Hello,
Yesterday I was able to go see the excellent movie "Selma". Although it's opening week in wide release for the movie, I was sad to see the movie was only half full. People who aren't seeing it, are missing an amazing movie. David Oyelowo plays Martin Luther King Jr. with the right mix of reality and humanity. King certainly made his share of mistakes, but those only show how much of a human he is. Those weaknesses only highlight his many strengths. In a review I read somewhere it stated even people who make mistakes can still achieve greatness. This movie is the story of that!
Carmen Ejogo, as Coretta Scott King, also is amazing as the tough but tender wife. She knows all about King's infidelities but she still remains a strength to her man.
Then the only word I can use for Ava Duvernay's masterful direction of the movie is Spielbergian. I only mean that in the best way possible. No disrespect to either, in fact only the utmost respect. Duvernay certainly has to be considered for a Oscar for her amazing directorial job. I can't wait to see her next movie.
Last night I finished Ernest Cline's "Ready Player One", not as good as "Selma" but good enough. Set mostly inside the virtual world of OASIS, a huge and complex game like world the novel brings back a lot of memories. One of the creators of Oasis, James Halliday, dies he creates a very intricate and complex game. The winner of which will be in control of Oasis. Wade Watts is the hero of the book. Over a several year journey he makes friends, fights again an evil corporation and spends way too much time in a virtual world.
Halliday's formative years were during the 80s, so there are a lot of pop cultural references to that amazing decade. As an old person I appreciated all of those, although I was never much of a gamer so there are probably a few references I missed.
Granted his real life world is terrible, but living in a virtual world for so many hours a day... ? Isn't that the most boring life one could live. I say this as someone who spends several hours a day on the internet, but I'm always in touch with the so-called "real world". After Watts' OASIS journey is over I think that Watts realizes the same thing. That's why I think the last sentence of the book is so fitting for all of us: "It occurred to me then that for the first time in as long as I could remember, I had absolutely no desire to log back into the OASIS".
In my opinion the sign of reading a good book is that it makes one want to pick up another book and immediately start reading it. This book did that for sure.
Football: Finally and thankfully the Cowboys were finally knocked out of the playoffs. I was glad that I had church during most of the game so I didn't even follow it on-line. I was glad to heard they lost. Growing up my favorite team was the Dallas Cowboys, however I hate how much of a circus that Jerry Jones has turned the team into. Jones has turned the once former greatest football franchise into a reflection of him, which is exactly why they've been so bad the last several years. If they had continued winning Jones would have interpreted that he was doing the right thing. But he has done very little right, it's obvious other people have been making the decisions for the last couple of years. How can I tell, well they went from 8-8 to 12-4 in one season. The credit will go to Tony Romo, Dez Bryant and DeMarco Murray. Should any credit go to Jason Garrett, come on! Anyone that knows anything has realized he's a puppet.
But let's be honest the credit should go to that amazing offensive line and the amazing job that Rod Marinelli did with the defense. The fact that he got that defense to be slightly above average is a tribute to his coaching abilities.
Cowboy fans enjoy your team's one year of relevance because it will be a brief mirage. Someone will come wanting Marinelli coaching their defense or maybe even a head coach. Then I'm guessing there are several teams out there that will overpay Murray to join their team. Then without that amazing offensive line and how much he was overworked this season he will regress. He'll be a shell of himself next season, no matter the team he plays with. I predict he'll return to his injury prone ways.
Tony Romo will come back one year older and more brittle, he'll still have that amazing offensive line protecting him. Too bad the Cowboys will be paying Romo about $27 million next season. That and after they overpay Bryant, about 60% of their salary cap will go to two of their players. The Cowboys will then return to reality and not a moment too soon.
Speaking of getting overpaid, that's going to be the case with Jason Garrett. After a perfect storm of favorable factors that lead this team to actually making the playoffs and even more incredibly winning a playoff game Jerry is going to show his love to his puppet. Jones will be throwing a lot of money in the direction of Garrett. As usual with Jones, he'll overpay someone that has already peaked. See Tony Romo, Miles Austin and dozens of others. Without all the favorable factors that made this Cowboys team relevant, the Garrett boat will start to sink. My guess in a couple of years Jones, if still alive, will not be able to get rid of Garrett fast enough.
As a former fan that would love to jump back on the bandwagon, the Jones family must go. Also their puppet head coach, overpaid and underperforming quarterback and their obnoxious wide receiver must go. I'm not sure how the Cowboys still have so many fans. They have to be the most annoying NFL team of the last several years.
I will keep on cheering on the 49ers and Bucs for the time being.
Yesterday I watched the Seahawks-Panthers game. The Seahawks are so fun to watch, especially their defense. Cam Chancellor was all over the place and it was a fun game to watch.
I also watched what I hope was the last game for Peyton Manning tonight. He's just not the same quarterback he was even last year. Peyton, you've had a long distinguished career and it's been great. However it's time to move on to your next challenge. Thanks for all the memories, even though I was never a fan of either of your teams. But I always thought you were a pretty stand up guy!!
Monday night is finally a real college football championship game. As fun as it is to watch the Seahawks for their defense, it's just as fun to watch the Oregon Ducks because of their offense. This is such a great time of the year for football.
themusicaddict
