Elegant Distractions

Jim Zorn, Seattle's quarterbacks coach, will be the Offensive Coordinator for the Washington Redskins next year. I'm very happy for Zorn, a long-time favorite around these parts. I just wish he'd been able to secure a promise to be the OC for Seattle next year under (presumably) Mora.

Does this mean Mora has no guarantee from Seattle to move up to head coach next year? Could be. Or it could be that Mora doesn't care for Zorn and his philosophies.

At any rate, all the best to Zorn and his professional progress. I hope the 'Skins have a brilliant offense next year, unless they meet the 'Hawks.

Posted by director at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) | Categories: Sports

According to the P-I, Mike Holmgren will play out his contract in Seattle. With Jim Mora eschewing the Redskin's overtures to remain in Seattle it is even more clear that he will succeed the Big Show next year.

Look for Mora to take on a bigger role for the Seahawks this year.

Posted by director at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) | Categories: Sports

There was a time when I assumed that Hollywood produced dreadful film after dreadful film because they were consciously suppressing the good screenplays. I imagined something like a weekly bonfire where producers would meet up and toss the great scripts into the inferno while gleefully greenlighting American Pie XVII.

In Roger Simon's analysis of the Writer's strike and the future of Hollywood is this excerpt:

I am not saying television and movie writing is easy. It clearly is not. Very few people can do it. The Writers Guild has only 12,000 members not because it is a difficult union to get into – it isn’t – but because few people are good enough to get hired by a signatory company, the minimum requirement for membership. I can attest to this. Years ago, when I wrote for Richard Pryor, I would occasionally dip into one of the literally thousands of unsolicited scripts pouring into his office. Not a single one was worth reading past page five. Years later, I taught graduate screenwriting at the American Film Institute, said to be one of our better film schools and certainly one of the most competitive in admissions, and hardly any of my students were able to succeed as professional writers.

Having taken a stab or two at screenwriting I can say with enthusiasm that Mr. Simon is absolutely correct. It is difficult work that very few can do well. There may be the rare brilliant screenplay that can't get read but that has got to be about as often as Haley's Comet. I have grudginly shifted to the belief that Hollywood makes the best films they can.

Now, think what that implies.

Posted by director at 05:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) | Categories: Film

Background here. It is obvious the purse-lipped interrogator is not used to being answered in such a manner. She truly has no idea how to respond.

Posted by director at 01:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) | Categories: Politics

Yesterday the Seattle Seahawks succumbed to the elements in Green Bay, losing to the Packers by a huge margin. The game served to expose the glaring weaknesses on the team.

* The tight end once again let down the team with three critical dropped passes, one for a touchdown.
* The very offensive line failed to run block. OK, duh. Nobody expected them to. The loss of Steve Hutchinson continues to rankle and infect the line.
* Wide recievers Hackett, Burleson, etc. are not playmakers. Branch might be but has been a bust so far.
* Alexander isn't the future at tail back. He is overpaid and his huge salary will drag down the franchise for one more year before he's cut.
* Defensive Coordinator John Marshall made wrong call after wrong call and his game plans on the road are the worst of all.

The result of this is that I expect Mike Holmgren to call it quits within a few days. He's had a good run but it does look like the fun is gone for him. Jim Mora, Jr. will take the reigns after a perfunctory search. I have no idea how that will turn out, however. Probably about the same.

Posted by director at 08:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) | Categories: Sports

Peter King, in his latest Monday Morning Quarterback article gives the Seahawks several nice mentions. Patrick Kerny gets his Defensive Player of the Week award. Then there is this:

We all -- everyone of us -- underrated the Seattle Seahawks.

Posted by director at 04:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) | Categories: Sports

The Man Who Rode the Thunder

Haven't read it myself because it is so hard to find. Basically this guy jumped out of a crashing plane at 44,000 ft right into a thunderstorm, which wouldn't be so bad except that his chute auto-deployed at around 20,000 ft, hilarity ensued. What is most interesting is that his experience in the storm provided meteorologists with a lot of insight into how thunderstorms operate.

Posted by The Beuller at 04:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) | Categories: General

Last night I watched Blade Runner: Final Cut, which Ridley Scott calls his favorite version. The film looks amazing, just brilliantly grunky.

There are, however, a few things that should be addressed about the content of the movie. It takes place in the year 2019, a mere twelve -- no eleven -- years hence. Some things about the near future that should be noted:

• There are flying cars. Naturally. Not a lot of them but there are old flying cars. We will have to hurry to get old flying cars in the next eleven years. By 'we' I mean 'somebody'.
• I have to believe that robo-babes in Daryl Hannah form are the cause of society's fall. Nobody goes to work anymore.
• Sean Young will still be a, er, robotic actress.
• Not only do we have interstellar colonization but space-based wars as well. I don't think the space shuttle will be up for those tasks. Maybe Richard Branson builds the first space warship? Bill Gates could but I don't think he would.
• Apparently flat-screen tv's go out of style in favor of tiny CRT screens.
• Cell phones and pagers seem to have been outlawed.

Hey, I can't fault Mr. Scott for not actually seeing fifty years into the tech future from the barbaric hinterlands of the early 1980's. I do find it amusing that Hollywood future tech is often only mildly advanced from the current state of the art.

Posted by director at 03:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) | Categories: Film

Seattle beat Washington at home, 35-14, in a game that should not have been that close. Once again John Marshall's defensive plan took a nap late in the game, allowing the 'Skins to come alive. Thankfully, this time he woke up soon enough to put the clamps down to finish the game strong. I have no idea why he gets into these moods of mercy that allow the opponents new life when they should be finished but it is probably far too late in his career to learn to stop that.

In the mean time, Washington Times writer Dan Daily had this to say:

[U]ltimately, the better team won, the Seattle team that has been to the playoffs five straight seasons, went to the Super Bowl two years ago and had the screaming support of a stadium-record 68,297 fans. The Seahawks are what the Redskins want to be — perennial contenders. After four seasons of building under Joe Gibbs, though, the Snydermen aren't quite there yet.

....

And so a one-sided game became a close game — and then went back to being a one-sided game. The Redskins would do well to remember that during the offseason when they're making plans for the future. They came a long way late in the year and deserve every bit of praise they've gotten, but all it earned them was a 21-point shellacking by the Seahawks in the first round of the playoffs. Wasn't that how they ended the season two years ago, losing to a superior Seattle team on the road and struggling offensively for much of the day?

Posted by director at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) | Categories: Sports

What did you do for New Year's? I sucked down Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life. Steve Martin, it turns out, is a very funny guy. Who knew? He got that way from hard work over many, many years. Being a bright fellow, he can string words together in print as well as on stage.

This is a terrific read.

Posted by director at 05:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) | Categories: General