4.15.2006

Marketing works

Today, I purchased a TaylorMade R7 425 driver. I can't hit my current driver straight, and there is no reason I should be able to hit this driver straight. But I did hit last year's version of the R7 well at a demo day, and the club looks cool. So I traded in my old drivers and got this one. Went immediately to a driving range and couldn't hit anything straight, even the irons I've owned over a year. I'm going to assume this is because I pulled a muscle in my back last week and this is the first time in a couple of weeks I swung a club with a outcome in mind.

Of course, in the back of my mind, I think I just wasted a bunch of money. Damn commercials.

David Toms - Whiner

David Toms is a very successful professional golfer. He ranks in the top ten of the PGA Money list and the World Golf rankings . Over his career, he has 12 PGA Tour victories and has made over $25 million dollars on the links. As a Louisiana native, he has been on the forefront of the golfing community, raising awareness and funds for Hurricane Katrinia relief. Under any criteria, Toms can be considered one of the finest golfers on the planet today.

And that is why his constant whining is so unbecoming.

First, at the Ford Championship at Doral, he complained players who drive the ball far have an unfair advantage on the course, specifically on the famous 18 hole where water beckons on the left side of the fairway:

"I just don't think it's fair," said Toms, who shot 6-under-par 66 and was two
strokes behind first-round leader Tiger Woods and one behind Villegas. "Why do I
have to hit into whatever that little fairway is and a third of the field can
just hit it as hard as they want to?"

Um, because it is a sport, David? Bigger, stronger, faster has always been the way of sports. Unless you believe players are cheating, or have access to different equipment that you, what leg do you have to stand on? How long should players be allowed to drive the ball, only as long as you can?

At least the driving complaint is rooted in his ability to make money at golf. Most recently Toms had this to say about the Masters tournament:

"To me, it's still a place where the players walk around on egg shells, not knowing if they are in the right place,'' Toms said Tuesday in a conference call. "They're worried about their cell phone being on, having to stop by the hut on the way in to scan your ticket, making sure you only have one parking
pass and somebody else doesn't get in there.

"It's the only place all year where the players don't feel like they're the most important thing there,'' Toms said. "That's the way I see it, and I don't think I'm the single opinion on that.''


Allow me to translate this for people who don’t follow golf regularly:

“It isn’t right that this tournament doesn’t kiss the ass of the players like other tournaments do. For a week out of the year the world is not my oyster and I’m not happy about it. Don’t you know who I am?”

There is nothing I dislike more as a fan of golf (and sports in general) is a blatant sense of entitlement. David Toms is one complaint away from being the poster child of the self entitled.

4.13.2006

F*%k you, watch me

Jason Whitlock writes an entertaining column on the Page 2 portion of ESPN.com. His latest piece talks about the current season of The Sopranos. He isn’t too enamored with it because he feels the show makes him think too hard to understand it. Late in the article, he makes this comment:
David Chase has either forgotten why we watch "The Sopranos" or he doesn't care why we watch. It's probably the latter. He wants us to watch the show "the right way."

This should have been in the beginning of the article. Because David Chase doesn’t care about you.

Have you ever heard the phrase 'fuck you money'? If you haven't, it is the amount of money you would have to have to feel comfortable to tell anyone you don't want to deal with (bosses, spouses, parents, etc.) to fuck off, regardlesss of the consequenses. Chase has a fuck you show. He doesn't have to worry about ratings, since he is on HBO. He doesn't have to worry about actors getting pissy; none of them were such stars at the beginning of the series that they have many demands, most of them have been so typecast by the show they dare not leave (except maybe Edie Falco) and if any of them annoys him, he can just kill them off. He's killed off characters he likes, why wouldn't he kill someone asking for more dough.

David Chase is like Dave Chappelle in this way; he is a true artist who's art is wildly apprecaited by the masses. Because he did not have to compromise his art to achieve public acclaim, he can have three episodes of Tony Soprano dream sequences without worrying about any backlash. Becasue he didn't have to compromise his art, he can take two years off between seasons without batting an eye.

I enjoy the program. And when I hear people complaining about it, I just laugh to myself. Chase is taking us for a ride, and doesn't much care if you don't like the scenic route.

4.12.2006

Kitchen upgrage 4/12

Not a kitchen, but an empty room with random circuits and duct work coming from the floor.


4.11.2006

Kitchen Upgrade 4/9

The kitchen before any work has been done