Welcome to BigFlax.com!

March 31, 2002

Another spring break come and gone. Rarely do they come and go with such a dearth of activities, but on the other hand, I did see Owen once and Dave a couple times, so it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. Not to mention the fact that I won the Tournament Challenge (yes, even before the finals), in case you hadn't already seen that on the tournament page. Bitchin'. Now I know where the money for the Usual Suspects DVD is going to come from.

March 27, 2002

Funny that I didn't get around to seeing it until after it won Best Picture, but oh well: the review for A Beautiful Mind is up.

March 25, 2002

Could have done this earlier today, but didn't: Oscars recap.

Best Original Screenplay

Prediction: Gosford Park.
Winner: Gosford Park.
Interestingly, this was Julian Fellowes' first produced screenplay, which makes it a little more surprising that he'd be rewarded - although the rest of the crop hardly consisted of "Hollywood veterans." Anyway, this was the only major award for Gosford Park, so it was probably more of that factor if anything.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Prediction: In the Bedroom.
Winner: A Beautiful Mind.
Well, I did say, "It's either this or A Beautiful Mind," but I went with Bedroom because I didn't think it'd get anything else. Well, it didn't - but it got bitched for this as well, so there you have it.

Best Supporting Actress

Prediction: Jennifer Connelly for A Beautiful Mind.
Winner: Connelly.
This must have been the easiest award to pick all night. You knew Mirren and Smith would siphon votes away from each other, this wasn't Winslet's role (that would be Titanic, which, thankfully, she didn't win for), and to live in a world where Marisa Tomei has two Oscars... well...

Best Supporting Actor

Prediction: Jon Voight for Ali.
Winner: Jim Broadbent for Iris.
Okay, Voight was a dumb pick, but all the experts had McKellen, so there you have it. Kingsley was the only compelling part of Sexy Beast, but putting him as my #2 might have been a stretch. I was a little surprised that Broadbent won, but it was probably a cross-recognition for Moulin Rouge, which was otherwise ignored except for costumes and such. I'm sure he was good, but come on, how many people actually saw that movie?

Best Actress

Prediction: Sissy Spacek for In the Bedroom.
Winner: Halle Berry for Monster's Ball.
I figured Berry as a wildcard because, like Iris, it seemed like not that many people would have seen the movie (although who saw In the Bedroom either?). Clearly enough did. I only went with Spacek in the first place because it seemed like the safest choice to make - this year, the safe choices weren't the best ones.

Best Actor

Prediction: Russell Crowe for A Beautiful Mind.
Winner: Denzel Washington for Training Day.
I wrote Washington off immediately simply because the middling reviews of the movie separated it from most of the other movies nominated. Bad move. Had I written the picks after Crowe's encounter with the producer of the BAFTAs, I might have bumped him off, but would I have picked Washington in his place? Well, at that point, I might have. The fact is this was probably like Crowe's win last year - more of a "whoops, you should have won for these previous roles" than "gosh, this was awesome." (Though I have yet to see Training Day - maybe I'll be singing a different tune.) In Crowe's case, it was The Insider and L.A. Confidential, not to mention his tour de force in Mystery, Alaska. (Just checking.) In Washington's case, it was nominations but not wins for The Hurricane and Malcolm X, as well as failure to be nominated for Philadelphia and Devil in a Blue Dress (and, some would argue, Remember the Titans).

Best Director

Prediction: Peter Jackson for The Fellowship of the Ring.
Winner: Ron Howard for A Beautiful Mind.
This was one of those things where it didn't look like one film would run away with all the big awards, so, like last year, I figured there might be a split in the Picture/Director spot, and, picking Mind to win Picture, went with Jackson here. It also seemed like Jackson might have had to do more - whether he did or not, it didn't help him here. One couldn't help but notice Rings was shut out of the major categories despite nominations in four of them (though I guess In the Bedroom came off even worse) - not that it deserved the big awards (given the type of movie it is, even the nominations were relatively surprising), but to get all the nominations and be shut out of anything major is a bit surprising.

Best Picture

Prediction: A Beautiful Mind.
Winner: A Beautiful Mind.
One right, anyway (okay, so more than that). It just seemed like this was the movie to win, and Howard's nod restored some order to the Academy after the Picture/Director awards were split two times in three years (after having not happened since 1989). Keeping the award away from Crowe kept it from turning into Mind's night totally, though it did take home four of the seven major awards, a pretty impressive stat and only one shy of its possible total. In years like last year, passing the awards is the Academy's way of saying, "There wasn't really a best picture, so we'll recognize several." This year, they definitely said, "A Beautiful Mind was the Best Picture." I suppose I should see it now.

March 25, 2002

   For the first time since last summer, I went into the city yesterday, to go to Radio City Music Hall with Bisberg, Frankel, and Arvin to see a taping of Jeopardy!, which was doing a "Million Dollar Masters" tournament wherein fifteen past winners were brought back to compete for a top prize of a million dollars. We only got to see two preliminary rounds, but it was still pretty cool. Highlights:
    * The pre-show trotting-out of the local ABC affiliate's weather guy, Sam Champion. Why they did this exactly I'm not sure - regardless of Champion's local appeal, surely more people knew who Johnny Gilbert was. My guess is Champion was around and wanted to talk to everyone.
    * Johnny Gilbert's amusing antics, including foul mouth ("We want to remind you this will be on television, so if you're here with someone else's wife or someone else's husband, get the hell out of here! We'll destroy you!").
    * The contestant who began punctuating wrong answers with "Dammit!"
    * Question and answer with Alex Trebek. Trebek was asked what he did on the other days of the week, as this show was taping on Sunday. Trebek pointed out that for the regular program, the shows were taped during the week. "We tape 5 shows Tuesday, 5 shows Wednesday," he said. He then added, "On the other days of the week I tend to drink a lot."

After the taping we walked around a little, going to both the CBS and NBC stores. The only thing I ended up buying, though, was a shirt that said "Pants" at the CBS store. Yeah, it's only a reference to Letterman's Worldwide Pants company, but it was too funny to pass up.
Also amusing, the sign on the subway reading "Hold onto your youth, your dreams, and while you're at it, the handrails." Thanks, E train. There was also the guy playing bass in the 34th Street station, which was probably the first time I'd ever seen that particular instrument. Among the songs he played while we were standing there: Pink Floyd's "Money" (thus getting it stuck in my head for an hour) and Zeppelin's "Living Loving Maid."

March 23, 2002

   The Challenge is definitely going to come down to the wire at the top... but it should at the bottom as well. Here's what I can tell you right now about who'll win money but nothing else.
    * Currently in last place is Matt Pearl with 440 points. Just twenty points ahead is my dad, with 460. Red Dog Rob has 485, and Nemo has 505.
    * Of the current Elite Eight teams, Nemo has two - UConn and Oregon - right, and both of them losing in the next round. This means he has no more points coming to him. So he's ending on 505. What would have to happen for Matt, my dad, or RDR to finish in last?
    * If Maryland and Oregon win on Sunday, Matt will take home no more points. But if either UConn or Kansas wins, Matt would get 80 points and pass Nemo to 520. So he needs Maryland and Oregon.
    * My dad, on the other hand, has Maryland and Oregon. He would need Connecticut and Kansas to win in order to take home no more points. Again, if either Maryland or Oregon won, he would pass Nemo.
    * Rob's two remaining teams are Oklahoma and Kansas. He'd need Missouri and Oregon to win. But if Missouri, Oregon, and Maryland all won, he'd remain ahead of Matt. So he needs Missouri and Oregon to win as well as Maryland to lose.

As for who's going to win... I can't say. There are more variables at stake for that one.

March 21, 2002

This could well be the worst break ever. I'll be home for ten days, but as far as I know right now all of my friends already had their breaks and went back to school. As if that weren't bad enough, my NU friends won't be online much (they rarely are, but it'll be even less) as most of them are taking spring break trips. There will be Dave sightings, I'm sure, though I haven't even heard from him yet, and considering he knew I was getting back yesterday that's pretty surprising.
So this is an open invitation: if you're in New Jersey this week, why don't you drop me a line and we can hang out? Come on, I'm bored.

March 20, 2002

Wow, a new movie review! And this one was so good I didn't feel so bad about going to see it instead of writing my paper. Um... forget I said that.

March 18, 2002

Forget Budweiser, Red Dog Rob is the King of Beers.

    Rob lives in Minnesota (he's a friend of Rich's) and had to send me the money for the Tournament Challenge. He asked me if I wanted anything else in the package. I said the money was fine. He said, and I quote, "No, no, no, that won't do at all. I will send you bonus surprises."
    Today the package came. Along with the $5 (mercifully in cash form) was a veritable cornucopia of goodies. Of course, when I say goodies, I'm speaking metaphorically.
    * Five small paper-based products. Three of them were stickers, for "Caulfield" (I'm guessing some band), "Soda Jerk Records," and "Grickle-grass," a sticker which seems to endorse weed. There was also an invitation to the CD release party for the Unknown Prophets, and some Postal Service plug.
    * A CD-R reading "Alright ... Here it is ... Again ... And It's Called WIRE." I have no idea what this means.
    * A fortune cookie.
    * A corn muffin you could chip a tooth on. It could not possibly be less than two months old.
    * A t-shirt with Jeff Jonckowski, "The Igniter," on it. I have no idea who that is.
    * A Mountain Dew cap with Northwestern on it. Not like that's a winner, but it's kinda cool. The best part is that it has "Northwestern U. (IL)" just to clear up who we are.
    * A condom that claims to have something called "Kiss of Mint." Is this supposed to be an oral sex condom? That's really weird. Okay, it's weird that it's a condom at all, but the fact that it's mint-flavored is no less unnerving.

All in all, a hilarious if bizarre assortment of items. Rob, I salute you. (Though the key was, of course, the money.)

March 16, 2002

There hasn't been too much updating here in the past few days because I've been too busy updating the Challenge page instead. This shouldn't be too surprising. At any rate, these next three days coming up, just before I leave for spring break, will be pretty packed, so there won't be much updating then, either. Fair warning.

March 15, 2002

   So despite brief filming in the morning, I was still able to watch every tournament game today, or at least every one that CBS would deign to show. They took for-fucking-ever to cut away from terrible games like Kentucky-Valpo, Indiana-Utah, and Notre Dame-Charlotte to show us actual exciting games, like Kent State-Oklahoma State, Arizona-UCSB, and USC-UNCW. This annoyed me to no end, though not nearly as much as seeing basically all the upsets go against me.
    Yeah, I picked Missouri right, and Kent State (though that's really only a seed upset), but I got boned by having Valpo who got bombed, Marquette who choked it, and most notably USC, who rallied from 19 points down only to fail to show up in overtime. Thus the first of my Final Four picks was eliminated, something I don't think I've had happen this early since '98, when I foolishly picked #5 seeded TCU to come out of the Midwest. (Well, the 1-2-3-4 was Kansas-Purdue-Stanford-Mississippi. Ole Miss lost in the first round to the infamous Valpo play "Pacer" and Bryce Drew's three, while Kansas demolished Prairie View 110-52 only to lose to Rhode Island in the second round. Stanford ended up coming out of the region, beating Purdue in the Sweet 16, but given their history I think you can see why I wouldn't have picked them. This doesn't make picking TCU any less stupid, however.)
    I don't care what anyone says - Tubby Smith reminds me of George W. Bush. I will not argue about this.
    At any rate, the leaderboard and full bracket results are up from the first day of the Challenge. No one is really doing all that well unless they are named Jeff, or maybe Marc.
    I'll probably watch the day games again tomorrow, but I think I've already had enough of this tournament, which is just as well since I probably won't get to watch a game all weekend whether I want to or not.
    (By the way, not seeing Holy Cross beat Kansas - very disappointing. Mark my words, a #16 will defeat a #1. It has to happen. I just want to see it when it does. Is that too much to ask?)

March 13, 2002

Brackets are now up. Though if you really care about those, why are you in here? You should have just clicked the March Madness button on the front page. Duh.

March 12, 2002

Or, according to my computer until 20 minutes ago, March 11. I don't know how it got a day behind, but it did. Weird.
Anyway, the 2002 March Madness page is up. It basically only holds sporadically updated brackets (I'll be watching the games too, you know, not sitting in my room masturbating every time a #4 seed loses) and sporadically, but more importantly, updated challenge brackets. 21 players is a chore... but Excel's functionality should make it a little easier this year than last (when apparently I just didn't realize Excel's functionality).

March 11, 2002

   So, the NCAA Tournament field was announced last night. Among the things that made me wonder if Lee Fowler and the gang were on crack:
    * Gonzaga's a #6 seed. Excuse me? They may play in the WCC but they still went 29-3, a record identical to that of one seeds Duke and Kansas and just a half-game behind Cincinnati. And Cincy doesn't exactly play in a "power" conference - say what you want, Conference USA is still not quite elite. No, Gonzaga's not a one seed, but they're sure not a six - I mean, Indiana's a five at 20-11 and freakin' Georgia is a three. I know the polls don't count for anything in the selection process, but to have any team but the #1 in the country get a seed that matches their poll ranking should be impossible. As if this weren't bad enough, the Bulldogs are facing a potential second-round tilt with Arizona, in my opinion the strongest of the #3 seeds. It's like the committee went out of their way to make sure Gonzaga didn't get to the Sweet 16 again.
    * Waaaaay high seeding in the SEC. Yes, Alabama is probably a two, but beyond that, the conference doesn't impress me. I scarcely heard a peep all year, but meanwhile it's "oh, this is the most balanced conference in basketball." Mm, you're probably thinking of the Big 12. Or maybe the Big Ten - yes, the top teams aren't as good, but anyone can beat anyone. How often does Vanderbilt make a run? I debate both Georgia and Mississippi State as threes, and Kentucky is not a four. Florida at five is probably the best call of all of them.
    * Why is Alcorn State in the play-in game? The SWAC may be low in the RPI, but at 20-9, the Braves were one of the few teams to win the regular season and conference tournament titles. Meanwhile, Montana, 16-14 and a #5 seed in the Big Sky tournament, slips through and then isn't even a #16 seed - they're a 15. I guess that could have been one of those seed line deals, although why you'd be organizing a subregional around a team that won't see the first weekend is beyond me. Speaking of which...
    * How fucking dumb is this unbundling of subregionals bullshit? Let me enumerate the stupidity of this - fans going to watch four games will see two in two completely different regions. Example: last year, fans going to watch the four great first round games in Boise saw 8 West teams. This year, you can go to Dallas and see two West games and two Midwest games. While you knew that two of the 8 first round teams would meet in the Sweet 16, this year that won't be possible in some places until the title game. This also ignores the additional fact that in some places, you'll have to wait a day to find out the next matchup. Example: the South, where 3-14 and 6-11 are played in Pittsburgh on the 15/17 and 2-15 and 7-10 are played in Greenville on the 14/16. So after Alabama wins on Saturday (or whatever), you have to wait till Sunday to see who they're matched up with, Pitt or Cal or whoever.
    Then there's the fact that in a lot of cases, it didn't work. Yeah, there's nothing like Boise last year when half the subregional teams were from two states a couple thousand miles away, but in general the things look about the same. Duke's in Greenville, Maryland's in Washington - call me crazy, but I think this would have happened anyway. Then there's stuff like this:
    1. The 4-5 subregional in the West. It's in Albuquerque. Who, among Ohio State, Miami, Missouri, and Davidson, does this benefit, exactly?
    2. #5 Indiana playing #12 Utah in Sacramento in the South. Advantage Hoosiers? Probably not.
    3. Also in the South, #6 Cal goes cross-country to Pittsburgh. As if that weren't bad enough, they have to play #11 Penn with the home state advantage.
    4. In the East, which team would you say has the biggest advantage playing in Chicago: #3 Georgia, #6 Texas Tech, or #11 Southern Illinois?

The one thing I'll say about the tournament is this: it's impossible to pick. Hence there should be no excuse for not having 75% of these games be at least pretty good. Upsets galore, too. But this is more a factor of parity than of good seeding - in fact, I'll just say it: the committee really dropped the ball on this one. This may be the ugliest-looking bracket I've ever seen, and the stupid unbundling isn't even the whole reason for it.
So am I still psyched for the tournament?

Well, yeah.

March 10, 2002

Wow, it was another of "those" weeks. I'm not sure how these happen other than that I just don't really do anything interesting. Anyway, pretty good performance at Duck Bowl. Colby and I played by ourselves and yet finished second, sweeping both the Gerbils and BATTLEPLANET, much to our surprise. I also finished first in individual scoring (and Colby fourth), the first time that's happened when scores were being kept officially. In college, that is. Anyhoo, full results here. Score archives updated too.

Funny story. I'm sure many of you are losers like me and sometimes Google your own names. Well, fellow Columbia Class of 2000 graduate and sometime friend of mine Laura Wulach is one such loser. Or is it her friend? At any rate, her name turns up the "Maitre de Mirliton" page, because she had a small role in it. So her friend sees this, just in the little Google summary, and tells Laura that someone with her name is a movie star - she was in a movie that got a ten-star rating! Laura asked her friend what movie it was. Her friend told her - Laura laughed.
And I laughed too when I heard that. BigFlax.com would seem to be making the rounds (witness the guestbook) among Columbia grads lately despite the lack of information relevant to Columbians nowadays (why would there be any?). Anyway, this is an update concerning a Columbian. Fun fun. Someone tell Laura she can check my page again (as she said she stopped checking it when she didn't know any of the people being quoted).

March 3, 2002

So, results now up. Carleton Tournament summary ici, updates to personal and round-by-round scores, updates to NU and QB quotes, and the new Lamp of Ignorance page.

March 3, 2002

As much as I ordinarily like quiz bowl tournaments that run at night, I like them much more when they didn't start at 9:30 in the morning. Due to thirteen rounds and the general slowness of play, the Carleton Undergrad Tournament ran until about 8:30 pm, meaning that right now it's 4:45 in the morning and I've been back about ten minutes. Holy fucking shit. Results will be up later today but I really don't think I have the energy for it right now.

There's more! View last month's updates.

Thanks to Tabnet for the domain name and my parents for paying it off.

Want to send me mail? Here.

Want to join my mailing list? Here:

BigFlax.com is probably not legitimately copyrighted under the laws of any country. Just don't steal stuff and claim it was yours, please.

This page last updated: Monday, April 15, 2002 08:16:58 PM