So Jim Thomas says that the Rams are unlikely to move to Los Angeles?

Well, no sooner did I finish my last blog entry than Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch was ready with a rebuttal for every one like me. Many pithy bloggers posted that Jim Thomas had made a convincing case for no move, and that is that. Case closed. Jim has spoken.

The Rams have 5 years left in St. Louis before they can break the lease on the Edward Jones Dome. We should remember that this lease is the only legal binding currently holding the Rams in St. Louis. Ownership won't speak loudly about this, or carry a stick. The new owners will say nothing about a move when they take over. They need decent revenues in the meantime. I bet you will be pretty shocked when it happens... or maybe you won't be so shocked. Everybody can see the handwriting on the wall.

For the record let me summarize Jim's 'convincing' argument:

1. As long as the Edward Jones done provides revenues placing the Rams in the top 8 money makers of the NFL, the escape clause cannot be exercised in 2014
2. The contract doesn't run out until 2016 otherwise
3. There is no pro stadium in Los Angeles.
4. The NFL is against team movement.
5. The NFL wants to hold the 2016 Super Bowl in Los Angeles to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the SBI which was held in Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles California. He says you can connect the dots. He does not say what he means by that. Jim, what the hell are you talking about here?
6. If the Rams were to return in 2016, it will be 22 years since they moved.
7. Lee Steinberg says that there are lot of Latinos in L.A. and they don't watch football.
8. Lee Steinberg and Sam Farmer say that L.A. suffers from deal fatigue; meaning we won't act on a new deal to bring the Rams here.
9. Lee Steinberg says that it won't be an emotional home coming if the Rams return to L.A. 2/3rds of the population won't remember the Rams as the home town football team
10. Houston beat out L.A. for an expansion franchise, ergo it is a lousy market for football.
11. All the big money men of L.A. have already failed to do an NFL deal. There is no reason to take them seriously now.

Q.E.D. There will be no move to Los Angeles for the Rams

It should be noted, in passing, that 77% of all quoted statistics are invented on the spot, without reference to any study. This is what they call PFA statistics in the social sciences.

Clearly, Jim is giving Roski short shrift. He doesn't believe the Stadium deal is happening in the City of Industry. He discounts the big money men of Los Angeles like Eli Broad, Ed Roski, etc., saying they have been toppled like tin soldiers. They have all failed... already. They have already struck out now and forever.

Well, you just keep thinking that. These kind of men seldom strike out forever. They just work at it for awhile. Just to make a couple of counterpoints.

1. The expansion deal failed for one big reason. The city government of Los Angeles would not finance the construction of a new NFL stadium. Houston was willing to build Reliant Stadium. They won.
2. Ed Roski's plan calls for no public money what-so-ever. He is going to build it. The City of Los Angeles be damned. DeBartolo basically had the same idea. With no city involvement in the deal, what will stop the construction of the stadium? Environmental impact? Not in the City of Industry.
3. With the Cowboys opening the Taj Mahal of football, New York ready to outclass them in just one year, and SF & Oakland talking about a deal to do a join 49er+Raider facility in Freemont, do you think that the Edward Jones dome can continue to provide top 8 finishes? Already the Rams are barely clinging to the last percentile of that deal. The Rams will probably fall out of the top 8 this season.
4. Even the rumors of a move could dissuade the people of St. Louis from buying as many tickets as they have. NFL tickets are damn expensive, and they are going up. We are in the midst of a pretty nasty recession right now, and St. Louis is not doing well. Do they need another reason not to buy tickets? The rumor of a move combined with recession could produce that drop-off in sales that permits that move to happen two years earlier rather than two years later.
5. Jim seems to think Roski is the man who will buy the Rams. Not so. He has emphatically said he is not placing a bid. He just wants to house them when they come. Ergo everything he says about Roski needing to sell his shares in the casino business is off point. Although it is not important to this case, it should be noted in passing that owning casinos never stopped Eddie DeBartolo from owning the 49ers.
6. Yes, Walnut is suing the City of Industry. That has never stopped Industry from doing anything in the past. Good luck in stopping the Stadium deal, Walnut. Don't blink and you won't miss the hearing. Believe me, this is a bump in the road. Negotiations on a settlement broke off because Walnut wanted to stop the deal cold, and Roski knows he will win in court. The plan is on hold until the Superior court hears the case. Don't expect Industry to loose this one. The California Superior court will decide this one the same way they have decided all these cases in the past. Nothing will be terminated until a full plan for the work is submitted for environmental impact study. Only then will an order to terminate development be entertained. Roski wins this round.
7. So the NFL is against team movements, eh? That stopped the Rams from moving last time didn't it? It stopped the Cardinals from moving 3 times. It stopped the Raiders from moving twice, the Oilers from changing to the Titans, the Browns from turning into the Ravens... You get my drift.
8. The 2016 Super Bowl is really neither here nor there. The NFL can get around that rule, as they get around or change any rule they find obstreperous. If anything, it adds a bit of coal on the fire to put a team in Los Angeles. If anything, it would incline them to allow nature to take its course, and stand aside as the new Ram owner moves to the second largest market in North America.

Let's see how against it the NFL is when they have the opportunity to put the Rams back in Los Angeles, in a new NFL class convertible dome, without reference too or interference from the City of Los Angeles. Jim, I have enjoyed your writing a great deal over the past bunch of years. I hate to say it, but you just aren't right about this one. You are trying to make a thinly covered emotional case for your personal interests, rather than understand real politics on the ground over here in Los Angeles. You also presume that the real politics at NFL HQ favor St. Louis. That assumption is not well founded.

Perhaps you should come out for a week or two and stay at my place. You can do all the investigative reporting you want to do while you are here. I am very interested in learning more about this myself. I will introduce you to many people who remember the Rams. You can also make a guest apperance on the NFL Network, which is here in L.A. You can also visit ESPN's new West Coast HQ which is just outside the Staple's Center, owned by Roski.

So the Rams are for sale aye?

I remember back in late November or early December of 2008 when Yahoo! Sports reported that Eddie DeBartolo had approached Skip Rosenbloom with an offer to buy the Rams. The report stated that Skip & his sister had serious tax problems. Inheritance tax on a $929 million NFL franchise is a bitch. Actually the two had only inherited 60% of the total shares of the Rams. Ergo, their collective fortune was a mere $557m or so in stock. Still, inheriting that much stock in anything will cause the IRS to climb up your ass.

Worse, Skip and Sis have no real wealth of their own. Skip (Dale Rosenbloom) is a director of producer of various small Hollywood movies you probably haven't heard of. He's doing okay, but he is rich by no mans estimation. His sister is a Mexican housewife in East L.A. No bullshit.

I should mention, in passing, that I know his name is Dale Rosenbloom. I also know that Dale's nick-name is Chip not Skip. We like to call him Skip out here, because he is the Ram owner that NFL historians will skip over when and if they need to write a page or two about Ram history for a website or PDF. I know that's not nice, but he is very unlikely to own the team for two full seasons of NFL play. Come kick-off time in September, I expect this deal to be done. Hardly a footnote in the book.

The IRS doesn't want the stock. They want the money. The NFL constitution would not allow the IRS to own the franchise anyhow. Should the IRS seize 60% of the Rams, NFL HQ might well dissolve the Team. However, the NFL would never allow it to reach that point. A purchase would be arranged well before that moment. Ergo this brother sister tandem had no choice: Sell out and pay the IRS.

Skip denied the Yahoo! report vehemently. He said the team was not for sale. He said he felt an obligation to his dead father to keep the team in the family. He would be the owner. He did not declare the report an outright lie, but he came close.

Fast forward two weeks. Jimmy Johnson of Fox Sports, the former architect of the Dallas Cowboy dynasty, announced on the air that the Rams are (in fact) for sale. He personally knew this to be the fact of the matter.

Then a few weeks later we hear that the City of Industry has given Ed Roski Jr. preliminary approval to build an NFL stadium (and they did explicit say NFL in the city documents) inside the borders of the City of Industry. The East side of the City of Industry, near Wallnut to be specific. For those who don't know much about Los Angeles, Industry is a small chunk of L.A. County in the south east. Make no mistake: Industry is L.A. just as much as Santa Monica is L.A.

There were speculations about the Vikings coming to town again. No, that isn't it, said everybody with a connection to the Vikings. There are no thoughts inside Viking HQ about moving to Los Angeles... or the City of Industry.

Ghee-wiz, what the fuck is this thing Roski is doing then?

Then rumors began to circulate about cash flow problems. Dale doesn't have any money. Guys like Orlando Pace and Torry Holt were pulling down a lot of money. A lot more money than Dale makes. It was questionable whether the Rams could carry their contracts, or eat a loss from a late release, and still pay the #2 pick the sort of cash this player to be named later would be expecting from his draft position. Pace and Holt, two potential Hall of Fame candidates, were both released. We took an unglamorous Left Tackle, the exact player we absolutely needed most. The Rams have an evil history of taking the glamor boy over the guy we need... at least during the past 28 years. But it just so happens that Jason Smith is a guy who will command less money that Marc Sanchez, both in the long and the short run. Cash was impacting the movements of organization quite a bit. Probably for the better.

Rumors again circulate that Dale is not selling the team, but he would be interested in listening to offers if there might be a St. Louis investor interested in keeping the team at home in St. Louis. You could hear the gentile breeze in the trees as not a human sound was made.

Then one week ago, the St. Louis Post Dispatch reports that the Rams are for sale. Skip and his sister have retained the services of the famous investment bank Goldman Sachs (the place Henry Paulson game from) to organize the sale, handle the legal paperwork, do the escrow, and maybe even settle their tax problems. This information was intercepted as it traveled from Goldman Sachs HQ in New York to NFL headquarters on Park Avenue.

Most important of all, the report contains the stipulation that Skip is willing to sell to any investor or group. There will be no stipulation that the buyer must keep the team in St. Louis. Now suddently, there are parties publically announcing that they are interested. Immediately, the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the Kansas City Star and the San Francisco Chronicle are alive and buzzing with rumors that all potentials buyers want to move the Rams back to Los Angeles. That includes Stan Kroenke and Dave Checkett, despite what they are currently saying... or not saying.

So what is the score? Everybody believes that there are three prospects to the sale. One is quite public. The other two are known and silent.

The public guy is Checkett. About 100 pieces have been written about this guy in the past week. A careful consideration of these pieces indicates that Checkett is a pretender to the throne. He is not a serious contender for the title. Checkett doesn't have much money. He is the chairman of the St. Louis Blues. Hocky is a poorboy sport. The money is nothing like the NFL. It doesn't even compare to Baseball and Basketball. Checkett cannot do the transaction himself. He has been public about his intent to form an investment group to assemble the money for the purchase. The math cannot work out. Unless Checkett can get Kroenke to sellout, he has 60% of the stock availible for purchase, grand total. The NFL constitution declares that 1 owner much own at least a 55% controlling interest in the team. I do not see how an investment group can buy 60% distribute shares, and put 55% in one man's hands. It won't work. Checkett's group will not be the purchaser of the Rams. It may not even tender a serious offer.

The consensus says that Kroenke is the owner if he wants to be. He already owns 40% of Rams. He is worth $3.5 billion. His wife is probably worth more than he is. The main problem is that he owns the Colorado Avalanch and the Denver Nuggets. The NFL constitution prohibits him from buying the Rams. Why? Denver is an NFL city. The Broncos live there. John Elway is a great fan of the Nuggets. He often introduces them. Paul Allen was allowed to own the Portland Trailblazers and the Seahawks because Portland is not an NFL city. This is a bizarre rule that is basically outdated and outmoded. Nevertheless, the NFL is probably not going to budge. If Kroenke is willing to sell a majority share in both of these franchises (subject to their league rules) he could buy the Rams. Otherwise, he is out by NFL constitution.

One fellow commented to me "Never under estimate the power of politics in these affairs!" Very well said. The NFL wanted Paul Allen in the NFL clubhouse. It is a billionaire club, and they wanted connections to Microsoft. Ergo, the NFL found an easy way to get around the rules. Kroenke is a good man. The NFL might like him. Then again they might not. He isn't as big a fish as Allen, make no mistake about it. Will they bend or get around rules for Kroenke? I doubt it.

So why would the NFL be interesting in politically excluding Kroenke, or making his acquisition difficult? Because they want to move the Rams back to Los Angeles, that's why.

One of the persistent, consistent, pernicious thorns in the NFL's arse has been the absence of NFL football in the 2nd largest market in North America. The NFL has opened numerous negotiations with the city of Los Angeles to do a deal. The City of Los Angeles has been incredibly cocky and stupid in their dealings with the NFL. They have always advanced plans to refurb the Coliseum and put the team there. The NFL is not interested in that. They have always said no to that deal. There are reasons the Rams left the Coliseum in 1980. There are reasons why the Raiders left the Coliseum in 1995. There are reasons the Trojans would like a new house right now. The Coliseum is Fu-KAKTA.

This all brings us to Eddie DeBartolo Jr. The last time I saw Eddie, it was Summer 2008. He appeared at the Hall of Fame in Canton to present Fred Dean for induction. I have never seen Eddie look so sad. He always looked invigorated, vibrant, competitive. At this time, he looked like a sad old man who just finished crying for 3.52 hours. His eyes were red and puffy through the entire visit with the NFL network and ESPN. He looked damn depressed. It looks as if being outside the NFL is killing Eddie.

Eddie lost control of the 49ers in the year 2000. The circumstances of this loss were murky indeed. There are rumors and counter rumors. The facts of the case are these:

1. Eddie was involved in a corruption case with Governor Edwin Edwards of Louisiana.
2. In 1998 Eddie paid Edwin $400,000 for a river boat casino license.
3. Eddie wound up in an FBI sting
4. Edwin went on trial for extorting $400,000 from Eddie for this license.
5. Eddie was charged with failure to report felony political corruption.
6. Eddie was fined by the NFL and banned from controlling the team for 1 year
7. The reckoning moment came in 2000 when he gave control of the 49ers to his dear sister Marie York.
8. She had previously run the Pittsburg Penguins, which was Eddie's way of getting around the NFL rules.
9. She became the second female owner of an NFL team after Georgia
10. The 49ers pretty well collapsed after 3 years.
11. Denise never gave the team back to Eddie.
12. We do know that there was an ugly-ass family fued between Denise and Eddie.
13. The details are only partially public. You can read one interpretation of the timeline here.
14. Eddie is not allowed to have any involvement with the 49ers by his dear sister and brother in law.

Not much is know about Eddie's current wealth. He does seem to retain a controlling interest over his father's financial empire. This includes a lot of real estate, malls, and gambling casinos. Shit... Casinos? Yep, he likes to gamble also. That usually means mafia.

We should remember that Georgia was a Las Vegas showgirl. She had 5 husbands prior to Carrol Rosenbloom. Those fellows were shadowy Las Vegas figures. That usually means mafia. Rumors about Georgia being involved in a plot to kill her husband and steal the Rams from Steve Rosenbloom have circulated ever since 1979. These allegations are still talked about today in Los Angeles sports bars.

I was going to come out in full support of Eddie. Whatever else you want to say about him. Eddie took a dastardly joke of an NFL franchise and he made them the first team to win 5 Super Bowls. It has taken the Steelers some 14 years to pass the 49ers, even though they once started with a 4 championship lead. If you are a long suffering Ram fan you have to like that record... if it heads your way. Unfortunately, this other information, which I never dreamed about, causes me to wonder. I really don't like this kind of corruption around my team.

However, it should be noted that Eddie will come to the NFL with a compelling package deal. He has said he will move the team to Los Angeles. He claimed he would personally build a state-of-the-art Dome stadium on the West Side of L.A., somewhere near LAX. That is right where the NFL wants it. He may not need to do this, now that Ed Roski is at work.

The NFL is smart. They know Eddie will return with blood vengeance in mind. Nobody hates like family. He will stick it to his sister every chance he gets. He will re-stoke the feud between the Rams and 49ers which once dominated NFL football on the west coast. This would re-invoggorate football on the West Coast, which is badly in need of a stimulus package. He might even be able to do it again... He might make the Rams Champions.

We'll see what Roger Goodell does about this. This is going to be the first real acid-test of his administration. Both Eddie and Georgia represent a shadowy underbelly of NFL history which the late Commissioner Rozelle allowed to creep into our fabled and beloved sport.

I want the Rams back in Los Angeles, and I want the Rams to win a lot of championships here, in my town. But not at any price. I am not willing to sell my soul for this victory and this return. I am hoping my team will be cleansed of the corruption that once ensnared it by this pending sale.

http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/news/ci_12496059

http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/bernies-extra-points/bernies-extra-points/bernies-5-minutes/2009/06/june-1-kroenke-is-best-hope-for-st-louis-rams/

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/football/other_nfl/view/2009_06_02_Dave_Checketts_wants_to_lead_group_to_buy_Rams/srvc=home&position=recent

Terminator Salvation: It's not bad.

Terminator Salvation is one of the surprising flops of the summer of 2008. Warners spent something like $200m and rolled out one of their hottest contract stars (Christian Bale) to reactivate this very profitable franchise. Unexpectedly, TS came in #2 on opening week, beaten by "Night at the Museum #2", a movie grandparents were expected to view with their grandchildren.

I personally heard all manner of consternation about this film. Big fans of the franchise bemoaned this episode as a catastrophic, epic disaster; a piss-poor addition to the saga; and a lousy way to sink the franchise. Personally, I don't know what they fuck they are talking about. I want to know what movie they saw when they wandered into the theater on that early summer night.

What it is:

1. This is a 100% pure unadulterated war story.
2. This is not a fucking romance.
3. TS takes place in the middle of the great war with Skynet
4. It does not end the great war with Skynet
5. This movie tells a very small and short story within that saga.
6. This movie unfolds over the course of 5 short days
7. It is the story of how John Connor met and saved his teenage father, Kyle Reece
8. John Connor is not the main character of the story
9. Kyle Reece is not the main character of this movie
10. Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) is the main character of this movie
11. It is the story of how Wright is able to make atonement for past dreadful sins by saving and securing the future of humanity. He is very self-sacrificing in the process.
12. The visual effects are fantastic.
13. The seminal achievement of this movie is a virtual 3d version of Arnold Schwarzenegger. No that is not Arnold. Yes, that was nothing but 3d pixels rendered by a render engine. Totally stunning. Absolutely amazing, really.
14. It's basically good. There are some flaws and breaks in continuity, but it is not that bad.

My really big bitch involves the end sequence. I don't believe Connor could defibrillated Wright as he did. I do not believe Wright would be immediately ready for battle after being defibrillated. I don't think Connor could survive such a kill-shot through the chest. He would have died within minutes. Nobody bothered to check if Wright and Conner were even of compatible antigen types for a transplant. I find this all terribly difficult. The one terribly nasty fly in the story ointment.

So this movie is not perfect, but it is pretty good. Maybe even damn good. The first Terminator was better. The second Terminator was better. Certainly, this is better than T3 and better than the Series.

We should close with a word about expectations. I personally have liked movies I expected nothing at all from. John Tucker Must Die was such a film. 13 Going on 30 was another. I expected those movies to epic disasters. They were not. They were B flicks that were okay. I was surprised by that, and I ultimately liked them. I personally have hated movies that I had high hopes for which turned out poorly. Batman 1989, The Prestige 2006, V For Vendetta and King Kong 2005 were all such movies. Those were all massively-overblown hypetacular bullshit events. Long and boring and stupid for the most part.

Unfortunately, many Terminator fans were expecting something like the Second Coming of Jesus Christ from this movie. Naturally, this movie is not as world shaking as the Second Coming, ergo they were disappointed. Can't help that. Nobody could have fulfilled these expectations. This is a great warning to the Hollywood studios: You really need to be careful with the tactic of hyper-hype. You can create a level of expectations too high to ever be fulfilled. You can cover with an MTV fashion fad, making people afraid to express disappointment, however, disappointment will-out eventually.

Surprisingly, I don't think Warner engaged in that much Hyper-Hype in this case. It is almost a case where the crowd self-hyped to an insane level of frenzy. This is all very unfortunate. This will be a sleeper film that eventually will do well with residual income.

What is all this absolute bullshit about Mike Vick and the Rams?

I would really rather comment on the explosion of rumors regarding the pending sale of the Rams to some interested party, but before I do that, I just want to quash the bullshit started in the bloggosphere about Michael Vick returning to the NFL with the Rams.

These rumors have absolutely no basis in fact. They have been launched by no-name bloggers who cannot correctly conjugate the verb 'to-be' and have not been reported by any credible source in the real media. It is wishful thinking on the part of two strange Ram fans who idolize Vick for some strange reason.

Spagnolo stated emphatically that the first order of business was developing the character of the team. Like the Giants he came from, he would would rather have a collection of anonymous workmen than glamorous and flashy showboats. He wants dependability, reliability, durability, longevity, certainty, credibility. I don't think Vick quite conforms to this objective checklist.

Although he has not specifically said so, I dare it safe to say Spagnolo doesn't want a rap sheet. He does not want a probation officer around the team. He doesn't want the Ft. Levanwoth Kansas Oxycontin recovery program calling him to ask how Vick is doing. He doesn't want Oxycontin induced delusions of godhood and legal invincibility. I don't think he wants 35 tons of attitude. I don't think he wants animal rights activists disrupting practice and games with protests.

In years past, I would say the Raiders are the only potential home for Vick. I don't know about that today. Al is out to prove that he didn't make a mistake with Jamarcus Russel. Frankly, Al would be better off with Michael Vick. That could be the spark that sends the Raiders over the top. Still I don't believe it will happen.

So, just a brief comment or two about Vick. Yes, Vick is a less dastardly criminal than a bunch of chaps I can mention in the NFL history. Certainly, he cannot be compared with O.J. Certainly, he cannot be compared with the two drunk driving manslaughter cases around the NFL right now. Vick is not as bad as that. Also, 'tis true that society has beaten the living shit out of him. He has been personally laid to waste by this series of judgements against him. The NFL should lift the suspension. He should be given a chance to seek employment somewhere. Honestly, despite the fact that 20 teams have serious problems at the QB position, I don't know who will want a throwing tailback with ponderous baggage.

There are many sayings about pro football. It is a game of inches. It is a game of momentum. It is a game of emotion. Now hear this saying: It is a Public Relations game. Like it or hate it, the Quarterback is the default face and identity of your football team. If you bring Mike Vick on as your starting QB, you are making him the default face and identity of your football team. That brings some ponderous baggage with it. This is one of the several reasons why I have suggested that Vick may not be able to find employment unless he is willing to play the slash like Paul Hornung or Cordel Stewart. Certainly, there are teams would embrace him in this capacity. Perhaps even Miami. He would make one hell of a Wildcat back.

Much has been said about Marc Bulger's 22 TDs and 17 INTs over the course of the past two seasons. We could have easily drafted Mark Sanchez as we were faking we would. We did not. Everybody knew it was pure draft deception intended to pimp the New York Jets into doing a deal with us. Spagnolo has already met with Bulger and told Marc he has no reason to fear replacement in 2009. 2009 belongs to Bulger. 2010 is not guaranteed to anyone.

Why? Why shouldn't 22 & 17 over two seasons get Marc the fucking boot? Because Marc has been able to argue very persuasively from the video tape that he has been trying to pass from a horizontal position in the air. As I have said many times here and everywhere, the Rams have been the second worst team in the NFL for 2 straight years because they have had the worst offensive line--period--for two straight years. Marc has suffered a pocket so poor that, at times, he has been unable to complete a simple 3 step drop without getting hit in the face by blitzes up the middle.

The Rams have upgraded the two most important positions on the offensive line. This is not nearly enough. The Rams still lack a pair of guards. At this time, they are likely to be Adam Goldberg and Ritchie Incognito. Barely adequate at best, even if they stay healthy.

The 2010 draft is the moment when the Rams will next select a serious candidate at the QB position. We'll see whether that is Colt McCoy, Sam Bradford or (my personal favorite) Tim Tebow.

Pixar's Up is a very sad and painful movie

I saw Pixar's "Up" on Monday night. I saw it in 3d on the DLP screen at the AMC16 in Woodland Hills. I did not write about it immediately because I wanted to give it a bit of time to digest in my gut and gestate in my mind.

After several days of consideration, I am largely in agreement with the critics. It is another Pixar classic. However, it is not my favorite. It is certainly not as good or entertaining as Wall-e and The Incredibles. The Incredibles was the most fun I ever had watching a movie. Wall-e was an unexpected scifi masterpiece, and also a weepy sentimental romance between two robots. I loved both aspects of Wall-e. This could be the most unlikely combo of affects since the original Blade.

I should mention, in passing, that if you had told me before I saw Blade that I would love a move about a black vampire, biker, Samurai, martial artist, who killed bad vampires... I would have told you you were crazy. That is the most unlikely combo of affects ever to work in the history of film.

But I digress. Back to the subject of Up.

Up is a movie about a nice, shy, somewhat grumpy old man whose dearly beloved wife has died. He was a shy and nerdy kid. He had the good fortune to meet his soul mate early in life and live long number of years with her. But now she is dead, and he is grief struck.

Carl Fredricksen is driven by grief throughout the course of this movie. Everything he does in the first half of the movie is motivated by grief. He bitterly regrets not doing all the things he and his beloved wife Ellie always wanted to do during their lives. He regrets that she died with wishes unfulfilled. He regrets that they died without children. It's wrenching as he reads through her childhood diary titled "Stuff I am going to do" and he knows she never did it.

As a result of this... and a little something else. He launches his airborne house on an adventure to Paradise Falls, South America. This phase of movie follows a pretty crazy acid-trip, dream logic. This clashes with the first 10-15 minutes which are realistic montage. Like most, I believe this opening 10-15 minute sequence is the most powerful portion of this movie. It is pretty close to flawless, and pretty overwhelming.

The remainder of the movie is less perfect. Along the way we run into dogs who talk with the aid of computerized collar, dogs who fly biplanes, dogs who cook and serve human diners, etc. This is not unprecedented for a cartoon, but it feels weird in the context of this motion picture.

Ultimately, on this road-trip, Fredricksen is letting go of the past, and embracing the future. He dies to the past, and is reborn to the future. Like a snake who must shed his skin and harden a new one, Fredricksen has to cast off the trappings of his former life so he can construct a new life without Ellie. It is happy and good that he succeeds. It is painful to watch along the way.

On the way a childhood hero is unmasked as a bad guy, Carl usurps control of the hero's mantel, he lets go of the house he lived in with Ellie for all those years, planting it where he said he would at Paradise Fallse South America.

So, how do I rate it? It's an A- effort. Its good. Damn good. But ultimately, it is too sad to be much fun. They front load the pain too. You get the "Dumbo's mom in jail" scene pretty early in this film. I don't know about you, but this one hit me like a ton of bricks... Real unexpected like. From that moment forward, the shadow of death and grief overhangs every second of this film. It is not until the very end that you are sure Mr Fredricksen has made the transition to a new stage of life.

Mr. Fredricksen is one of the lucky ones. Most old men die within a month of their wives, if the wife goes first. That says a lot about men. If you know that much, you know what kind of pain this shy old man is going through.

Many critics commented that this is Pixar's funniest comedy. I have to take issue with that statement. I deny that. I didn't find it very funny at all. The audience cackled with laughter throughout. I found it surprising--if not untoward--that they would laugh so freely given the extremely somber theme and tone set by the first 10-15 minutes. Perhaps they did not comprehend the theme of this movie. That is common, and happens often enough.

I found the situations humorous at best. At best, I laughed out loud twice. Mostly when Doug achieved victory over Alpha.

Ultimately I would rate this movie no higher than 4th place on my list of favorite Pixar movies. The Incredible still beats out Wall-e by a quarter-point. Ratatouille takes 3rd place. Then we can talk about Up.

I saw the movie in 3d, meaning I wore the glasses throughout the film. I saw very little pop out of the screen at me. As is always the case, 3d is not well exploited here. Don't bother. See it in 2d.

So I just had my second in a series of three injections of euflexxa

I have bad knees. The MRI performed by Dr. Robert C. Howard indicated that I have severe osteoarthrosis, a small tear the anterior horn lateral meniscus of my right knee, complete loss of hyaline cartilage posterior to the patella, a large subcortical cyst involving the medial tibial plateau and beneath the medial tibial spine. Both Menisci demostrate degenerative signal within.

Dr, Evan Bachner concured and decided I should be treated with euflexxa. Euflexxa is essentially pure hyaluronic acid injected into the joints. The purpose is to lubricate and inflate the cartilage... however much there is left of it. You have to take a series of three injections spaced exactly 1 week appart. You can repeat this every three months. Eventually, I will need knee joint replacement surgery, but not now, not at my age.

I really felt the right knee as the harpoon went in. Hurt like a sonofabitch. There are two injections. The first is Lidocaine to numb up the knee. The second is euflexxa. Euflexxa is a thick substance, and cannot be injected with a thin needle. They stick it in with a harpoon needle. They have to pierce the cartilage to inject it. Piercing cartilage with a harpoon needle is a painful proposition. This is the reason for the Lidocaine.

Unfortunately, the doc shoots me with the Lidocaine and then immediately follows with the euflexxa. He doesn't give me even 60 seconds for the Lidocaine to take effect. The consequence is that the knee is still very sensitive during the second injection. That hurts like an SOB. I think I am going to suggest a 60 second pause next time.

Still this is doing me some great good. The past two days (Tuesday Wednesday) I actually got to the point where I was forgetting about my knees and just walking normally again. Also, my times on the elliptical motion machine increased pretty dramatically. I actually did a pure 30 minute workout again.

Dr. Bachner was surprised by this. He says it usually takes a full week or two after the 3rd injection to begin feeling the effects. I can look forward to better things.

I'll give you a buck for every example of VB.NET code in this month's MSDN magazine

So, I just got my copy of the June 2009 MSDN Magazine. This is Vol.24 No.6 of MSDN magazine. Not one fucking scrap of VB.NET code anywhere to be seen in any code example in any article. They did some Cobra code... what the hell is Cobra? They did some IronPython code. This is reasonable, especially in connection with test projects. Overwhelmingly, the content articles are illustrated with code examples in C#. Not one fucking shard of VB code anywhere.

I dare you to find one example of VB code. I have promised my co-workers $1 for each example of VB they find. If they don't find any soon, I will broaden the offer to the entire world. They are rummaging through the mag right now with disconcerted looks on their faces.

I could be wrong, but I am pretty sure I am right about this. I flipped through this mag 3 or 4 times because I could hardly believe my eyes. Microsoft used to have an official bilingual policy... just like Canada. Everybody had to speak both languages. Everybody had to print code examples in both languages in any MSDN piece. Well, this may not be true anymore.

Based on this issue, it would sure seem that everything is ALL-C# ALL THE TIME in Redmond Washington.

Whilst I like XML litterals in VB, I have to say that I am pretty well pleased by the representation of C# in MSDN magazine. I pretty much love it. All it well. It is as it should be.