Waking up with a serious bout of "nausea," the cheese was forced to call out "sick" from work yesterday. Coincidently, yesterday just happened to be the champions league final featuring the greatest club on the planet, Liverpool Football Club. Around 11 AM the cheese was starting to feel better, so he headed up to the local sausage eatery to get some sustenance before kick off.
52 seconds into the match and the sausage was tasting mighty bitter as AC Milan captain Maldini opened the score sheet early. Hernan Crespo then added insult to injury, netting goals in both the 39th and 43rd minutes, leaving LFC trailing 3-0 at half time.
Then came a 2nd half reorganization by Rafael Benetiz. LFC captain Steven Gerrard converted a header in the 54th minute to see Liverpool get on the board. This was quickly followed a Vladi Smicer goal in the 56th, and Xabi Alonso effort in the 60th. No team in the history of the European competition has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit to win, but 15 minutes into the second half Liverpool had tied it up.
This would be the end of the goals, as Milan and LFC would play out regulation and both extra time periods without scoring; special praise must go to Jerzy Dudek for making two great saves in the span of 2 seconds to stop Shevchenko from finishing off the reds in the 118th minute).
So to penalties it went, and Dudek, summoning the spirit of former red's keeper Grobbelar, made two impressive saves to secure the fifth European triumph in Liverpool history.
And to think, the cheese nearly stopped watching the game at halftime. It was, without a doubt, the best football game the cheese has ever seen, and will doubtless be counted as one of the classic Champions League finals in years to come.
Thursday, May 26, 2005
Friday, May 20, 2005
Star Wars: Episode III, Initial Thoughts
Trying to form an opinionon a Star Wars movie after just one viewing is a bit like asking the first person you have a crush on to be your wife. It may make you feel good right now, but you haven't invested enough time to really get to know that person.
Case in point, Episode I. After waiting in line for 12 hours playing Star Wars trivia, there was no chance in hell the cheese wasn't going to love that first showing of Phantom Menace. Having seen the film nearly two dozen times now, the cheese is willing to admit it did not live up to those first few feelings of elation after a 20 year drought of zero new Star Wars on the big screen (although the cheese is still convinced it was better than A New Hope...disagree?...then let the cheese remind you of one little line "But I was going to Toschi to get some power converters!"...whiny Luke beats whiny little kid at the annoyance game hands down).
As for Episode III, it certainly had the most emotional moments of the new three, especially since Vader's first words with the mask on were to ask about Padme. And knowing all those little kids got jacked...damn that was harsh. Also, you feel a great deal of sympathy for Anakin. Yes, he was blinded by his own skill, arrogance, and fear, but he was also handily manipulated by Palpatine (but then again, who the hell wasn't?). And the one thing he most wanted to avoid,(Padme's death) he actually caused. So we see a more complete character in Anakin than we ever have.
And while some of the dialogue in this film suffers from the Lucas curse of not ever doing a 2nd draft, the scenes between Anakin and Padme were actually much better this time around. It was nice to see Bail Organa (and the C-3PO memory wipe line was beautiful), and the wookies. The action scenes were great, obviously, and the Windu/Palpatine and Yoda/Palpatine fights were amazing.
As for things that didn't seem right...would Obi-Wan really leave Anakin to burn to death like that? It's understandable he couldn't just cut his head off, but that was pretty cold to leave him like that. Also, the cheese assumes that we have to believe when Leia speaks about her mom in Jedi, she's referring to her adopted mom (since at that point she doesn't know she's Luke's sister).
Overall, Jedi is still, in the cheese's opinion, the best of the series. Sith may be equivalent to Empire, but judgement will be reserved for after a few more viewings.
Case in point, Episode I. After waiting in line for 12 hours playing Star Wars trivia, there was no chance in hell the cheese wasn't going to love that first showing of Phantom Menace. Having seen the film nearly two dozen times now, the cheese is willing to admit it did not live up to those first few feelings of elation after a 20 year drought of zero new Star Wars on the big screen (although the cheese is still convinced it was better than A New Hope...disagree?...then let the cheese remind you of one little line "But I was going to Toschi to get some power converters!"...whiny Luke beats whiny little kid at the annoyance game hands down).
As for Episode III, it certainly had the most emotional moments of the new three, especially since Vader's first words with the mask on were to ask about Padme. And knowing all those little kids got jacked...damn that was harsh. Also, you feel a great deal of sympathy for Anakin. Yes, he was blinded by his own skill, arrogance, and fear, but he was also handily manipulated by Palpatine (but then again, who the hell wasn't?). And the one thing he most wanted to avoid,(Padme's death) he actually caused. So we see a more complete character in Anakin than we ever have.
And while some of the dialogue in this film suffers from the Lucas curse of not ever doing a 2nd draft, the scenes between Anakin and Padme were actually much better this time around. It was nice to see Bail Organa (and the C-3PO memory wipe line was beautiful), and the wookies. The action scenes were great, obviously, and the Windu/Palpatine and Yoda/Palpatine fights were amazing.
As for things that didn't seem right...would Obi-Wan really leave Anakin to burn to death like that? It's understandable he couldn't just cut his head off, but that was pretty cold to leave him like that. Also, the cheese assumes that we have to believe when Leia speaks about her mom in Jedi, she's referring to her adopted mom (since at that point she doesn't know she's Luke's sister).
Overall, Jedi is still, in the cheese's opinion, the best of the series. Sith may be equivalent to Empire, but judgement will be reserved for after a few more viewings.
Friday, May 06, 2005
Bacon, is there anything it can't do?
The cheese is currently in the middle of devouring his sixth BLT of the week. No doubt there are some out there who do not believe in the power of bacon, and to those the cheese says, "Take your head out of your ass!"
On to other news, the season finale of Veronica Mars is on this coming Tuesday. To all there out in cheese land who haven't yet watched the show...don't! Lily Kane's murderer is going to be revealed, so don't ruin it for yourself by watching. Wait until the show comes out on DVD and borrow it from the cheese, it'll be worth it.
On to other news, the season finale of Veronica Mars is on this coming Tuesday. To all there out in cheese land who haven't yet watched the show...don't! Lily Kane's murderer is going to be revealed, so don't ruin it for yourself by watching. Wait until the show comes out on DVD and borrow it from the cheese, it'll be worth it.
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Big News from the Land of the Cheese
The cheese has finally received word that, yes, he was accepted into a graduate program. This fall the cheese will be starting a dual M.A. in English/M.F.A. in Creative Writing program at Chapman University. It's two degrees for the price of one! Of course, this means the cheese will be moving back to So. Cal. with...
1. No money
2. No job, and
3. No place to live
It's the trifecta of being a graduate student!
1. No money
2. No job, and
3. No place to live
It's the trifecta of being a graduate student!
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