313's Heroes and Goats

From the Davidson vs. Kansas game

The Hero: Sasha Kaun. Kansas' 6-foot-11 senior center was a matchup problem for Davidson all game. He finished with 13 points and six rebounds. To make the night even better, he went 6-for-6 from the field.
The Goat: Jason Richards. The senior point guard dished out nine assists, but he managed only seven points of 3-for-9 shooting, and he missed the Wildcats' desperation three at the buzzer. Davidson needed more from its second option on offense.

The nominees for the Geek Awards

In case you don't know what I'm talking about (which I'm sure is 80% of the time), I'm referring to the Saturn Awards. Given out every year by The Academy of Science Fiction Fantasy & Horror Films, they salute the best every year in those categories. And of course, these films have some major geek followings behind them. Anyways, here are this year's noms.

Best Science Fiction Film
"Cloverfield"
"Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer"
"I Am Legend"
"The Last Mimzy"
"Sunshine"
"Transformers"

Best Fanatsy Film
"Enchanted"
"The Golden Compass"
"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"
"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End"
"Spider-Man 3"
"Stardust"

Best Horror Film
"30 Days of Night"
"1408"
"Ghost Rider"
"Grindhouse"
"The Mist"
"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"

Best Action/Adeventure/Thriller Film
"3:10 to Yuma"
"300"
"The Bourne Ultimatum"
"Live Free or Die Hard"
"No Country for Old Men"
"There Will Be Blood"
"Zodiac"

Best Actor
Gerard Butler "300"
John Cusack "1408"
Daniel Day-Lewis "There Will Be Blood"
Johnny Depp "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"
Viggo Mortensen "Eastern Promises"
Will Smith "I Am Legend"

Best Actress
Amy Adams "Enchanted"
Ashley Judd "Bug"
Helena Bonham Carter "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"
Naomi Watts "Eastern Promises"
Belen Rueda "The Orphanage"
Carice van Houten "Black Book"

Best Supporting Actor
Javier Bardem "No Country for Old Men"
Ben Foster "3:10 to Yuma"
James Franco "Spider-Man 3"
Justin Long "Live Free or Die Hard"
Alan Rickman "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"
David Wenham "300"

Best Supporting Actress
Lizzy Caplan "Cloverfield"
Marcia Gay Harden "The Mist"
Lena Headey "300"
Rose McGowan "Grindhouse" ("Planet Terror" segment only)
Michelle Pfeiffer "Stardust"
Imelda Staunton "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"

Best Performance by a Younger Actor
Alex Etel "The Water Horse"
Freddie Highmore "August Rush"
Josh Hutcherson "Bridge to Terabithia"
Daniel Radcliffe "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"
Dakota Blue Richards "The Golden Compass"
Rihannon Leigh Wryn "The Last Mimzy"

Best Direction
Tim Burton "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"
Frank Darabont "The Mist"
Paul Greengrass "The Bourne Ultimatum"
Sam Raimi "Spider-Man 3"
Zack Snyder "300"
David Yates "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"

Best Writing
"Beowulf"
"Ratatouille"
"No Country for Old Men"
"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"
"300"
"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"

Best Music
"300"
"There Will Be Blood"
"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"
"August Rush"
"Enchanted"
"The Bourne Ultimatum"

Best Costume
"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"
"The Golden Compass"
"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End"
"Stardust"
"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"
"300"

Best Make-Up
"Grindhouse" ("Planet Terror" segment only)
"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"
"30 Days of Night"
"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End"
"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"
"300"

Best Special Effects
"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"
"Transformers"
"The Golden Compass"
"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End"
"Spider-Man 3"
"300"

Best International Film
"Black Book"
"Day Watch"
"Eastern Promises"
"Goya's Ghosts"
"The Orphanage"
"Sleuth"

Best Animated Film
"Beowulf"
"Meet the Robinsons"
"Ratatouille"
"Shrek the Third"
"The Simpsons Movie"
"Surf's Up"

Best Network Television Series
"Heroes"
"Lost"
"Pushing Daisies"
"Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles"
"Journeyman"
"Supernatural"

Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series
"Dexter"
"Battlestar Galactica"
"Stargate SG-1"
"The Closer"
"Kyle XY"
"Saving Grace"

Best Presentation on Television
"Battlestar Galactica: Razor"
"The Company"
"Fallen"
"The Family Guy" ("Blue Harvest" episode only)
"Masters of Science Fiction"
"Shrek the Halls"
"Tin Man"

Best International Series
"Doctor Who"
"Torchwood"
"Meadowlands" (aka "Cape Wrath")
"Jekyll"
"Life On Mars"
"Robin Hood"

Best Actor on Television
Matt Dallas "Kyle XY"
Matthew Fox "Lost"
Michael C. Hall "Dexter"
Kevin McKidd "Journeyman"
Edward James Olmos "Battlestar Galactica"
Lee Pace "Pushing Daisies"

Best Actress on Television
Anna Friel "Pushing Daisies"
Lena Headey "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles"
Jennifer Love Hewitt "Ghost Whisperer"
Holly Hunter "Saving Grace"
Evangeline Lily "Lost"
Kyra Sedgwick "The Closer"

Best Supporting Actor on Television
Michael Emerson "Lost"
Greg Grunberg "Heroes"
Josh Halloway "Lost"
Erik King "Dexter"
Terry O'Quinn "Lost"
Masi Oka "Heroes"

Best Supporting Actress on Television
Jaime Alexander "Kyle XY"
Jennifer Carpenter "Dexter"
Summer Glau "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles"
Elizabeth Mitchell "Lost"
Jaime Murray "Dexter"
Hayden Panettiere "Heroes"

Best DVD Release
"Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon"
"The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (remix)
"Driftwood"
"The Man From Earth"
"The Nines"
"White Noise 2"

Best Special Edition DVD Release
"Big" (Extended Edition)
"Blade Runner" (5 Disc Ultimate Collector's Edition)
"Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (30th Anniversary - Blu Ray)
"Death Proof" (Grindhouse Presentation: Extended & Unrated)
"Pan's Labyrinth" (Platinum Series)
"Troy: Director's Cut" (Ultimate Collector's Edition)

Best Classic Film DVD Release
"Alligator"
"The Dark Crystal"
"Face/Off"
"Flash Gordon"
"The Monster Squad"
"Witchfinder General"

Best Collection on DVD
"The Godzilla Collection"
"The Mario Bava Collection" (Vol. 1 & 2)
"The Sergio Leone Anthology"
"The Sunny Chiba Collection"
"Stanley Kubrick" (Warner Home Video Directors Series)
"Vincent Price" (MGM Scream Legends Collection)

Best Television Series on DVD
"Eureka" (Season 1)
"Heroes" (Season 1)
"Hustle" (Complete Seasons 2 and 3)
"Lost" (The Complete Third Season)
"MI:5" (Volumes 4 & 5)
"Planet Earth: The Complete BBC Series"

Best Retro Television Series on DVD
"The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones" (Volume 1: The Early Years)
"Count Dracula" (BBC Mini-series 1977)
"Land of the Giants" (The Full Series)
"Mission Impossible" (The Second and Third Seasons)
"Twin Peaks" (The Definitive Gold Box Edition)
"The Wild Wild West" (The Second and Third Seasons)

WILF Wednesday Week 1 (Take 2)

How's it going, everybody? Welcome to Week 1 of WILF Wednesday, Version 2.0. Like I said yesterday, TheAssMan had his account suspended by YouTube, but he has a new account, so I think WILF Wednesday will be up and running full-time once more. So, I have to give credit to theassman345xxxo for making these videos. Anyways, some of you will be familiar this week's WILF. She started out in the WWE managing a take team appropriately named T&A. Since then, she's been able to retire from professional wrestling as a seven-time WWE Women's Champion, an all-time record in the WWE. But just look at that body! Looking at that ass makes me want to her home and ugh, double-up, ugh, ugh. And those tits! Forget Scrappy-Doo (please!), that's some real Puppy Power! Ladies and gentlemen, for your masterbatory pleasure, Trish Stratus.

Get out already!

Hey, gang! Sorry to break this to you, but if you have been having trouble getting the Jennifer Lopez video from WILF Wednesday going, that's because YouTube suspended TheAssMan's account. No problems. AssMan has a new account up and ruuning, and tomorrow, WILF Wednesday will redebut. Trust me, you're going like tomorrow's video. So come on over, or I'll drag you in by your hair.

Anyways, I'm sure a lot of you have heard by now that Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has been charged and arrested with many felonies. Kilpatrick has been charged with conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice, obstruction of justice, two counts of misconduct in office, two counts of perjury in a court proceeding, and two counts of perjury in a non-court proceeding. If convicted on all counts, that adds up to 80 years in prison. His former chief of staff and lover, Christine Beatty, was charged just as severely, with conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice, obstruction of justice, misconduct in office, two counts of perjury in a court proceeding, and two counts of perjury in a non-court proceeding. If convicted on all counts, Beatty is looking 75 years in prison. So how did they get in this mess? It all started when Kwame unleashed his party-boy attitude.

In the fall of 2002, at the Manoogian Mansion, the home to the mayor of Detroit, Kilpatrick was having a wild party with booze and strippers. One of the strippers, Tamara Green, found the wrath of Kilpatrick's wife, Carlita Kilpatrick, slapped Green when she arrived home early. Soon, rumors of parties at the Manoogian began to spread. As soon as word was catching on in April 2003, Green and her boyfriend were caught in the crossheirs of a drive-by shooting. Both were shot, and the SVU the shooter(s) was/were driving came around a second time and aimed only at Green. Green's boyfiend survived the attack, but Green did not. Officer Harold C. Nethrope of the Detroit Police Department, after looking into the circumstances of the case, concluded that Tamara was the only intended target and this could have been the first known deliberate hit by the DPD. Nethrope mentioned to Gary A. Brown, the head of the DPD's internal affairs department, that it might have been members of Kilpatrick's Executive Protection Unit, police officers serving as bodyguards. As Nethrope and Green were investigating, so was Walt Harris, a member of the EPU. These three men believed something was wrong with Green's murder and suspected strongly that it was an inside job performed by the city. However, before any of the men could come to any conclusions, they were all fired abruptly by Kilpatrick, who never spoke with the chief of police. Nethrope, Green, and Harris were not about to gone down quietly.

Nethrope, Green, and Harris sued Kilpatrick and the City of Detroit in 2003. They claimed they were being persecuted for digging into Kilpatrick's personal life and were sacked in doing so, a violation of the whistleblower law. In 2007, the trial began, and both Kilpatrick and Beatty were grilled on their personal lives. Both deinied that they had a romantic relationship. On September 11, 2007, a jury returned a verdict of $6.5 million be paid to the plaintiffs. Kilpatrick at first called for an appeal, but suddenly terminated the idea and offered to pay the plaintiffs a settlement of $8.4 million. Meanwhile, the city's two major newspapers, the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press, were suing the city to turn over the settlement papers to the media under the Michigan Freedom of Information Act. That would include Mike Stefani, the lawyer for Nethrope, Green, and Harris, to turn over his documents. In his deposition, Stefani cited a confidentiality agreement between the plaintiffs and the defendents that was signed by all parties because Stefani was in possession of page after page of text message from SkyTel, a Mississippi based company that provided the communications for the city government from 2001 to 2003. The documents contained thousands of text messages between Kilpatrick and Beatty, some which contained steamy messages not quite fit for this blog, while other talked about Green's termination, all of which were denied by Kilpatrick and Beatty in court. To prevent the text messages from becoming public, Kilpatrick and the city threatened that Brown, Nethrope, Harris, and Stefani surrender a total of $7 million in damages and legal fees if they were released. Meanwhile, we, the general public were left in the dark, because the News and Free Press received a completely different settlement set that did not mention text messages or the forfeiture of winnings. Well, they didn't stay hidden much longer, because a Michigan Circuit Courtt and the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that Stefani could release the text messages to the public. This announcement caught the Detroit City Council off guard, becaus etehy were given the same settlement papers as the News and Free Press. The Council joined the media's suit and requested, and received, the real settlement papers, the text message transcripts from Stefani, and a complete runthrough of the text messages handed to them from SkyTel. Soon, the messages were smacked on the covers of the News and Free Press, and the City Council passed a resolution demanding Kilpatrick resign. Now, he doesn't have to, and he said he won't. However, the City Council can turn their findings to Michigan Governor Jennifer Granhom, who can remove Kilpatrick from office if she finds he is guilty of official misconduct. And just yesterday, as you saw on your cable news channels, Kilpatrick and Beatty have indicted on the charges listed in the second paragraph (both plead not guilty today).

So I'm sure you're wondering what I, as a Detroiter, feel of this story. Quite frankly, I am sick to my stomach. At all costs, Kilpatrick was adamnant in concealing his infidelities from the public, and ruined so many lives in the process. Nethrope, Brown, and Harris, three cops who tried to do the right thing, found themselves unemployed and unable to join another force because one man wanted to make sure they stick their noses in his dirty laundry. Their reputations have been soiled, and for what, an affair?! And what about Tamara Green and her boyfriend? I know there's probably no way to determine if Kilpatrick was a catalyst in her death. The killer(s) is/are still out there, and I sincerely doubt that he/she/them will be brought to justice. Sure, Tamara was wrong to mess around with a married man, but was that a reason for her to die? Absolutely not! Now, there is a family shattered, a boyfriend scarred for live both physically and emotionally, and a son who will never see his mother again. Mr. Kilpatrick, Mrs. Beatty, I'm sick and appalled at your behavior. I'm a man who has faith in the system, but how are we suppossed to trust the next mayor of Detroit when the two of you have soiled the occupation. You talk about rebuilding Detroit the way it should be, the way God intended it, Mr. Kilpatrick. Sure, you may have improved businesses and homes, and brought revenue in with the Super Bowl, the MLB All-Star Game, and the Ryder Cup, among other sporting events, plus the filming of major motion pictures (i.e. "Transformers") and new casinos and the annual auto show. But you know what's missing, Mr. Kilpatrick? Detroit still has the worst public school system in the state. The crime rate is still in the top three in the country. And from the Whistleblower Trial alone, the city is $9 million in the hole. NINE MILLION DOLLARS! Imagine what could be done to fix Detroit with $9 million. But no, you had to hide your dirty laundry and keep it hidden, no matter whose lives get ruined. And it's not just the cops or the shooting victims who suffer. How many children will have their futures destroyed thanks to substandard education? How many businesses will go bottom up because they cannot receive financial assistance? How many families will continue keeping warm at night with a thin blanket over their bodies and a cardboard box over their heads? You've managed to case more harm to Detroit than good. If I can lend you any advice, Mr. Kilpatrick, it's to follow Beatty's footsteps and to resign from your job. Do it now, or at least when you develop a moral compass.

313's Heroes and Goats

From the Michigan State vs. Pittsburgh game

The Heroes: Goran Suton. Tom Izzo's whipping boy had a dominant game against the smaller Panthers. He scored 14 points on 7-for-10 shooting and grabbed nine rebounds.
Drew Neitzel. The senior guard is cementing his legacy the right way. Leading by one in the second half, Neitzel scored eight straight points -- including an amazing shake-and-bake move to get shooting room in front of Ronald Ramon. Neitzel finished with 21 points.
The Goat: Ronald Ramon. The senior guard scored two points in 33 minutes. He was 1-for-9 from the floor.

On a side note, HAPPY EASTER EVERYBODY!

313's Heroes and Goats

From the Temple vs. Michigan State game.

The Hero: Raymar Morgan. The MSU sophomore forward made amends for his so-so Big Ten Tournament performance by dominating Temple offensively and defensively. Morgan had a team-high 15 points on 7-of-9 shooting and helped contain Temple's top scorer, Dionte Christmas.
The Goat: Dionte Christmas. MSU held Christmas, who averages 20.2 points, to three. He also picked up four fouls. Temple couldn't get much going after the Spartans clamped down on Christmas, all but spelling doom for the Owls.

Bracketology 101 is back in session.

Damn, every time I take one of these breaks, I feel like I'm letting you guys down. Well, no more of that. My laptop is back in full operating order and I can go back to voicing my opinions. And let me just say this. the second half of the Lions' season was abysmal. Michigan basketball has struggled again. The Pistons have to, and I mean have to, figure out a way to stop the Celtics. The Push from Heaven at the Daytona 500 was awesome. Michigan State can possibly make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament. Their football should have beaten Boston College. And I wept when Lloyd Carr went out a winner.

All that being said, class is back in session, so welcome to Bracketology 101, 2008 edition. Here are my soon to be near perfect picks.

Play-In Game
Mount St. Mary's over Coppin State

First Round
North Carolina over Mount St. Mary's
Indiana over Wisconsin
Notre Dame over George Mason
Washington State over Winthrop
Saint Joseph's upsets Oklahoma
Louisville over Boise State
South Alabama upsets Butler
Tennessee over American University
Kansas over Portland State
UNLV over Kent State
Clemson over Villanova
Siena upsets Vanderbilt
Kansas State upsets USC
Wisconsin over Cal State Fullerton
Davidson upsets Gonzaga
Georgetown over UMBC
Memphis over Texas-Arlington
Mississippi State over Oregon
Michigan State over Temple
Pittsburgh over Oral Roberts
Kentucky upsets Marquette
Cornell upsets Stanford
Miami (FL) over Saint Mary's
Texas over Austin Peay
UCLA over Mississippi Valley State
Texas A&M upsets Brigham Young
Drake over Western Kentucky
Connecticut over San Diego
Baylor upsets Purdue
Xavier over Georgia
West Virginia over Arizona
Duke over Belmont

Second Round
North Carolina over Indiana
Washington State over Notre Dame
Louisville over Saint Joseph's
Tennessee over South Alabama
Kansas over UNLV
Clemson over Siena
Wisconsin over Kansas State
Davidson upsets Georgetown
Memphis over Mississippi State
Michigan State upsets Pittsburgh
Kentucky over Cornell
Texas over Miami (FL)
UCLA over Texas A&M
Connecticut over Drake
Xavier over Baylor
Duke over West Virginia

Sweet 16
North Carolina over Washington State
Tennessee over Louisville
Kansas over Clemson
Wisconsin over Davidson
Memphis over Michigan State
Texas over Kentucky
Connecticut upsets UCLA
Duke over Xavier

Elite 8
North Carolina over Tennessee
Kansas over Wisconsin
Memphis over Texas
Duke over Connecticut

Final 4
Kansas upsets North Carolina
Memphis over Duke

Championship
Kansas upsets Memphis

And Butch, don't think for one second that with me saying, "Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk," means Kansas is getting a kiss of death.