He said "I dunno... melted cheese."

Brilliant coaching!

I was out in Brandon this weekend facilitating a racquetball coaching clinic. There were three participants in the clinic - sorta small really, and Ron was there too overseeing my facilitating.

On Saturday, Ron is trying to demonstrate how a coach needs to get his players moving when asking them to do a drill or practice. He's got us using our left hands to hit the ball so as to simulate us playing like beginners.

Greg is having some trouble hitting ceiling balls with his left hand, and Ron asks us what Greg should be doing differently. I've seen how Greg's got his elbow against his body when he's preparing to hit the ball, which is not allowing him to swing freely and hampering his racquet preparation.

So, I go to Greg and push his elbow away from his body, so that his upper arm is now parallel with the floor. I ask him to take a couple of practice swings with that as the starting point.

Then he tries to hit a ceiling ball again. And he does it successfully!

I am brilliant!