a broken lull.

2006 NHL Playoffs

Montreal 1 Carolina 2
Game 5 of 7 - Eastern Conference Quarterfinals / Carolina leads series 3-2

well.
we have to remind ourselves that it's a Best of 3 series. looks better and less daunting than them leading 3-2 and only needing one win. i'll go back to what i was saying at the start of the Playoffs - i'm just happy the Habs made it. if they win the First Round, great; if not, they made the playoffs with a horrible two month stretch thanks to José Théodore. this team is on the verge of breaking out into a monster team. and next season should be awesome. i, for one, cannot wait for it to start already :)
as for tuesday -- good luck, guys. hopefully they get out of the slump they've stumbled in, thanks to some lazy playing, but, and i haven't heard much about this, thanks to the Hurricanes having really studied the Habs' playbook and shutting them down spectacularly well. (and let's remember, the Canes were -hands down- the favorites in this series. they are the better team. the first two Montreal wins were just a wake up call that we could kick their ass. it took them 120 minutes but they rectified the situation (for now).)
Go Habs Go.

OH! Gary Bettman's NHL -- FUCK YOU.
james mirtle |

related: Lil' Jon, Hockey Fan.

OMG RADIOHEAD (NORTH AMERICAN TOUR) DATES ANNOUNCED!!! (almost.)

holy fucking shit. and Montreal's at the Place des arts, June 10th, 11th. the weekend i'm moving. and the ex-roommate's birthday :D we were just talking about it saturday, and she said it would depend when it would be 'cause she's working during the week. ohmygod. Toronto tickets are going on-sale saturday, apparently. i'll expect the same for Montreal. shit. Waste is offline. hopefully they get back up soon enough (but not soon enough that people crash the site to register for tickets:) hopefully i can get tickets that way again).
once again - OMFG.

Posted by Anonymous | 10:15 PM |

sigh.

2006 NHL Playoffs
MTL-CAR: series tied 2-2

Gainey, just dress Kostitsyn. we need offense and excitement. for a moment in the third period we had it. our players were flying around and the puck kept sticking. that's what we need for an entire game. hopefully the next one.

Saku released from hospital! his injury, which is swelling down, looked worse than it actually is. great news. although they don't have a definite timeline right now, the injury looks to only be a cut near the eye, which means he could potentially be back before the series is over. !cross your fingers! that would be an awesome boost for the team.

5:55 PM

it's been confirmed - Bégin will be back for sunday's game!!! this is huge, folks! the best news outside of Koivu coming back. dead serious. Bégin is the fucking spark this team needs. without putting up huge numbers, he's the one player who was energizing this team during the regular season. he'd been sidelined for the last eight games (four regular, four playoffs) because of a torn knee ligament. this is awesome :)

Posted by Anonymous | 3:08 AM |

okay. so everyone knows about Koivu's eye injury during wednesday's game.

anyway, Gainey needs to get some new blood in the lineup to replace Koivu (if Bégin doesn't come in; hopefully he's back soon) for tonight's important Game 4. a tough decision because 1. you're bringing someone fresh into the playoffs, and 2. you're gonna mess with your established chemistry. what if something doesn't hold? you lose a Playoff Game because of this decision? as i said, it's a really hard choice to have to make. but we trust Bob. absolutely 100%. well, here's a solution i like from the forums ... and which is also looking to be Bob's decision !! please please please, let it be true :) i'm so gonna tape that game and isolate myself from any living human beings at work tonight so i can watch it fresh when i get home :)
have i mentioned i love playoff hockey?

Posted by Anonymous | 1:18 AM |

2006 NHL Playoffs

Carolina 2 Montreal 1 OT
Game 3 of 7 - Eastern Conference Quarterfinal / montreal leads series 2-1

oh well.
we played well for forty minutes then lost our energy. i knew we were in trouble once the puck started rolling for the Hurricanes in the third. and we always lose our leads with a couple of minutes left to the game.
i was expecting a Carolina win tonight but the first two thirds of the game were just spectacular for the Habs and i got my hopes up a little :)

Posted by Anonymous | 1:10 AM |

whoa!! big news -- Al Pacino is joining the cast of Steven Soderbegh's Ocean's Thirteen !!
Al hasn't ruffled my cinematic feathers in quite a while now but an actor of his stature definitely heightens my already-confident excitement level over this next project.

Posted by Anonymous | 2:21 AM |

2006 NHL Playoffs

Montreal 6 Carolina 5 2OT
Game 2 of 7 - Eastern Conference Quarterfinal / montreal leads series 2-0

wow. what a frustrating experience this was for me. see, i work evenings during the week so the only game i can catch live are the weekend games. then i try to catch the week games on with RDS's Canadiens Express. but RDS has apparently left the program in the dust just as the playoffs are rolling in!!! i found an alternative that i'm gonna like - i'm gonna ask the roommate if i can tape the CBC games on his old dusty vcr, thus leaving the Bell ExpressVu in the living room free for them to use each weeknight. reception is surprisingly good enough with the antenna and i'm getting the CBC feed. everyone wins :)

on to the game -- WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the Habs blow out a 3-0 lead after one period??? that was unnerving hockey. unable to catch the game on tv, i followed it up on the Habsworld boards instead :) a great alternative. at least i got to experience it. what a tense game this was. thank god for Kovalev, and Ryder in the second overtime. wow. the Habs actually steal the two games in Carolina and are coming back home for two games. i'm expecting them to lose at least one of those two. i ain't gonna celebrate as there is a LOT of hockey left to play. a lot. but this nonetheless a great position to be in right now. now, if they could only learn to play 60 minutes of hockey per game, i'll be all set :)

Posted by Anonymous | 2:33 PM |

HOSTEL (UNRATED WIDESCREEN CUT)
Eli Roth, USA 2005

5.5
oh no!! i was so ready for "back-to-basics (...) no-frills nastiness". i sure had my hopes up for this one. and i felt so secure about it too; i wasn't even question it all this time. this was an unrelenting, merciless little ride and i'd love it. oh well. sometimes you're wrong. (oh so terribly wrong *shakes head*.) i should've remembered the horribly clichéd Cabin Fever. damn denial (the trailers looked like the real thing. and look at that poster!! how can that transform into this??). things were just awful from the beginning as Mr Roth sees fit to introduce us to a bunch of arrogant American tourists (with an Icelandic farce tagging along) right out of an American Pie movie as our leads. scratch that - American Pie had great, human characters going for it. let's say, imagine the fantasy world of an American Pie-type movie then put it at the front of a horror movie for half its running time. it plays like a plastic version of real life. you can also add up Milan Chadima's horrible cinematography (shot like a studio lot film) and Nathan Barr's inappropriatly domineering score as to what made this a frustrating film experience. there was just way to get into it. the cheesy settings, the lame characters? horrible, horrible, horrible. or maybe it was made for 14 year olds. the first hour sure would make more sense. i was angry at Eli Roth for this. stupid, fake, stereotypical characterizations and artificial performances (Jay Hernandez's ease is our lead character's only saving grace) made this a harduous viewing. seriously. i haven't been let down like this in a long time. Eli Roth, it is now painfully obvious, just cannot write a screenplay to support his style, nor can he even direct something downright nasty with enough realism for us to fall for. the only grit that appeared on-screen were the KNB special effects (and even those had their laughable moments), and some downright nasty cinematography, i will give 'em that. and the way Roth got us into the disturbing puzzle was smart as hell, i'll give him props for that. once it hits, they did get a lot of the gritty and gory feel right, though, but that's all in the third act; everything else before it was so clichéd, predictable, and incredibly lame that it's now a matter of observing it rather than experiencing it with the characters. i just could not recommend this film. it's bad. but i know some folks did go for it, and good for them if they found themselves entertained. i just wasn't terrified or exhilarated in any way, shape, or form. this is simply an incredibly dumb copy of the fabulous Saw films. Eli Roth is the Michael Bay of small budget horror movies. i just could not put it in clearer terms.

Posted by Anonymous | 1:02 AM |

2006 NHL Playoffs

Montreal 6 Carolina 1
Game 1 of 7 / Eastern Conference Quarterfinal / montreal leads series 1-0

this is the time of the year, folks. this is HOCKEY! and we love it :D
especially when our team takes the first game away from a huge, dominating team like Carolina. i was just honestly happy for them to have made the playoffs. let them play a little and then look forward to next year. that was it. but if they wanted a chance to upset the mighty Hurricanes (like a few analysts have surprisingly called for), they would have to take the first game from Carolina. well, check this game out!! i couldn't believe it. of course Gerber was a bit weak on a few goals, but still, only 1 goal for the Canes? that's gotta suck. after a shaky start, Huet comes back to his old self and calms everything down. everytime he makes a stop i swear he looks like the calmest fucking cat. i love him. and Kovalev comes out to play (he's been good but resting the last week of the season) with two of the sharpest goals in recent memory? priceless, Kovy, priceless. i guess he really is the playoff monster everyone's (including himself) built him up to be :) that was a HUGE win tonight, folks. not only taking a game in Carolina but also the FIRST game of the series. i hope this messes with the Canes' young heads long enough to make them a bit nervous monday night. of course there'll be people who'll just go nuts with tonight's results, but let's not get carried. i'm hoping Montreal wins its two home games. if they can do that, i'll be a very happy man. everything that may come after that will only be gravy.

this was a very surprising, and unexpected, result, to say the least:) we got a huge one tonight.

as a side note: i managed to find a handful of interesting hockey blogs - here are the ones i'll be following for the first round:

Stormbringer's Blog of Madness (Carolina Hurricanes)
Sisu Hockey (Montreal)
Sweet Tea, Barbecue, and Bodychecks. (Carolina Hurricanes)
CasonBlog
Confessions of a Hockey Fanatic
james mirtle
HockeyDirt.com
Hockey Country (Ottawa Senators)
red and black hockey (Carolina Hurricanes)
Kukla's Korner

11:20 AM

ah, that's super sweet. getting an unexpected call from the ex-ex just now brightened my day up! she lives in Quebec City, she moved there a couple of years ago, and have kept contact with each other but things had been quiet for most of the winter. then out of blue the phone rings and it's her sweet voice on the line :) happy to hear she's doing well and is moving along quite nicely into making her dreams a reality. this was a good phone call :)

9:53 PM

Marc Ecko tags Air Force One!

Posted by Anonymous | 9:33 PM |

i'm a Kevin Smith fan. i love the man and his stories and Chasing Amy is one of my top three personal favorite films of all-time. i think my first film of his was Mallrats, then the rest followed (although i've yet to get the courage up to watch Jersey Girl; which i have a feeling is not as awful as people say it is). Cupie Spew shares a post about Jay's heroin addiction. over the course of several posts, Kevin chronicles his man's addiction. it's an eye-opening story, even for a Smith fan like me who's heard a hundred stories on the subject. if you've got some time on your hand, do yourself a favour and read his posts. there are well-worth the read.

oh...and the Pumpkins are on Warner Bros Records(?).
oh, yeah... they're back ;)

uh ...lol.

Posted by Anonymous | 10:58 AM |

well, i am back :)
it feels as though i haven't in a while but checking back i wrote something two days ago. oh well. since then the Habs lost their last game of the season to New Jersey (but they did play a very impressive game, even overpowering NJ for the entire 2nd period; so the loss wasn't that bad) and they learned who they'd play in the first round of the Playoffs -- the Carolina Hurricanes. not the team we wanted them to go against first (that was the Hasek-less Sens) but we'll take them. Montreal lost all four of their games against Carolina in the regular season but if you dig a little bit deeper there is a lot to have faith in. those games were months ago, we were a very different team back then, *and* Theo was in net for most of those games!! plus, Huet, if he subbed for Theo, wasn't HUET back then. haha. some people have called out Montreal for a possible upset :) this might not necessarily be a bad round for us, then :)

oh, the reason i haven't written much over the past few days -- i'd sidelined my car to the curb friday. yep. the car decide to leak some oil *and* have my front brake pads be used up. add to that that i couldn't find a mechanic who could take me (Easter weekend plus people having their winter tires changed) and it resulted in having my mechanic taking my car in an entire and trying to fit it in between appoinments yesterday. my mom's bf gave me a ride to work tuesday night and i went back to their house to sleep and wait for the phone call all day wednesday. i also had a huge fucking migraine thanks to the stress and lack of sleep. needless to say i called in sick yesterday :) got my car at 4:30PM. it cost me a bunch ($470) but he fixed EVERYTHING on my car. amazing. i am so relieved. lifted this huge amount of pressure off my back.

have a great day :)

Posted by Anonymous | 9:20 AM |

the Habs just made the playoffs!! :D
they've only got one game remaining in the regular season but it was still too tight to know between the 7th, 8th, and 9th place (the first eight go in). but Montreal's fate this season will not have to be decided tomorrow night against New Jersey (yay!:) Washington won against the ninth place Atlanta Trashers earlier tonight. we are ecstatic :) that's a lot of pressure off our backs.

Posted by Anonymous | 12:42 AM |

NHL
Buffalo 4 Montreal 2
MTL Game #81 of 82, 42-30-9

Montreal, who's in seventh position, only needs a tie to keep its place in the playoffs. Atlanta is in ninth (the first eight teams enter the post-season) but could catch up to Montreal if it wins its last two games. Montreal has one game to go - tuesday against the Devils. last night's game was alright for the Habs - and applying an extraordinary amount of pressure on the Sabres during the second period. but a couple of mistakes in their own end cost them the game. Aebischer kept the team in the game, even coolly stopping a JP Dumont penalty shot. i like how calm and collected he's gotten over the past week. too bad we couldn't secure our spot in the playoffs right away but we're also not the ones who have to fight to get into them either. that's Atlanta's job. they're the ones who've got the tough job right now, and although i would still like for us to get that point ourselves, i wouldn't wanna be in the Trashers' shoes.

Posted by Anonymous | 10:39 AM |

NHL
Montreal 4 Boston 3
MTL Game #80 of 82, 42-29-9

now Montreal only needs one point or for Atlanta to either tie or lose a game for clinch a playoff spot. that's crazy considering we've only got two games left! :)

Kiefer talks about the 24 Movie !!! i'm not gung-ho about a movie. it's a good move, and a movie theater experience like none before (multply my 24 viewing experience with one friend by 30 hundred!), but here's the kicker i've been hoping the tv show would go into:

"The 24 hour movie would be a two hour representation of a 24 hour day."

i realized this last week - the 24 gimmick is futile at this point. when was the last time you were stressed out by the time remaining on the 24 clock? never. the only ticking that gets to me are the timers on the bombs. aside from that, 24 doesn't need that clock anymore. every fan knows the characters and the stories are the draw. here's hoping making the movie eases their minds and marks a transition for the series:

"The sky’s the limit for them as we wouldn’t be restricted by the time element."

Brad Pitt is the coolest dad EVER. Taxi Driver-style.

oh, and i got this extraordinary news yesterday -- this summer we'll get a Big Brother: All-Stars edition! and... we're the one who'll pick the contestants out of a pool of available players :D i'm psyched.

Posted by Anonymous | 10:58 AM |

NHL
Montreal 1 Buffalo 3
MTL Game #79 of 82, 41-29-9

the Habs lost 3-1 in Buffalo. it was an horrible game for *at least* half of it, with only a handful of players showing up for it. it was bound to catch up to us at some point. now we need to get back in game mode for tonight's game in Boston. give us a win.

Posted by Anonymous | 9:55 AM |

NHL
Ottawa 2 Montreal 3
MTL Game #78 of 82, 41-28-9

i'm starting these again. there are only four games remaining in the regular season and Montreal are somehow managing to win games. nine of their last ten, to be exact. i'm catching them through RDS's Canadiens Express feature. they edit the game for a sixty-minute slot. it's not ideal since they have to cut a few minutes out for every game and you don't get much replays, but it's better than not seeing the game at all. i actually can't wait till next season when i'll be able to tape games live (right now the roommate and his gf are sometimes here and we can't watch one channel and tape another with the satellite dish). and i'll also probably have TSN and Sportsnet :) ah... :) i'd only been watching games saturday nights this season, but i realized, i think it was last week, that i could catch the edited versions the next morning on RDS. i've been doing that for every game since :) last night's game was weird for the Habs during the first period, lots of strange reffing, but then they came back fighting for the 2nd and 3rd. and Aebischer was in fine form :) it's good to hear the home fans finally cheer for him.

in other news:
great news for Kiefer :) (the money, not the extension to 24's run. was anyone seriously scared for its future?)

Posted by Anonymous | 10:12 AM |

i'm a bit late mentioning this but DeepDiscountDVD is having a Criterion sale, up to 45% off. ends today, so hurry up. i've ordered more than my share over the past couple of days :) it's worth every damn penny.

btw, the store opened a canadian site the other week (which includes, like their US counterpart, Free Shipping on everything, it seems. a big plus). the prices are on-par with most canadian stores when it comes to Criterions but give it some time. i'm sure they'll come through. it'll fun for the whole family if we can get their sales without having to worry about the damn custom charges.

Posted by Anonymous | 9:31 AM |

saturday looks good to me :)
for the first time in about 6 weeks, i am not looking for an apartment this weekend. that's a huge load off my back. actually, aside from maybe swinging by the ex-roommate's place for a couple of hours later this afternoon, i've got the whole weekend to myself! and the roommate, who's not working at all this weekend, is actually off to work on something for most of today and tomorrow :) i feel relieved.

yes, i have found an apartment (sort of). it's a compromise but a really small one compared to all the good it will bring me. long story short - an apartment on my own is expensive. i could handle it but--i plan on buying a place of my own in the near future so i need money, and, i also want to get a new car this year. it's kind of an expensive year i've got ahead. also, we could not find a place to rent. it's amazing how little there was to rent this year. so, after learning that the cheap place i was looking at had been rented without anyone informing me, i thought of the alternative my mom had given me a month ago. a few years back my mom and her bf got a house built for themselves, for their retirement years. it's in the countryside, close to a lake. it's peaceful but still relatively close to the city (10-15 minutes). and it has a pool :) i spent as much time there everytime they went on vacation :) her option was to live there. not as much with them--they recently finished the basement with wooden floors, a huge living room, a fireplace, a bedroom, and a cool bathroom. and that's where i would be living for the next year, until i got enough money on hand to get a place of my own. i resisted at first, not liking the idea of living with my mom. but then folks at work told me i would still have my own place, my privacy. and as she's getting older, i'd also been thinking about getting closer to my mom last winter. this would be the ideal way to bringing that relationship closer. so. there. that's compromise but the advantages fully outweigh it, imo. what do you think about this? [ i'd also upgrade their cable package with a few channels -- including, and you'll love this, Mary, TSN, RDS, and Sportsnet :) if i'd gone on my own, i wouldn't have gotten cable, thus missing all my precious hockey games that the CBC is not showing :D i'll also hook the house up with Videotron High Speed Internet. there was no way i was going back to dial-up, so i was getting it anyway, and my mom wanted to check it out but it's a bit expensive for her needs. although i had/have a few reservations about this, i do believe i'll be satisfied with the arrangements. ]

looking forward to watching the Habs game tonight against New Jersey :) a friend from work will be at the game.

Sunday, 9:47 AM

the Habs lost last night, 3-2 against New Jersey. it was a half-assed affair on our guys' part, and the Devils were playing extremely smart hockey. plus, they have Brodeur in goal, so nothing goes in. i was incredibly shocked to see Montreal score two goals in the last couple of minutes of the game, though, stealing Brodeur's shutout from under him. those two goals gave us hope after such an ineffectual game. a few players showed up but as a whole, the team just wasn't there. it happens sometimes. and one has to expect it after an 8-game winning streak. there are just nine days left to the regular season. we're gonna win some and lose some. great last minute effort.

Posted by Anonymous | 1:35 PM |

well, this morning i did something i used to do every other week but hadn't done in ages -- go out to the record store on release day :) i've been pretty good about holding off on buying albums this year. it's been a conscious decision and one i've been proud of holding on to. but today, April 4 2006, marked the first big day of great music releases of the year. i went out to get five albums, managed to find all of them (including the lone mislabeled copy of Mogwai's album i'd seen this weekend--a $3 markdown (when it gets above $20, it starts to count:), and came back with an extra album :)



have a good day :)

Tuesday, 12:43 AM

ps. did i seriously pass up Bubba Sparxxx's The Charm this morning ??? FUCK. i wasn't even aware his album was dropping. daymn. okay, just one Timbaland track, but a hell of a lot of Organized Noize. plus, i really like Bubba as a rapper. a trip back to Future Shop will be in order later this week.

Posted by Anonymous | 11:24 AM |

Survivor's regressive monkeyboy Shane was in My So-Called Life!!! alright, it was as Guy #1 but it still counts. he was also in, among other crappy stuff, 3rd Rock From The Sun and a gay romantic comedy.

Posted by Anonymous | 9:37 AM |

the ex and i were invited for a nice meal at my old work partner's place yesterday. they had their first child back in January and wanted to thank us for visiting them while they were in the hospital. the food was great, wine flowed, (the cats were awesome) and we were taken by surprise once midnight chimed in :) i was gonna miss the Habs-Bruins game, so i taped it ;) and watched it as soon as i got back home. i've rarely done that but it's way better than checking out the newscasts for 3 minutes!

the Habs got another win last night (2-0), their sixth straight, this time against the Boston Bruins.
Huet, who's shutout last night was his 3rd straight against the Bruins, and his 7th of the season, now moves into the top spot for league goalies in almost every category (with only 32 games played!). but with Aebischer's shaky start for the Canadiens and Huet's awesome playing this season, i'm afraid he'll be burned out once the playoffs come around. but hopefully this is his regular playing mode and he'll be fine. Montreal also moves into a sixth place tie with New Jersey, edging out Tampa Bay by two points. we can't expect this winning streak to last until the end of the season (in three weeks), though. disappointment should come in a couple of games. oh, Garth Murray, of all people, scored the only two goals needed to win :P great effort and i loved seeing his reactions when he scored :) like a kid surprised it's christmas already. btw, with last night's win, Montreal eliminated the Bruins from this year's playoffs.

Posted by Anonymous | 9:51 AM |

Happy April Fools, everyone!
i tried coming up with tricks to play on people all week long but coudln't come up with any clever ones so i'm keeping quiet this year. don't trust anything the internet tells you today! nothing.

well, after an incredibly frustrating week trying to find a new apartment, i may have luckily stumbled upon a nice one today. the ex-roommate and i have been looking, quite unsuccessfully, for weeks now. this morning we made a few phone calls, left more than my share of messages, and visited two apartments rented out by two sisters. they're not in the neighborhood i've been looking at (where i'm living right now) but--it is where i grew up. only a 10-minute drive from here. so it's not too bad. it's in a big building but once you enter the apartment it's quite nice and comfortable. i was actually impressed. and--it's quite inexpensive! i gave my name to one of the sisters and she'll give those to her super (she's the one who'll decide). we'll see how it goes. i'm not expecting a comprehensive screening process. my guess is she doesn't want bums. hopefully i'm the first one. cross your fingers for me. it,s a really sweet apartment and i'm getting it really cheap. that would mean more money to buy/rent a new car i'm looking to get in the coming months (i so wanna get rid of mine :) have a great day!

Posted by Anonymous | 2:39 PM |