Snap Judgment: Where the Wild Things Are Trailer

This is just an update on yesterday's post: the first Where the Wild Things Are trailer has been unleashed. Let's just say the unbridled enthusiasm for the movie I had yesterday is even less bridled today. Arcade Fire's presence just puts it over the top. Enjoy.

The Differ: Where the Wild Things Are

We (mostly I) at The Differ have schizophrenic interests. I distract myself with music, movies, reading/writing and sports, in that order. In the interest of addressing more of our distractions, we will occasionally post something non-sports related. While sports occasionally rises to greater heights, it is rarely more than that, a distraction, to us. Music, movies and literature can speak much more profoundly to me than a game. To avoid worsening heavy-handedness, here is the introductory non-sports related post:

Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are occupies a simple, nostalgic place in many of our hearts. Which is why thousands cringed upon hearing of the book's impending adaptation to a live-action feature film. Few (yours truly excluded) found relief in the news of Spike Jonze taking the reins. It was still likely to be sullied by Hollywood's dumpster-diving hands. Things looked to be headed this way as reshoots and rumors began to pile up. Then images began to leak from production. Doubts began to disappear, or at least lessen. (Unless I dreamt that. It's likely I did.)

In spite of my love for Spike Jonze, I have held cautious optimism for this project, even with the stunning leaks. That was until last week when I saw the teaser poster (pictured above). Then today's USA Today photo slideshow put it into the so-dangerously-optimistic-that-nothing-save-the-Rapture-could-possibly-live-up-to-these-expectations mode. This movie will be impressive. These stills capture the essential atmosphere and feeling of the book.
Many (maybe most) die-hard fans of the book will be up in arms over the changes that Jonze and screenwriter Dave Eggers have made. But having notoriously-guarded Sendak's blessing for Jonze to "make [it his] own thing" is reason enough to put unrealistically high expectations on it.
They say this will come out in October.

Progress Report: Experimental March Insanity

Due to a cease and desist letter sent to us by the attorneys for this organization and this network we have changed the name of this feature to Experimental March Insanity. Here's a brief recap of the project for those of you who are too lazy to scroll down half a page and read the previous post: we are using methods other than the traditional "gut feeling" to pick our basketball tournament brackets.

The results so far: picking by higher seeds has been highly effective in this year of no Cinderellas, picking 14 of 16 Sweet Sixteen teams correctly. Sorry Arizona, you don't count. Cinderella can't be a team that has won a championship in the last 15 years.

Choosing based on RPI has been unsuprisingly effective as well, correctly selecting 12 of 16 Sweet Sixteen teams. Coming in at third place thus far is selections based on the corresponding women's teams RPI ranking, with 9 of 16 correct selections.

Bringing up the rear is the method selecting the universities with the most recent founding dates, with only 1 of 16 teams correct and 0 possible points remaining.

The Great March Madness Experiment 2009

Winning a March Madness pool is not a science. We know this because sports ignorance, senility, dementia and cranial airiness are not hindrances to winning. They may in fact be advantages. Extensive viewing, analyzing and talking-head listening does not give you an advantage over Doris from accounting or Randy the guy who sleeps under the table and eats his own nail clippings.
So we at The Differ (click on that to see what magical world lies behind) decided to perform an experiment. We have selected 12 methods for filling out a bracket to see which one will fare the best. While we understand that none of these hold any scientific merit, we just wanted to see what might work.
We set up an ESPN group and filled out a bracket for each of the twelve methods we selected. You can follow this link to watch our group's progress after the tourney starts tomorrow. Here are the methods:

• Alternating Seeds (The I'm Bored Method)- In the first round all of the higher seeds win, second round all the lower seeds win, third round higher seeds, and so forth. Since the Final Four features the same seeds, from there we alternated based on their RPI ranking.
• Higher Seeds (The I'm Lazy Method)- Higher seeds win straight through. In the Final Four we used RPI rankings again.
• Offense (The I Like Allen Iverson Method)- The team with the higher average points scored moves on.
• Defense (The There's No "I" in Team Method)- The team with the lower average points allowed moves on. (Does defense win championships?)
• Women's RPI (The Realization That There's Women's Basketball Method)- This is based on the RPI of the team's women's counterparts. The higher RPI moves on.
• Mascots (The I Like T-Shirt Cannons Method)- Whoever I think has the better mascot wins. While mostly arbitrary, I did set up a few ground rules on this one. If your team's nickname is shared by another team in the tourney, you are eliminated. However, if both teams in a matchup are eliminated, then I pick the better one.
• Coin Flip (The I've Got to Find a Use for This Penny Method)- This one is self-explanatory. (I'm being told to not be so presumptuous, so here.)
• Alphabetical (The English Teacher Method)- The team whose is alphabetically first moves on.
• Reverse Alphabetical (The Really Bad English Teacher Method)- The reverse of that.
• Founding Year (The History-Buff Method)- Which ever school in a matchup was founded first moves on.
• Reverse Founding Year (The I Only Go Back So Far With My Dates Method)- The newer school gets to pass.
• RPI (The I Can't Trust My Own Instincts Method)- The higher RPI ranked team moves on.
  

So those be the methods. We will not reveal the brackets yet, we want there to be some suspense. But we'll see who gets what. I would ask for you good luck wishes, but we don't need it now. We all win like this.

Snap Judgment: Karl Malone is not a Facetious

Apparently, Karl wants to slap some senators for saying something inflammatory that Dr. Sean says they said (got that?). Maybe he should first slap the definition of inflammatory that is an arm's length away to his left.

Snap Judgment: Chief Kickingstallionsims, Greatest Name Ever?

Yes. Combining the inherent awesomeness of a certain four-letter surname with the ferocity of equine Kung Fu is a surefire path to greatness. The 7'1" Alabama St. senior center, while otherwise statistically irrelevant, set this NCAA season's mark for most blocked shots in a game with 11 in February. Even though this man of Navajo heritage will likely go the way of other awesomely-monikered players such as God Shammgod, I am firmly on the Grlenntys Chief Kickingstallionsims, Jr. bandwagon. That's all.

Beg the Differ: Sergei and Trevor's Crazy Adventure Time

Do you want this guy taking over for your twelve-year-old?

Corban: How's it going?'

7 minutes

me: Fine.

16 minutes

me: That was it?

Corban: For now.

me: Okay, just checking.

Corban: I'm just bored.

me: Aha.

Corban: So, anything new going on?

me: Nopers.

Do you want to hear the worst sports movie idea ever?

Corban: yes

me: Ashton Kutcher will star in a comedy about "a superstar NFL quarterback and a 12-year-old geek who magically trade bodies, then learn valuable lessons about humility and courage."

Corban: Are they actually making that movie?

me: Apparently.

Corban: Hasn't that movie been made a couple of times?

Once with Lindsay Lohan and another time with Dudley Moore and the religious guy from Growing Pains?

me: It was originally called "Freaky Friday." I think they may be on to something. Combine a crappy Disney movie with a sports-lite theme, add a crappy name actor and you've got an audience full of 12 year old girls and their cougar moms.

Two professional basketball stars, one an Eastern European long-distance center and one American lumbering big man play against each other one night, oblivious to the fact they look exactly the same. Suddenly, down in the low block they turn and look at each other. Wham! They realize they're twins!

Corban: Starring Carrillo Fesko?

Sorry I recently heard Hot Rod attempt to say his name.

me: Yes and starring Sharon Stone as the American mother who raised the lumberjack and Yakov Smirnoff as the Eastern European father.

Corban: And Brian Dennehy as the tough coach with a heart of gold.

Featuring the Olsen twins as the conflicted love interests of our heroes.

Conflicted only in the sense that they don't know whether or not to eat a sandwich.

me: My favorite scenes are when Trevor teaches Sergei how to "make it rain" and when Sergei teaches Trevor how to wear flip flops in the shower.

Corban: Wait, I thought you said he was Eastern European.

Why would he be in the shower?

me: Because he's in the U.S. In Svenalonia, he had to wear flip flops to avoid the goat droppings while washing off under a bucket.

23 minutes

Corban: Does this movie have a title?

me: It's called Sergei and Trevor's Crazy Adventure Time

Corban: Oh, so it's a foreign film.

me: A little foreign, a little Country

Corban: Wait, it's a little foreign country?

me: Let's just say it's part foreign film, part Western.

Snap Judgments: Shaq's Feuds

It's getting hard to find someone in this league with whom Shaq hasn't had a feud. The latest Hatfield to his McCoy, the Harvard to his Yale, the Krispy Kreme to his Dunkin Donuts is Stan Van Gundy.
Wait, Stan Van Gundy? I heard what SVG said about Shaq and his flopping. It was obviously said in jest. It was said with a smile and in a pleasing tone. And then Shaq brings SVG's brother (JVG) and Patrick Ewing into it.
Wait, Patrick Ewing? Didn't he retire in 1978? Shaq must have noticed that his star has slipped on SportsCenter. He hasn't been getting the airtime that he used to. Apparently he's smart enough to realize that he only makes news when he says or does something to criticize another player and/or coach (see his rap performance about the flavor of a certain player's posterior and who should sample that particular flavor).
I propose that SportsCenter be required to show a certain quota of Shaq highlights per week so they don't feel compelled to air 4 minutes worth of his rants every time he gets offended. If SVG's words are enough to get you this riled up maybe your manhood isn't what you thought, Shaq.

Snap Judgement:Return of the Dread-i

Manny Ramirez finally re-signed with the Dodgers after four months of haggling over a price that never changed. Essentially, Scott Boras bought his client a couple of extra weeks of vacation but nothing else. He didn't get him anymore money. He didn't get him extra years. He didn't get him incentive clauses. In fact, as a pre-requisite to the contract the Dodgers are forcing Manny to make a $1 million donation to their charitable organization. He also has to show up for the groundbreaking on some youth league fields. I have full confidence that Manny would have done that anyway, seeing as he's essentially 12 years old, but still. I hope he at least got a haircut waiver from Joe Torre.

All that being said, if I was a player, I would hire Scott Boras in an instant.

Snap Judgment: T.O. Tossed in the Dumpster

So, Terrell Owens is no longer Cowboy. I'm not sure how to feel about this. I mean, they seemed to deserve each other. I get all too much pleasure seeing Jerry Jones sign delinquents. But, T.O.'s obvious bipolar disorder (or Dissociative Identity Disorder) gives him a little sympathy on my part. I know, that was a dumb thing for me to say. After all I'm supposed to deride the obvious basket case as being a "locker room cancer" (whatever that means) and a selfish player. Yet, no matter how hard I try I cannot help but see the caring man beneath the facade of pomposity and exhibitionism. I'm not being at all facetious. I think T.O. is a good guy when out of the spotlight. He just needs help to re-align his personalities. Which would pave his way to Soldier Field. Our locker room did just get less interesting with the departure of Sexy Rexy.

On a slightly related note, is it TARE-ul or is it tur-ELL? Or is it both depending on whether it's public TO or private TO?

Snap Judgment: Dwayne Wade's Band-Aid Ban

("Snap Judgments" will be a regular feature that provides unneeded analysis on recent news items (sports, movies, tv, etc.). We understand that this will make The Differ a little more digestible.)

The NBA league office has banned Dwayne Wade's use of personalized bandages under his left eye. What seems odd to me about this is not so much the ban, but the way they sent it out. This would have been a matter easily taken care of behind closed doors. No one would have really noticed. But they chose to make a public statement on the matter. "A player can wear a Band-Aid for healthcare purposes, but it shouldn't have any name or identifications on it," said NBA spokesman Tim Frank.
After all, The integrity of the NBA cannot be compromised by immature individuals advertising themselves with tacky pronouncements.