Random Thoughts July 7th

-What a devastating loss for Andy Roddick the other day. I really felt like he outplayed Federer and deserved to win that one, but he just didn't capitalize on opportunities. In Bill Simmons' terminology this was a guillotine game: "Your team's hanging tough (hell, they might even be winning), but you can feel the inevitable breakdown coming, and you keep waiting for the guillotine to drop." That's exactly how I felt during this match.

-Obviously, Sarah Palin's resignation has been a pretty big news item over the past few weeks. I read her resignation letter, and it was about as incompetent and poorly written as a fourteen year old's book report. Her entire political career reminds me of that episode of Seinfeld where Kramer somehow starts working at a business. I can see the GOP leaders sitting her down and saying "These speeches are incomprehensible. It's almost like you don't have any political experience at all."
-They Might Be Giants is a very underrated band. I just listened to their CD "The Spine" and was very impressed. Just throwing that out there.

-This has been the worst summer for movies in recent memory. Granted, the summer isn't usually known for high-quality fare, but this year seems like a huge let-down in contrast to last year (Iron Man, Dark Knight, Tropic Thunder, etc). Other than The Hangover and Star Trek, the movies haven't been good. I'm putting my hopes on two movies: Public Enemies and Inglorious Basterds. The reviews for Public Enemies have been good but not great (61% at Rotten Tomatoes last time I checked) but it's got great source material, a good director in Michael Mann, and a solid cast. Inglorious Basterds also looks entertaining from the trailers I've seen. I also like the fact that Samm Levine (Neil Schweiber from Freaks and Geeks) and B.J. Novak (Ryan from The Office) are in the cast. If neither of these are good, I might as well book my ticket for I Love You Beth Cooper.
-I'm generally a fan of Geico commercials. However, this one seems to defy logic:

Caveman, how could you possibly believe you're winning this game? You haven't gotten a serve in! I don't know what's more ridiculous, the fact that this Neanderthal thinks he's winning, or the fact that it's taken him three sets to realize the event is being sponsored by Geico.

-The Fourth of July is not America's "birthday". I'm not sure where people got this notion, but the colonies voted to succeed from Britain on July 2nd. In fact, John Adams predicted that people would celebrate July 2nd as a national holiday for years to come, but it ended up being July 4th because that was the date written on the Declaration of Independence.

-This Michael Jackson thing is bizarre. Is it just me, or was this guy absolutely despised by virtually everyone for the past six years? If Michael Jackson was brought up in conversation, you were guaranteed to hear some inappropriate jokes about pedophilia. After his death, people seem to have forgotten all about this part of him. I'm not saying that his eccentric personality should be the focus of all this news coverage, but where were these people five years ago, when he was the subject of ridicule and scorn? I think the guy's a good musician, but I just find it weird that the media and news coverage, as well as the average person you talk to about him, is lionizing him to the degree that they oftentimes don't even mention his personal life.