The Sum of All Parts
Last night’s Laker game had a little bit of everything as Purple and Gold slugged it out with the New York Knicks on the way to a 120-109 victory at Staples Center. LA evenly distributed their scoring as three players each finished with over 20 points and achieved double-doubles. Their defense was suspect all night, giving up 61 first-half points, until they woke up and came up with big stops including blocks from Kwame Brown when it counted in the final period. Knicks reserves Nate Robinson and David Lee both had fine performances but it was Sasha Vujacic who came off the LA bench to sink five three-pointers and 12 fourth quarter points, putting the game away for good. It was a much-needed win at home that can hopefully boost their confidence going out on the nine game road trip. After the drubbing that was the Celtics contest in December, this one certainly elevated my impression of the Lakers who showed they can fight hard late in a game even when they’re down to earn a W. Now 28-15 on the season, LA heads to Detroit to face the Pistons who are 15-4 at home and eager for a rematch after their 103-91 loss to the Lakers in November.
Lucky Number Slevin was an enjoyably serpentine tale of meticulously plotted out retribution in the vein of The Usual Suspects but also with a life its own. The dialogue seemed to owe as much to Film Noir as Pulp Fiction and Quentin Tarantino with a rapid-fire delivery and banter that numbed as it informed. Conscious of its audience, the movie benefits from a close look to gather clues before the plot is revealed but succumbs to the temptation of recapitulating the story through flashbacks as the ultimate explanation is delivered. The ensemble cast performs well together with restraint being paramount and none of the stars tries too hard to out-act the others. It can currently be seen on Showtime On Demand if you don’t feel like waiting the three days for Netflix and I’d recommended it to anyone who can appreciate stories about violent gangsters and double-crossing assassins.
Wear & Tear is heading to Café Boogaloo in Hermosa Beach tonight for an interesting musical experiment named Jefferson Steelflex and his Neptune Society. There’s a lineup of musicians on their MySpace page that includes Marc Ford on guitar, Anthony Arvizu on drums, and Mike Malone on keyboards and vocals as well as a few other guys but there’s more to the story than just that. It seems the band has devised a fictional history to the group that dates back 40 years outlined in “The Ballad of Steelflex.” Give it a read and see if you can make sense of what they’re getting at, I’ll give the music and show a review tomorrow but for now it kind of reminds me of this different inside-joke band devised by Les Claypool called Electric Apricot.
An announcement has come that two candidates, Republican Rudy Guiliani and Democrat John Edwards, are dropping out of the race for a Presidential nomination, thus dwindling the number of choices for our next leader to five: Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama for the Dems and John McCain, Mitt Romney, and long shot Mike Huckabee for the GOP. Whether or not any of the politicians who saw their campaigns fizzle will reappear on the ticket as a potential vice-president is yet to be determined but you can celebrate the end of the Bush regime with a mask of Vice President Dick Cheney available here.
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