Big Surprise: North Carolina Wins My Brackets

Procrastinating until the end. I have finally filled out brackets for two pools (one with work and one with Georgetown grad friends).

Call me a homer since I'm a big Tarheel fan, but I still think if there's one potentially dominant team in college basketball this year, it's UNC. There has been so much jockeying in the top 10 all season long that it wouldn't be a huge surprise to see any one of a handful of teams win it all.

I pick the Heels to beat Louisville in both my pools, with the final score either turning out 80-75 or 90-75. North Carolina has missed the defense of Marcus Ginyard (out with an injury) all year, and if Ty Lawson can't return from his toe injury in time for the second round, I may append my prediction. Bobby Frasor just can't lead this team to a championship at the point. But I still think this year's team of stars, which finished 28-4 and underachieved to lose in the ACC quarterfinals to a really good Florida State team, has yet to peak.

Tarheel MVPs in order have been Tyler Hansborough, Lawson, Wayne Ellington, Danny Green, and frosh Ed Davis.

I've got Pittsburgh losing to UNC in one semifinal and my only #2 seed to make the Final Four, Memphis, losing to Louisville and Coach Pitino's southern-gentleman white suits.

Thanks, Obama, For Putting Money In My Pocket

The Week has published a blurb about how "just 27 percent of likely voters believe the new economic stimulus package will personally benefit them or their family." That's a surprisingly low number and I wonder if people think the up-front costs of all these global warming, energy, health, and other initiatives outweigh what would be huge economic payoffs down the road.

Regardless of the sad lack of forward-thinking by most Americans, we got a wonderful e-mail yesterday at work from our human-resources department. It noted that the public transportation pre-tax reimbursement per month is going up from $120 to $230, which will actually cover quite a bit more of the costs of getting to work. There's also a $20-per-month pre-tax allotment for biking to work, which is great since I bike about half or a third of the time and take the Metro subway the rest of the time.

I'm not entirely sure exactly how much of that is directly linked to Obama's economic stimulus plan. But what is definitely linked is that the federal withholdings have changed under the plan and my paycheck is bigger now than it was last month.

So now that I'm in better financial shape, maybe it's time to think about putting some solar panels on my roof (in reality, may have to wait to move into a single-family household for that) to go along with the geothermal heating and cooling in my condo, the rooftop garden, and the wind power that we purchase from Pepco to run our electricity.

Seth Rogen: Still On the Adam Sandler Honeymoon with Zack and Miri

Seth Rogen (pictured, far right with Elizabeth Banks and Justin Long) is a lot like early Adam Sandler. Up through Saturday Night Live, Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, and The Wedding Singer, Sandler could do no wrong. Rogen has been in some modern comedy classics as well.

Zach and Miri Make a Porno is not as good as some other Rogen vehicles, but it's definitely got sufficient laughs. It's about two friends who can't make ends meet so they decide that producing a porn movie will bring them riches and not adversely affect them since they have no families and no dignity.

Standout performances include Elizabeth Banks (W., 13 episodes of Scrubs, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Spider-Man, Seabiscuit, Catch Me If You Can, Wet Hot American Summer), Craig Robinson (Darryl in The Office, Knocked Up, Pineapple Express, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story), and Justin Long as Brandon St. Randy (Ed, Jeepers Creepers, Pineapple Express, and George Harrison in Walk Hard).

Best Seth Rogen starring projects:

4. Pineapple Express

3. Zach and Miri Make a Porno (***1/2 out of ***** stars)

2. Superbad

1. Knocked Up

Can you believe he also appeared in these?:

Freaks and Geeks, which I've also started watching recently (***1/2 out of ***** stars)

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy

The 40-Year-Old Virgin

Donnie Darko

The Waterboy and Big Daddy were the beginning of the end for Sandler. Now, let's hope we can wring a few more good ones out of Rogen before he hits his "Anger Management phase."

Guns N' Roses' Top 18 Songs

There's a lot of bad stuff in this group's repertoire. Try, for example, starting a 10-mile bike ride listening to Chinese Democracy. Kinda gets you pumped for the first few minutes, but quite painful by the time you reach your destination.

Nevertheless, the good stuff is really good.

18. "14 Years," Use Your Illusion II, 1991

17. "Breakdown," Use Your Illusion II, 1991

16. "So Fine," Use Your Illusion II, 1991

15. "Estranged," Use Your Illusion II, 1991

14. "Rocket Queen," Appetite for Destruction, 1987

13. "Civil War," Use Your Illusion II, 1991

12. "It's So Easy," Appetite for Destruction, 1987

11. "Night Train," Appetite for Destruction, 1987

10. "November Rain," Use Your Illusion I, 1991

09. "Mr. Brownstone," Appetite for Destruction, 1987

08. "Don't Cry," Use Your Illusion I, 1991

07. "One in a Million," GN'R Lies, 1988

06. "Paradise City," Appetite for Destruction, 1987

05. "Yesterdays," Use Your Illusion II, 1991

04. "Used to Love Her," GN'R Lies, 1988

03. "Patience," GN'R Lies, 1988

02. "Welcome to the Jungle," Appetite for Destruction, 1987

01. "Sweet Child O' Mine," Appetite for Destruction

Axl Rose's Hick Rock

Mick Walls' 2008 book W.A.R.: The Unauthorized Biography of William Axl Rose determines that the Guns N' Roses' leader's genius stems from his small-town Indiana origins and the fact that he is just "a little guy" who "comes from nowhere."

Walls was an insider with the band and frequently hung out with Axl's equally hickish brother Stuart, who we know is a hick because he's never heard of "egg cups." The only person Walls is not an insider with is Axl himself. Indeed, Axl, in the out-of-control lyrics of "Get in the Ring," from Use Your Illusion II, accuses Walls of printing journalistic lies.

This book would probably be better if it were "authorized." There are some good stories here, like the one that put Mills in Axl's doghouse. It entails a rant about Motley Crue's Vince Neil claiming to have punched out GN'R guitarist and Axl's only remaining friend from the original lineup, Izzy Stradlin, for "messing" with Neil's mud-wrestler wife. Neil tried repeatedly to coax Axl into a fistfight, but Axl continuously "chickened out."

I think I'll hold out hope for a better GN'R book. Like this one, by Stephen Davis, who wrote THE book on Led Zeppelin, Hammer of the Gods.

The Last of Her Kind: A Novel

Coming-of-age stories still interest me (despite the fact that I've already basically come of age). I've never read anything by Sigrid Nunez (right), but she's won some prestigious awards and The Last of Her Kind sounded like a good yarn.

It's about two girls who meet in 1968 as freshman roommates at the New York City all-girl Barnard College. Dooley Drayton, who hates her name and goes by her middle name of Ann, is from Connecticut. Her dad owns a firm that produces surgical instruments and her mom is a serial volunteer and sits on several boards. Ann gets very angry when talking about her parents and claims she could get away with anything in their eyes: "I could murder someone and they wouldn't disown me."

Ann comes from a privileged background and has never shared a room with anyone. She is thrilled to finally have a roommate. and has requested "someone from a world as different as possible" from that of her own. She gets it in the form of Georgette George, who comes from an impoverished childhood in a drunken, inbred, violent Upstate New York community.

Well-written and I look forward to continuing onward with this story.

Feeling Minnesota

Rachel and I just returned from our first trip to Minneapolis in many years. We stayed at the swanky St. Paul Hotel in downtown St. Paul next to Rice Park. The James J. Hill Reference Library was located across the park and it's where our friends Jeff and Leah got married.

We visited famed establishments like St. Paul's The Happy Gnome and Minneapolis' Nyes Polonaise, home of "The World's Most Dangerous Polka Band" and a karaoke piano lady who helped Tim G. and I belt out Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline."

Some other things I love about the Twin Cities:

1. The Replacements

2. F. Scott Fitzgerald (see his Rice Park statue to the left) lived there for a while

3. The Current 89.3 FM

4. Prince

5. Soul Asylum

6. Husker Du

7. The Hold Steady

8. Bob Dylan is from nearby Duluth

9. Twin/Tone Records

10. The Jayhawks

11. Mary Tyler Moore
12. Home of Peanuts' creator Charles M. Schulz

13. Lakes!

Places to see on my next visit:

1. First Avenue, the club from Prince's Purple Rain

2. The Electric Fetus and Oar Folkjokeopus (now Treehouse) record shops

3. The house where The Replacements had their photo taken on the cover of Let It Be

4. All the spots where my mom grew up in Minneapolis suburb Edina
5. The Halftime Rec, Tim H.'s recommendation

Swayed By The Rolling Stones, Charles Manson and Anger

For people who have consumed as much 1960s sex-drugs-rock pop culture as possible, Sway may seem a tad dull. Zachary Lazar's second novel, however, should be worth reading for those who take a passing interest in this type of thing.

It weaves the stories of Rolling Stones founder and guitarist Brian Jones' lost last days after his breakup with Anita Pallenberg, Bobby Beausoleil's confused youth misspent under the guise of famed mass murderer Charles Manson, and occult-obsessed filmmaker Kenneth Anger's flirtings with both Beausoleil and the Stones.

The book uses Jones, Beausoleil and Anger's stories as a microcosm to tell how the 60s' lovefest ended. Keith Richards took Pallenberg away from Jones on a trip to Morocco, then Jones mysteriously drowned in his swimming pool just a month after Keith and Mick fired him from the band. Soon thereafter came the Hell's Angels' fierce security at the fatal Altamont concert.

The most rewarding part of Sway for me was the Kenneth Anger (pictured, right) story line, mainly because I knew the least about him. His films are truly psychedelic and a product of the era. And this was a fun way to learn about a follower of Aleister Crowley, the occultist who sold his British country mansion to another dark-sider, Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin.

*** out of ***** stars

Sean Penn's Top Six Performances

6. Sweet and Lowdown, 1999

5. Colors, 1988

4. Carlito's Way, 1993

3. Mystic River, 2003

2. Milk, 2008

1. Fast Times At Ridgemont High, 1982

How Milk Made Me Angry

Milk made me really angry when I finally got around to seeing it this weekend. Don't get me wrong, I loved the film and Sean Penn easily deserved the Oscar for best actor, but the fact that this is an "important movie" says something really embarrassing about America.

It's plain ridiculous that gays and lesbians still don't have the same rights as everyone else. The movie's screenwriter movingly said at the Aacademy Awards that this film will help turn corners, but apparently there are still plenty of Anita Bryant's out there. Just when it looked like civil right were being accomplished, Bryant and the conservative Christian movement took aim with, according to the movie, their first major social campaign. Since the late '70s, when San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk made a real difference by organizing a powerful base of activism, the conservative Christians have been building more and more scary capital in various backwards campaigns. 

And because of that capital, this movie was indeed and unfortunately socially important. Let's hope it spurs lots of action, like Al Gore's movie did for global warming. 

Milk was the best movie I've seen in the past year (other than Slumdog Millionaire).

***** out of ***** stars