Last night Real Salt Lake played the LA Galaxy in the MLS Western Conference Finals. Unfortunately the LA Galaxy won the match, but another great season by Real Salt Lake. Out of all the teams in Utah they've represented the state of Utah the best in terms of success. They are a well run organization with solid players and a good coach. In terms of values they also represent Salt Lake well.
However I'm still mystified by the MLS playoff format. In the semi-finals they play a home and home series and determine who advances by aggregate score. Once that series is finished a few days later the Conference Finals start. That's just one game. Then it's two more weeks (TWO MORE WEEKS?) until the MLS Cup Final. That absolutely makes no sense.
Since I was watching Real's heartbreaking loss and doing other things I didn't watch last night's episode of "The Walking Dead". This is suppose to be the first episode of the series with the new show runner, Glenn Mazarra. The previous show runner, Frank Darabont, was fired. Either that or he quit, whoever you want to believe. I'm not sure how much the mediocrity of the first three episodes of this season had to do with him no longer being on the show.
In all likelihood the slow start of the second season has something to do with him no longer being on the show. This season's first episode had some excitement. However the second episode, "Bloodletting" was absolutely boring. That was the episode with such unexciting things as more searching for Sophia. Also Dale and T-Dog had one of the most boring and paranoid conversations in the show's history. The third episode was better but it still left a lot to be desired. So my expectation for last night's episode were a lot more action and a lot less stupid and boring speeches. But from what I hear, last night's episode again wasn't that interesting.
I'll be watching that 4th episode, "Cherokee Rose", today. I'll also be watching the premiere episode of the new AMC series "Hell On Wheels". Again I'm not hearing good things about this show's premiere. Has AMC lost it's touch or did it just get lucky with "Mad Men" and "Breaking Bad"? It seems from the the awful Season 1 finale of "The Killing" AMC has been on a downhill. From the greedy negotiations that pushed "Mad Men's" 5th season back to this winter, the boring first three episodes of "The Walking Dead" and what's sure to be an awful first episode of Season Two's "The Killing". The next several months are going to be important to if AMC can continue at it's high level of quality.
Meanwhile I continue working through Season 2 of "Lost" as it continues to be a tremendous show. The comparison and contrast between "Lost" and "The Walking Dead's" second season is shockingly wide. In "Lost" the stories are great, the characters are great and most episodes are good. Unlike "The Walking Dead", "Lost" had a good mix of action and story. I also love it's quirky sense-of-humor. For instance, Hurley tackling Sawyer into the tent. That causes Sawyer's tent to fall down on both Sawyer and Hurley. Hurley beats Sawyer up and keeps on pulling Sawyer back in every time he tried to crawl out of the tent. I also love how much joy Kate gets out of this as she teases Sawyer about it later.
The episode of "Lost" I watched yesterday was titled "Dave". This is the 18th episode of Season Two. So we are getting near the end of season two. There are multiple story lines occurring and all of them are interesting. As with any great shows there are a myriad amount of questions to answer. In "The Walking Dead" there aren't enough questions to make one think of the many intriguing possibilities.
In this episode the flashbacks are for Hurley, who's in a mental institution. He has a friend named Dave, who's trying to talk him into escaping from the institution. Hurley is sort of caught between Dave and his therapist. Hurley is undergoing therapy with a seemingly nice therapist. At least that's what we are led to think, although nothing is ever what it seems on "Lost". Halfway through this episode the therapist tells Hurley and Dave that he needs their picture for the bulletin board. He takes their picture. Later in therapy the therapist shows Hurley the picture and Hurley is quite shocked by it. In the picture Dave isn't to be found. This could suggest that Dave is just an imaginary person dreamed up by Hurley. I'd have to go back and watch this episode again, but it does seem in this scene the therapist was responding to Dave. Shades of "A Sixth Sense"? perhaps.
On the island Hurley admits to Libby (his dream girlfriend) that he has an eating problem. He shows her his food stash. She inspires him to destroy all the food so he'll not have that temptation. He and Libby are about to kiss when Jin and Sun come running by. Again "Lost's" quirky humor is displayed. Jin and Sun are running to a pallet of food that has just been dropped on the island. (The Dharma Initiative is running an experiment right?) Again Hurley sees Dave and chases after him into the jungle.
Back in the hatch Jack is working with Locke and taking care of him. He's helping him recover from the spikes of the blast doors going down into his legs. Locke is frustrated by this setback. I love Kate and Jack's offer of getting him the wheelchair, which he angrily rejects. This is his wheelchair that he no longer needed once they crashed on the island. He reluctantly accepts the crutches as that at least will give him some mobility. After all Locke is a man of action and won't sit idly by.
Henry Gale, actually Ben Linus, finally admits that he's an Other. The Oceanic 815 survivors never believed his story. Linus says he's not lying anymore, which I don't believe. I think he's just beginning his lies. In the previous episode Locke was caught in the blast doors and had to rely on Gale to put in the numbers in the computer. Now Henry tells him that he didn't input the numbers. When the clock reached 0 some hieroglyphics came up and the clock reset back to 108 minutes. I actually believe Henry on that. I never believed that anything was going to happen if the clock reached 0. I thought that was part of the Dharma Initiative experiment. We know Linus is telling the truth about the hieroglyphics as we've seen them before.
Henry had a chance to escape, but didn't. Why? We know that nearly everything that Gale says is a lie. He only uses half-truths if he needs to. He's pretending like he's scared of the group of Others he's a part of. Again I don't believe the Others are scary, they are just putting on some sort of elaborate production. We've seen the theatrical glue and fake beards they use. We also know they can appear anywhere on the island because of the elaborate and wide reaching hatches. As a "Lost" character suggested Gale (Linus) was caught on purpose. This is a good chance for him to scout out the crash survivors. Again do we believe that he's scared of his Others. No to me it's more likely that he's the leader of the Others.
At the end of the episode we are back in Hurley's flashback. It's the same scene of the therapist taking Hurley's and "Dave's" picture. However this scene is shot from a different angle, as the camera swivels around we see an unkempt Libby. Although on the island she says that she's a clinical psychologist, we actually see that's she one of the patients. She seems to be much less coherent than Hurley. So what does that mean? What is the truth? Just what is going on?
I love all the riddles that are going on in this show. One could spend hours trying to connect all the dots.
Finally the Dallas Cowboys played a very mediocre game against a very mediocre team in Seattle yesterday. Thankfully Dallas won the game, but what is that worth? This team is a very average team and probably won't make the playoffs. They shouldn't make the playoffs. If Chicago beats Philadelphia tonight Dallas would be all alone in second place in the NFC East.
Anyway the Cowboys added three more players to their Ring of Honor yesterday. They added wide receiver extrodinare Drew Pearson. They also added offensive lineman/ stud Larry Allen and the fierce defensive intimidator Charles Haley. Besides Super Bowls and great individual play, what else is a link between these three players?
I'm sure you can come up with many other commonalities, but the link I'm suggesting is they all played with a great quarterback. Pearson played in the days of Roger Staubach and Allen and Haley played in the days of Troy Aikman.
Again Romo is nowhere in the same league as Staubach or Aikman and never will be. He's proved over and over again that he's a slightly above average quarterback. In upcoming Ring of Honor inductees Romo's name won't be one of those. I don't care how many regular season yards he throws for, players that only have one playoff win shouldn't be inducted. I don't expect Romo to get another playoff win in his career. He certainly won't get one this year. The only way I see Romo getting a second playoff win if the rest of the team around is so good that they can win in spite of him. (See Alex Smith in San Francisco.) How long will us Dallas Cowboys fans have to settle for the mediocrity of Tony Romo?
I'm not impressed with the current Cowboys. From this team I see DeMarcus Ware and Jason Witten as future members of the Ring of Honor. I can't see anyone else that would qualify on this current roster.
I've been a Cowboy fan for so long, but again I'm thinking about changing teams. My other two teams are Tampa Bay and San Francisco. I could see myself being a 49er fan. They are a team that has had many Mormons, which is my faith, on their team. That includes the great Steve Young. Also they are a team that doesn't have a lot of off field distractions. Dallas has seem to have had too many off field distractions and malcontents. That's from Hollywood Henderson, to the mid 90's so called White House, to Charles Haley and his penis. I'd never expect a professional football team to have similar values as myself, but the 49ers are a lot closer than the Cowboys.
Also the 49ers seem to have a coach of character and that knows how to win in Jim Harbaugh. I think that Jason Garrett is a man of character. However he has shown he'll never be the next Jimmy Johnson, but at least he'll never be the next Wade Phillips. The 49ers General Manager and ownership seem to have a solid plan in place to have long term success. I couldn't even tell you who the owner of the 49ers are. I've long noticed the more you know about a team's owner, the less the quality of that team. Now Alex Smith will never be an amazing quarterback, quite simply he is what he is. However Harbaugh has developed a plan that maximizes Smith's abilities but doesn't hurt the team very much. Imagine how good that team will be when they get a top flight quarterback.
It also helps San Francisco that they play in the brutally bad NFC West. After playing 8 games and a 7-1 record, San Francisco leads second place Seattle and Arizona by 5 games. Assuming the 49ers continue to play at this high level I see a long run in the playoffs for them. I project that they'll be the #2 seed in the NFC Playoffs, trailing only Green Bay. In all likelihood the 49ers will be at home resting while other teams beat up each other in wild card weekend. Then in their first playoff game the 49ers will be playing at home. Depending on how they are playing and how their opponent is playing they may or may not advance to the NFC Championship Game. They quite likely will be playing Green Bay who will probably win that game.
Meanwhile Dallas will stumble along and probably finish with about a 8-8 record, that also seems to be about the path that Tampa Bay is on also.
themusicaddict
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