Chasing Earl

"Even Izzy, Slash and Axl Rose
When I call, you put 'em all on hold"
--Suzanne, Weezer

After bible study last night, I returned home looking forward to a viewing of my second-favorite show on TV (and one of only three shows I even attempt to watch on a weekly basis), "My Name Is Earl". Unfortunately, there's this sporting event going on somewhere overseas that seems to have put the rest of NBC's programming on a short hiatus, and there was no new episode of Earl to watch. How sad. Last week's episode, guest-starring Mrs. Ben Stiller as a professor and the temporary object of Earl's affection, was probably the best in the show's brief history (I thought as much, and had my opinion verified by two avid viewers in the office--my place of work, not to be confused with the show immediately following Earl in NBC's Thursday night lineup). They've had a great run of guest stars, including Adam Goldberg a few weeks ago and Jon Favreau before that. Also, the Taco Bell commercial guy has made a few appearances in what seems to be a pretty similar character to his burrito-touting alter ego. Jaime Pressly is amazing, Crab Man is hilarious, and Ethan Suplee hasn't been this good since he was trying to see that stupid sailboat in the mall. But the genius of the show, obviously, lies in the title character, and Jason Lee is just awesome. Dude has really exceeded expectations, hasn't he? After watching "Mallrats" for the first time, freshman year of college, there's no way I would have foreseen a hit NBC comedy landing anywhere near this guy. He was definitely funny--one of my favorite movie characters of all time, right up there with Trent from "Swingers" and Colonel Frank Slade--but very unpolished, which is pretty much what you'd expect from a professional skateboarder turned actor. He's done plenty of work from that point to get to where he is now, so in the word of Ali G, "respeck".
I alluded to the grand sporting event that's taken over the airwaves (and has rendered BDSSP dark for two glorious weeks), and I'm wondering if I've ever cared less about games of any olympiad. I really don't think so. I've managed to watch about five minutes of downhill skiing (at Rocky Cola Cafe in Hermosa on Sunday--Bode didn't win), two static-filled minutes of some snow-related event (at Suss' new apartment on Monday--they don't have cable yet) and maybe three minutes of USA hockey (at work on Wednesday--we tied Latvia, which had "Like Wall" in net), which amounts to a grand total of 10 minutes in the games' first week. Why don't I care? And why isn't anybody at work talking about it? I've come up with a few reasons so far...
- The world at large cares more about this kind of thing than the sporting community, and this is my first winter games working within said community. I'm exposed to enough, day in and day out, to know that I'd much rather be watching UConn-Villanova or Cavs-Celtics (ridiculous overtime game the other night; deserves mention later) than Johnny Weirdo skating his pretty little heart out.
- The summer Olympics are about nine billion times better than their winter counterparts, which makes these kind of disappointing. The only events that really capture me in the same way the summer ones do are women's figure skating (I'll try to watch Sasha Cohen; I would have watched Michelle Kwan) and ice hockey (but probably just the medal rounds, unless it's Kazakhstan v. Italy or something like that). Figure skating is the winter equivalent of gymnastics, except the girls are usually taller than four feet, and the music is better, for the most part.
- The delay factor makes suspense for these events almost non-existent. I'm not sure if NBC is trying to pretend the internet doesn't exist or what, but attempting to put people on the edge of their seat when the thing their watching happened like six hours ago just seems stupid to me. I guess because they need to get prime time advertising dollars, they keep everything late and try to make it seem new. It would be possible to avoid hearing about results (like taping a game, trying to avoid all score updates before you get home and watch it), but it's not easy when you spend almost the entire workday in front of a computer.
- I don't watch TV at night (except for the three shows--usually just watched on TiVo at my convenience anyway), so the delayed stuff doesn't work for me at all, even if I didn't know what was going on. There's nothing about these events that's inducing me to watch anymore evening television than is already on my docket.
Yeah, so quick note about this crazy Cavs-Celtics games the other night, because I can pretty much guarantee that nobody I know watched it. After the Suns-Sonics game a month or so ago (Ray-Ray's trey at the buzzer won it, 152-149, in double OT), this has been the game of the year so far in the NBA. Here's why:
- Paul Pierce. 50 points for the Inglewood native (to go with 7 rebounds and 8 assists)--he's very quietly having a First-Team All-NBA-type season.
- LeBron, LeBron, LeBron. Not to be outdone by Pierce, King James went for 43 points, 12 rebounds, 11 assists, 4 blocked shots and 2 steals. He's so ridiculous sometimes. Having him and D-Wade running the wings on Sunday is going to be obscene (and Vinsanity coming off the bench).
- Three guys played 50+ minutes. Delonte West was one of them; I'll give you one guess for the other two. Yeah. LeBron played 54 (out of a possible 58), and Pierce had the same number.
- Delonte West. Sports Guy's favorite Celtic is quickly turning into a very good point guard. In addition to his marathon display, he put up 15 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists (and 3 blocked shots!).
- Lots of scoring. Not quite as many points as that Suns-Sonics game (most entertaining regular season game I can ever remember, honestly), but 113-109 is still a great scoreline for a league that's finally seeing offensive numbers on the rise again. Gone are the days of the Bad Boy Pistons and the ugly Knicks. Mike D'Antoni has started a revolution, and it's far more entertaining.
That's it for today, I'm off to a meeting and then to Mammoth for a snow-filled long weekend. Obviously making time for All-Star Weekend and the UCLA-USC game in there somewhere, but I'll have plenty of time on the slopes...