Should've Gone Bowling Instead

It's Monday, so like Fridays, that signifies a recurring post - and on Mondays, it's The Starting Nine. This is when I run down a list of 9 things, with no specific rhyme or reason to the topics. So here we go.

1. Went golfing today with my brother and grandparents, for the first time this year. Despite having previously only hit one bucket of balls at the range and chipped for about 15 minutes, I thought I did pretty well. The 55 over 9 holes is deceiving, because 7 of the 9 holes were played at one-over bogey golf. It would've been an exceptional first time out, had it not been for the 1st and 8th holes - where I golfed a pair of strikes. That's a nice way of saying that I shot 10's on both holes. Apparently I thought I was at a bowling alley instead of a golf course.

2. Finally finally FINALLY - the sun came out this weekend and it was excellent. Stayed out just long enough for me to jump in the ocean twice up in Maine, and then the thunder came. Oh well.

3. It's a little weird going up to our trailer in York Beach nowadays, because I'm four/five years older than anyone else under 20. Not exactly the age of people I'd prefer to spend time/play wiffleball/go to the beach with, but what can you do? We had our time with friends our own age years ago, and we knew it wouldn't last forever.

What Keeps Me Going...and What Doesn't

It's Friday. As that will from now on signify, it's time for the Friday Fives - when I run down a Top 5 and Worst 5 in a given topic. For the inaugural lists, I'm taking inspiration from the 2-miler I ran through the twilight tonight, and running down the Top 5 Running Songs In My Experience, and the Worst 5 Songs I've Found Myself Running To That My iPod Pulled Up on Shuffle.

Top 5 Running Songs In My Experience

5. All These Things That I've Done by The Killers
It's kind of a wildcard pick, I'll agree with that. But it's an upbeat song, and has a pretty constant feel all the way through - perfect for pacing. The lead singer may have said that the "I got soul, but I'm not a soldier" bit might not mean diddly squat, but that section in the song is a highlight regardless. Plus it was the song in my favorite Nike ad in recent memory:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ae3tFI8wXE.

4. Sweet Child O' Mine by Guns N' Roses
It was a tough call here between this or Welcome to the Jungle, which is what I presume most people would pick. And while Jungle is a great song, I just happen to like the guitars in Sweet Child O' Mine better. The riff is classic, the solos are incredible, and the guitars just have a really clean sound. Clocking in at just about 6 minutes in length, it's a really handy stopwatch when trying to fly through a mile at a near-sprint.

AL All-Star Shortstops - Ripken, Garciaparra, Jeter...Bartlett???

I figured that, as voting winds down for the 80th MLB All-Star Game/Popularity Contest (c'mon people...I love Junior to death, he's one of my favorite players, but - 7th?!?!? The man is hitting .220!), it was about time that I posted my ballot. I mean, what else am I going to do - I can count the number of days it hasn't rained over the past month on my fingers.

American League

1B - Kevin Youkilis, Red Sox (I know Morneau and Big Tex have better stats - but I can't vote for Big Tex, he's a Yankee. And I still haven't forgiven Morneau for stealing the HR Derby last year. As a good friend of mine once opined, you vote for the guys on your team if they're close to the top. Youk certainly is.)

2B - Aaron Hill, Blue Jays (Kinsler is having the best year stat-wise, but I felt like if I voted for him, I was voting too much against Pedroia. Since there was no way I could justify voting for Pedroia, Hill was the next-best option. He's having a breakout year - nearly Kinsler's equal - and plus, he played Double-A ball half an hour down the road in Manchester for the Fisher Cats.)

CEVR Part 2

So here it is, finally - after an extended break, I've finally gotten my act together, crunched the numbers, and figured out what the #1 movie of all time is according to CEVR (Critical and Entertainment Value Rating). But first, a little analysis of the results. As previously stated, The Godfather was the only movie to be on all three lists (Metacritic, Rotten Tomatoes, and IMDb), while Dr. Strangelove (Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes), Pulp Fiction (Metacritic and IMDb), and Return of the King (Metacritic and IMDb) were the only other movies to be on more than one. Metacritic had 9 movies exclusive to its Top 13, which had an average CEVR of 90.6, Rotten Tomatoes had 11 exclusive movies with an average CEVR of 90, and IMDb had 10 exclusive movies with an average CEVR of 90.3. Among the following list of the Top 15 movies, Metacritic and IMDb both had 4 exclusive movies, while Rotten Tomatoes had 3. Without further ado, the Top 15 movies of all time according to CEVR (asterisks denoting that Metacritic scores weren't available) -

Who's Our MJ???

All the weirdness aside, all the alleged child molestation aside, all the naming his kid Blanket aside - Michael Jackson was an incredible artist. Incredible songs, incredible talent. There's a reason they call him the King of Pop. And while I can't say he's my favorite artist of all time, there's no denying that some of his stuff - especially Beat It, the guitar riff is one of my favorites - is well, incredible. There won't be another like him for a long, long time...if at all.

It got me thinking, as I sat on the couch watching the coverage of his death - "this is what it must have been like when Elvis died." My grandparents' generation's seminal entertainer was Elvis, my parents' was Jackson (the Beatles being the age group in between). And I suddenly had a startling thought - who is ours? And, more interestingly - do we even have one?

Going all Bill James on Movies - CEVR

I love comparative statistics. Can't get enough of them. There's something about discovering how something is better than another thing that I just find fascinating. Maybe that's why I enjoy fantasy sports so much. But that's another story. Tonight (and tomorrow) I want to delve into something else that has statistics readily available online - movies. Friday's release and subsequent warm reception of the Sam Raimi-directed Drag Me to Hell is what got me really thinking specifically about the 3 main sites which track statistics on how good a movie is judged to be: Metacritic, Rotten Tomatoes, and IMDb.

Drag Me to Hell will certainly not be in the running for any major best-of awards at the end of the year - yet it is among the year's best-reviewed movies to date, holding a score of 82 on Metacritic, a 94% and "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and a user rating of 8.2 on IMDb. For those unfamiliar with how these sites arrive at these scores, here's a brief summary.

1) Metacritic takes the average numerical scores given to a movie in a review (and when no score is given, it's approximated)
2) Rotten Tomatoes decides if a review is merely positive and negative - the percent denotes how many reviews are positive
3) IMDb allows users to rate the movie themselves
*For more info, visit the respective websites*

Whoops

So yeah...I kind of forgot about this. School will do that to you. But it's summer now, so I'm going to do my best to keep this going at a pretty consistent rate. It's about time I did. And that's all I've got for now.