Having spent an exhausting amount of time going over the Illinois Purdue game recently, I have to say that this is really going  to hurt Purdue, a lot. Hummel shot poorly against us, 4/13, but still managed 22 points from his frequent trips to the free throw line and sky high percentage there. Illinois spent much of the game with one of our better defending guards on Hummel, while simultaneously guarding Kramer with a power forward who didn’t care if Kramer had the ball beyond 10 feet. Now the interior double team on Johnson will be even simpler to pull off, those better-defending guards will be trying to shut down Moore, and rebounding becomes a much bigger issue.

It’s also hard to accept the Boiler’s eventual victory over Minnesota as a comeback, when they were up by 12 when Hummel exited the game. This seems consistent with the Ohio State game at Mackey, where Hummel missed just a couple minutes with his dislocated finger, but those minutes had an deciding impact on the outcome.

Here’s hoping for another Final Four in Indianapolis sometime soon. Courage, Purdue, Courage!

Thank you NCAA. In one move you have put all the broadcast channels to shame.

Apologies in the meantime if you see a rather plain page here. That just means i am working on fixing things. I take consolation in the fact that no one is likely to show up.

Davis had an excellent game shooting, but still missed a couple he should have hit. While his defense was good today, that total of five blocks was a bit of an illusion as he won’t get the luxury of sagging 10 feet off of a guard to provide weak side help in too many games. His twelve boards were made all the more important because no one else had even four, and Purdue’s guards were quicker to the secondary rebounds than Illinois’ throughout the game.

Paul ends up with 10 shot attempts in 18 minutes (.556 shots/min). He shoots 40%. Davis has 14 shot attempts in 40 minutes (.35 shots/min) and hits 57%. Tisdale goes 6/11 in 32 mins (.34 shots/min) for 55%. Any time Paul is forcing shots, he is taking shots that would better be taken by the far more efficient Davis and Tisdale. His desire to force the action on a day when McCamey was having an amazing day as a distributor is even more distressing. His lack of an assist in 18 minutes sets him as the player on the court longest without one. This is a bit of a feedback mechanism as well, as his determination to shoot makes him utterly predictable to the defense, which makes him that much easier to defend, and makes each of his shot attempts that much more difficult.

Tis played his game, and deserves some credit for Johnson being 1/10 with 5 points. He shot well given the distance of most of his jumpers, but a few more strong boards would have made a big difference. Cole played well, guarding Hummel for long stretches and holding him to 4/13 from the field. He was also his usual efficient self from the field, 2/2, both for 3. DJ at 4/7 shot well, but as with Paul, and Dmac, had trouble keeping the Purdue guards in front of them.

Purdue’s crowd was up for this one, and really in the game. Good job by them. The refs blew a couple that really could have swung momentum, and they were all at point when the game was still very much contested, but there were not as many terrible calls as it had seemed in my live viewing. There were still too many.

Hopefully Illinois will bring the same effort, and a healthy McCamey to Michigan on Tuesday (err, tonight). Assuming we make the tournament, and i think we do, we won’t have to face a one seed on their home floor, which is what we did on Saturday. If Weber is happy with the effort, who can be against?

This is thematically unsuitable for work, children, and good human beings.

But damn do i think it’s funny.

The nostalgia invoked is ever present. There is always something to recognize, and i saw an awful lot of Disco Godfather in there for sure. Kung Fu skills, check. Queen Bee, check.  Brother murdered, check. Trip to visit the kids in orphanage/ hospital, check, of course. Drugs ruining the community, double of course. The Man running the drugs ruining the community, duh. A cadre of Kung Fu ladies, take a guess. I had read a review saying there hadn’t been any razors pulled from the hair a la Coffee. Turns out there was, but that scene was (rightfully) deleted. The deleted scenes have some good stuff, but indicate the editors did a fine job of keeping the focus on Dynamite and giving us just enough plot to keep the ball rolling.

The gags are many, but scenes get and keep consistent vibes of their own. When Black Dynamite fears for the orphans,  everything is overwrought. When he needs to kick someone’s ass, the film means business (in a 70′s kung fu way). When it comes time for the special effects set-pieces, it will be zany until something blows up. That each of these recieves their own respect pleases me much more that a breakneck Airplane style punchline festival would. As it is, Black Dynamite is righteous. This is also true.

I am sad this wasn’t more successful in theaters. It didn’t even play here, and i was watching for it. Then again, Portland has an awful lot of white folk.

Dialectic ratings – 3/5 Artistic value | 5/5 Entertainment value  (Ebert’s take)

Nom de dynamite

If you are using WordPress, the Suffusion theme is incredibly powerful. This theme is designed, not just assembled. There was forethought, and well thought forethought at that. The included options for customization are many, but the inclusion of CSS and javascript reservoirs is a godsend, and means no more fearing upgrades.

Also to be thanked are the fine folks who put together Firebug. Suffusion has a lot of CSS, and having Firebug sped up my debugging by 200% or more. Two products that work? I am amazed. Oh, and i guess WordPress is still awesome too, but you knew that.

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That seems kind of a smarmy way to describe it, but i liked the movie. I just wished it had offered a little more. Many of the early monologues are essentially short lectures, and the animation struck me as Linklater doing my uninterested doodling for me.  Later our protagonist takes a more active role in his dream state, and things get a little more lively.

Post-credits, the comaprisons with Slacker are inescapable, and for me, unfavorable. While both to me were optimistic films, the subtlety of Slacker wins out with me. I thought Waking Life’s animation was very well done, and i would admit that it added a dream-like quality, but the fact that the movie is spent in a dream doesn’t feel important. Slacker’s protagonistlessness allowed it to bounce around in a narratively similar way, and with each bounce i was shown, not told, why the characters mattered.

If I was going to make a change, I think i might add another emotional counterpoint to the characters we listen to. While there is a man who rants from his car mounted speakers, we don’t meet anyone who would be described as ‘hard-luck.’  The extra character that came to mind right away was a smoker dying of lung cancer – someone aware not only on an unconscious level, but also on a very conscious one that certain informed choices had been their undoing. This character could be written as optimistic as easily as any other, but there is much beyond laziness that serves to keep us down. I am not much of an optimist.

Dialectic ratings – 3/5 Artistic value | 2/5 Entertainment value