Was kinda shocked to read the news that Chris Penn was found dead in his Santa Monica home yesterday at the tender age of 40 or 43. Until, that is, I saw the most recent picture of Penn wherein he's looking, well, let's call it "not quite the picture of health." His latest jawn, the now sort of eerily monickered The Darwin Awards, is set to be screened at Sundance. I've got an e-mail out to my Sundance correspondent, Andy Williams, to check on the mood.
There will probably be lots of hand-wringing on both sides of this story wherein the Astros are attempting to avoid paying the bulk of the final year ($17 million) of Jeff Bagwell's contract because he's been hobbled and in decline for the last few years thanks in no small part to a shoulder condition for which he had capsular release surgery (right) performed. The ’Stros want Bagwell declared unable to perform or something like that so they can file an insurance claim that'll net them $15.6 million. Bagwell would need to retire for this to happen, something the Hall of Fame-bound slugger ain't having. Of course, this would be a pretty crummy way for the organization to part ways with a guy who's spent his entire major league career with it, but then again, $17 million is a high price to pay for sentiment, and since it's not a matter of screwing Bagwell out of his money, but a pre-agreed term of the contract, I say bravo to the Astros for making a prudent if unpopular business decision. That said, it seems unlikely that it'll work out well for anyone involved. Bagwell's no longer a $17 million a year player (and it's unlikely he ever will be again), but pride -- ooh, that pride, it gets you -- is driving him to prove he's fully recovered from last year's surgery. Conversely, the Astros $15.6 million would be better spent trying to convince another relic -- this one with a recent history of stellar performance -- to rejoin the squad. Stay tuned for ongoing coverage of this public relations debacle.
Seeing this ad ("It's like a nut you can play outside") for Sony's PSP filled me with the kind of awe I've only experienced once or twice over a televised signal — the last time being some 5 or 6 years ago when I first saw MTV's too-good-for-its-own-good Sifl & Olly. It's a sort of "This is so screwed up, and I love it, and I can't believe there's someone who finds this as funny as I do" kind of feeling. Saw it for the first time with my friend Pat — we were just hanging out on the couch half-watching TV — and we were both stopped cold when it aired. (We were also hanging when I first saw S&O.) Found it online and sent it to my favorite squirrel fanatic McKenna who had it up on his blog in a matter of seconds. Reaction in the gaming world to the spot was typically mixed. The accompanying "Carpet you can watch outside" ad done by the same folks was amusing, but slightly less so.
Not even sure if I disovered this this year. I actually saw it in the November 2004 issue of Arthur Magazine, which I'm fairly positive I didn't come into possession of until sometime in the oh five. It's by a guy named Tom Gauld, and you can find it in his new book, Robots, Monsters, Etc. Of all the goofy nods and winks in this, I love "The Floating Skull" most of all.
It's not so odd that I picked up Michela Wrong's I Didn't Do It For You: How the World Betrayed a Small African Nation. What's odd is that I finished it. I'm all about starting books. Not so big on finishing them. But when I picked up Ms. Wrong's (gotta love the name) journalistic account of Eritrea's struggle from independence from Ethiopia, I honestly couldn't stop coming back to it. First off, Eritrea's a country that as of a few years ago, I (a map and geography junkie as a kid) didn't even know existed. Second, Wrong's just a flat-out amazing writer. Her opening descriptions of Eritrea's blast-furnace climate, craggy topography and time-warp Italian architecture hooked me (made me want to visit, truth be told); her accounting of the country's heroic, ascetic, supported-by-nobody secession movement was romantic; and her dissection of the newly independent country's fall into despotic bickering tragic. When I discovered that The Economist named it one of the year's best books, I felt kind of validated. I can't recommend it enough.
Mainly, its technology already is on the majority of home and business computers, and when the Windows Media Player arrives in its next iteration, the inclusion of Urge means users will not have to download additional software.Urge, natch, is what the unholy Gates/MTV tag-team will call their new service. And correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Microsoft get into a little hot water with the whole bundling thing back with the whole IEv.5 v. Netscape jawn?
