NHL Playoffs – Second Round Preview

The first round’s over and as always there was some great, high-tempo, heavy-hitting hockey. Some stray thoughts:

1. The Boston-Toronto series was, for me, a big disappointment. It was nowhere near as physical as a lot of people (myself included) thought it would be. I was actually hoping the Leafs would pull it off, so that there would be a little more Canadian flavor to the second round, but things ended in predictably disastrous fashion for the Leafs. A highlight for the Leafs, though, was the play of Grabovski, who despite not putting up points, didn’t give up on a single play, getting run over time and time again, but getting right back up.
2. What Toronto and Boston lacked in craziness, the Canadiens and Senators made up for. I hadn’t seen an actual line brawl in a long time and there it was, happening between two teams that rarely engage in fisticuffs. Montreal’s lack of discipline killed them. Karlsson didn’t play as large a part of the Senators success as I thought he would.
3. John Tavares gets better and better with age. The team around him is growing up, too. Watch out for them in the next couple of years.
4. The highlight of the first round was definitely Niklas Kronwall’s beautiful hit on Kyle Palmieri, the crowd’s reaction to the hit and the following “You got Kronwall’d” chant.

And now, on to the second round.

Early Summer, Late Afternoon

I’m sitting on the rooftop terrace of a 3-story coffee shop with an Italian name. According to the electronic device in my hand, and the sweat on my brow, the temperature is 29 degrees. According to my eyes it’s a sunny, hazy afternoon. There’s a nice breeze blowing, though, which keeps me comfortable, while I sip my caffeine-laced, iced drink.

The downtown core, which I can observe from my seat is crowded equally by cars and pedestrians. Summer apparel is out in full force; men in shorts and polo-shirts, women in breezy summer dresses, mini-skirts or hot pants and Ts.

There’s an outdoor event promoting the new shopping mall that opened recently. I can’t see it from where I sit, but the children, walking here and there, carrying balloons that sport the mall’s logo tells me it’s happening.

Further down the street there’s a band playing on the sidewalk. A small throng of people stand in the shade watching them. I hear Mmm Bop by the Hansons followed by an equally boppy Korean song. The music fits the day perfectly.

Every few minutes or so a group or couple of Westerners strolls by, the men sticking out in the crowd with their light colored hair and long legs, the women by their chubbiness; the petit-ness of Korean women making their western sisters seem huge by comparison.

All along the street, every window seat of every restaurant and cafe from first floor to fifth is occupied. Those patrons sit there as I do, drinking or eating, watching the street from their air-conditioned environs. Later they will go outside, making statements about the heat, as they move on to their next climate-controlled destination.

Books for April

South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami: There’s a definite trend of similarity which runs through Murakami’s work. The awkward young man, who loves a messed-up, pseudo-ethereal woman and his struggles to find himself will be familiar to anyone who has read at least one of his books. Despite that I keep finding myself engrossed in his books with their sad, mysterious and weird characters who live in a very real world that is sometimes interrupted by moments of surreal existentialism. They are wonderful reads, this one included, and I like to think of them as a series rather than standalone books, and that works just great for me.

The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: As the title says, this is a collection of every short story Hemingway ever published. There’s not much I can say about them, other than that they are good and this is a good book to carry around with you for when you need a little inspiration for your own writing. They’re also good stories for bedtime reading, since they are short and won’t keep you up all night, like the next book in this post will.

Under the Dome by Stephen King: This book’s a monster at over a thousand pages, but I’m guessing you’ll get through it pretty quickly. It’s hard to put down. There’s a ton of characters and thick plot that moves along very quickly. In Big Jim Rennie, this book has a character that much like Cersei Lannister in the Song of Ice and Fire series, is so hateable that you will read on just in the hopes of seeing him get his comeuppance. Overall a very entertaining read. On a side note, this is being turned into a mini-series on CBS to be aired this summer. I can’t see how a tv version, especially on CBS can depict some of the savagery that adds to the menacing feeling of the book, but who knows, it could be good.

Mad Toy by Roberto Arlt: Translated meticulously by Michele Aynesworth, this is the story of a young man, a teenager actually, who struggles with his place in society and the expectations of his family. He wants to be a great man, but finds himself trapped in the lower class of early 20th century Argentina. Arlt drops a lot of slang and cultural references from that time period into his book and Aynesworth provides footnotes for all of them, making the book somewhat of a history lesson as well. This is a really interesting and thought provoking little book.

Playoffs – Eastern Conference Preview

After a great Sunday game between the Bruins and the Senators the East is all set for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The final placings didn’t work out how I would have liked them to, but there’s sure to be some great hockey coming up.

Ideally, I would have loved to have seen a Canadiens-Maple Leafs match up. I’m a Montréal fan and a Leafs hater and watching two of the oldest rivals in pro-sports play each other would have been great–it’s been far too long since they last met in the playoffs. That being said, I’m sure the Bruins-Leafs series will be fun to watch as both teams have a good deal of rough and tumble to them. Also, a team that I’ve come to like a lot over the last half-decade are the Islanders, but unfortunately for them, they drew the Penguins in the first round, which is definitely bad news for them. Anyways, lots to look forward to.

On to the predictions:

Amazing Student Diary Entry

Title:  In the academy

I studied the math. It wasn’t
palaces
because bathroom is a dirty paint
But It was a great bath
room.
I was a happy
It was a great time

Playoffs – Western Conference Preview

It’s spring and that means two things for me: spastic allergic reactions to pollen and the arrival of the NHL playoffs. The latter came a little late this year, but at least they’re here, which is good considering that the lockout came very close to washing out the whole season.

We’ll have to wait until tomorrow to know who exactly will play whom in the East, but the West is all ready to go, so I’ll start with them.

Boston

The Boston Marathon bombing was a sad event all around. People violently dying and being horribly injured for no reason, the media machine drooling and slobbering all over it, and the inevitable consequences for civil liberty such an event causes. Some thoughts: 

Things That Piss Me Off #1/#2

1. Assholes moving my scooter. Nothing sends me into a murderous rage quite like going outside to find that someone has messed with my ride. Seriously, it makes me want to kill someone. It happened for the dozenth time the other day. And this time, not only did they move it, but they also damaged the side panel by pinning it up against a wall made of cinder blocks, scraping the shit out of it in the process. So, basically, unless you want something bad to happen to you, stop touching my fuckin’ bike. Here, I’ll let Leighton Meester further explain the concept to you:
2. Outdoor speaker systems. Why in-the-hell would city authorities think it’s a good idea to set up speakers in parks and along every bike or running path in the city? Does a lack of noise make you uncomfortable? Tired of silence, calm, and serenity? Don’t they know that forcing music on people is used as a form of torture in some places? When I’m sitting in a park or walking along the river I sure as shit don’t want to have to listen to some crappy K-pop song, some random classical piece, an old Elvis song or Somewhere Over-the goddamn-Rainbow; I want to hear nothing besides the melody that nature provides. If other people want to listen to music, they can bring along a friggin’ mp3 player.

   

Game of Thrones: Follow Up

I did it. I watched the first episode of Game of Thrones and, sadly, I shan’t be watching anymore.

Thanks for the effort, HBO, but watching your show didn’t give me the same amount of enjoyment as reading the books did. Everything just felt wrong to me; the characters, the settings and the dialogue all seemed out of sync somehow. As with other books that are adapted for the big or small screens, internal dialogue is a huge part of George Martin’s books and the context which that dialogue provides cannot easily be expressed visually.

Maybe the show gets better as it goes along. I don’t know, but I’d rather just wait for the next novel to come out.

Moving Picture Time

Two videos today. The first will get you thinking and the second will get you thinking and laughing (hopefully).

Had no idea that much technology went into making potato chips. Crazy.

First world problems in video form.