Click on that frightening picture to see the very first NP1 Vlog!  It's like a blog, only in video form!  Some day, I'll make a page for all of the many many vlog entries I'm sure to make down the line.  (Cough)

Not much else to talk about this evening, so just go download it, okay?

Darren McGavin 1922 - 2006

He was Ralphie's Old Man, he was Kolchak; for crying out loud, he was Billy Madison's father.  Darren McGavin, one of my true favorite actors, passed away today.  I have watched A Christmas Story countless times, and his was one of the first comic performances that I latched onto as a kid.  Lines like "You used up all the glue on purpose," and "NOT A FINGER" became lines I'd repeat over and over even when I was five.  And even today, for that matter.  I recently caught Kolchak in reruns, and his work on that show was just as good.  I haven't seen many other actors who are quite as appealing as him in the movies or on TV in my life.  He'll be missed.

Don Knotts also passed today... who didn't love Don Knotts?  Today's been a rough day in the dead celebrity circle.

So let's get the fact that it's about gay cowboys (actually, sheep) out of the way right off the bat.  Yes, it's two cowboys who end up in a romantic relationship.  Once you get over that hurdle, it plays out like any good love story should.  The best love stories will have two people fall in love and some sort of an outside force trying to separate them.  For instance, in Romeo and Juliet, it's their families.  In Casablanca, it's the Nazis.  In Brokeback Mountain, it's essentially a society that won't accept them.  The performances are pretty good where they need to be great.  Heath Ledger has undoubtedly the strongest performance in the movie (although he could have used to speak up a bit, but it adds to his character) as Ennis Del Marr, who I figure is the true protagonist of the picture.  Jake Gyllenhaal is Jack Twist, who I sort of saw as manipulative, and almost the kind of guy who would screw anything with a pulse.  However, I didn't outright dislike him for most of the film.  Michelle Williams is subtle but quite good as Ennis's wife Elma (Ledger and Williams would get engaged while working on the movie), but Anne Hathaway, while really hot, doesn't have much effect as Jack's wife (I forgot the name, for crying out loud).  I was pleasantly surprised to see that Randy Quaid is also in the film.

As I said, the cinematography was great.  The Wyoming mountains are photographed beautifully and there are some really great shots of the sheep being herded, including one that is simply a long shot of hundreds of sheep.  It's all you can see, a river of sheep.  One of my favorite shots, though, takes place as Ennis kicks the crap out of a couple of rude bikers at a Fourth of July party.  As he kicks one in the face and punches another one out, he stands strong as fireworks erupt behind him. 

Hey, go check out Brokeback Mountain, everybody else is. 

(I used parentheses six times (including this time; oh wait, now it's seven) and the phrase "for crying out loud" twice in this review.)

Pitchers and catchers have reported and full squads are on their way.  Start spreading the news.

I just cleaned up the Links section, which was looking for a brush-up for a while.  I got rid of some old ones that died, links that I don't care about anymore, and added one or two.  One of them is IMPStalk, a very funny parody website of England's Boston United soccer team.  I started following Boston United basically because they were the team I picked out to play as on FIFA at random, but with a site like IMPStalk, it's certainly worth following them even more.  You probably won't get it, but after some correspondence with their webmaster, not even that many of the team's fans get it either. 

In that case, you're probably wondering why I've been following soccer lately, especially if you ever hang out with me.  I'm not entirely sure myself.  I guess that the roots of it can be traced back a couple of years ago.  I simply started to realize that soccer's not as boring as I originally believed it to be.  When I was a kid, I thought it was the biggest waste of time when my friends said that they were playing soccer on the weekends.  I still do think it's a waste of time for kids, they should be playing baseball in this town, for crying out loud. 

But I digress.  It's also a game that ignites serious passion in their fans, especially in Europe (maybe a bit too much in Italy).  This sort of worldview piqued my interest.  Meanwhile, one of my favorite sports, hockey, came under serious fire.  Last year was the worst, when the NHL got locked out AND my beloved Worcester IceCats left town for Peoria.  So I started to get a little more serious about soccer.  You can say that picking up the FIFA series on PS2 was a big part of my fandom, but I was just starting to get into English giants Manchester United (the Yankees of soccer) at the same time, so I eased into it.  Even though hockey's back now, I think the league is still pretty messed up, and with this whole Wayne Gretzky gambling thing getting crazier by the minute, I think that the NHL is going to continue its downward spiarl. 

So in that case, I guess that I'll just keep reading up on European soccer thanks to the Internet.  It's really a lot of fun, I think, and it gives me something to do until baseball gets started.  Pitchers and catchers in just a couple of days!

So this leads me to wonder how I got sick.  I have been pushing myself to the limits of my own endurance lately, and hopefully I'll be able to tell you all about that in the future.  Right now, though, I can't.  But the only other reason I can come up with is thus: Children.  Children are a scourge upon us all, spreading disease wherever they go.  I've even had to try not to inhale around children at the store lately because they come through and start sneezing and coughing, often attempting to do so directly onto you.  Hellians! 

Okay, okay, it ain't all that bad.  But I did stay home again today to make sure I could shake whatever it is that I've got here.  I also watched David Lean's Ryan's Daughter, which is a fantastic film.  Mom just got it from Amazon and she suggested I watch it.

I've got some more work to do around the site, don't know if the changes will be visible tonight or not.  I'll let you know when they're up.

With the way things have been going this winter, I was really considering putting money on this year's prediction from Groundhog's Day fixture, Punxsutawney Phil.  Seeing as how we've been in a strange pattern of "Cold, then Snow, then Warm, then Rain, Repeat" since December, and seeing as how every time it warmed up it got warmer than the previous bout, I was very excited to learn about this year's prediction.  Would this be the year that Phil finally misses his shadow?  Will we be spared the rest of the winter by this wise and furry gentleman?

Well, no.  Turns out Phil saw his shadow, BUT, he did mention that the six remaining weeks will be "mild."  Now, he might live in Pennsylvania, but since our worst winter storms sometimes emerge from that region, I expect this to be as good a break as any.  For that, I will spare Phil from my threat of assassination.  For one more year.  If you want more information on Punxsutawney Phil and the whole shebang, check out Groundhog.org.