Author: duh magnet

CONSPIRACY! BRIT TEAMS KEPT APART! (or not)

The draw for the quarters and semis of the Champions League is out. The first legs of the QFs are on the 3rd/4th of April, the second a week later. The semis are on for the week of the 24th/25th of April, with the reverse tie a week later. Teams listed first play the first leg at home.
 

Quarter-finals 

AC Milan v Bayern Munich
PSV Eindhoven v Liverpool
AS Roma v Manchester United
Chelsea v Valencia
 

Semi-finals

AS Roma or Manchester v AC Milan or Bayern Munich
Chelsea or Valencia v PSV Eindhoven or Liverpool

 
Very accomodating of UEFA to give us all the dull grinders on one branch of the draw to the finals, and all the attacking sides on the other. The neutrals should be pleased.

Look over there! No, THERE!

Seen posted on the F365 forum by a Gooner:

“Lets al laugh at…
Liverpool and all the other clubs that will finish below Arsenal without any silverware this season….”

There’s sad and then there’s PATHETIC.

WELL DONE, YE LILYWHITES

After pussyfooting and thunder and fury in equal portions, it’s over. How much does it suck to be in Curbishley and Tevez’s shoes right now when they KNOW they’re surrounded by utter mong twats? The game probably summed up Tottenham’s season to a T, thorough and thorough….that’s how tragicomic and surreal it all seemed. Lasagnagate, RIP?

BEST GAME OF THE SEASON.

(Are there any teams in the EPL with worse defences, though? [:P])

And what a time it is for this to coincide with their falling off the movie gravy-train…

Yes, it was the comics equivalent of a black hole, in case this is your first year into reading stuff from the Big 2.

The sad, sad situation of DC trying their mega-event sales pitch is the same response from Marvel (the trifecta of House of M, Civil War and [later]World War Hulk), and bhoi, was the execution FUBARed totally. With House of M, at least it was a simple concept structured correctly and decently plotted, albeit somewhat of a pointless exercise. CW, on the other hand, is a massive clusterfuck that shits on decades on characterization (or more bluntly, assassination) and doesn’t even give the reader the courtesy of a proper payoff. There’s also the salient fact that Spidey might really have jumped the shark as a concept, and there’s the unpalatable suggestion of YET another hammed-up ressurection down the line.

If someone had told me 6-7 months ago that Marvel could fuck up worse than DC did with ICrisis, I would have shaken my head sadly and patronized the talking loon. There’s really no sugar-coating it, unless WWH does massive retconning or our favorite green basher rends our new Director of S.H.I.E.L.D limb from limb, we’ll looking at a box full of turds here. Ironically, the gravy-train that DC launched (and what probably invoked CW as a response), 52, is doing reasonably well as a vehicle that’s refreshingly Supes, Bats or Diana free. Pretty decent fare, by normal DC or Marvel standards, that is. Folks are not exactly expecting Ross+Waid, merely hoping for a better effort than SHIT-.

P.S: I certainly wouldn’t want to the person screening Millar’s “fan” mail. Maybe Bush can appoint him Director of Comics Affairs?

P.P.S: Don’t read Frontline unless you like the idea of Cap being pissed upon, to add insult to injury. Well done, Marvel.

Seems like one Ed Norton isn’t enough to rein in that body

As if the Oscars weren’t enough of a circle-jerking snooze fest, they’re now threatening YouTube for hosting the clips that in small, digestible bits, is the only way a sane human can take in anything from the yearly train wreck. Since the Ed Norton gift bag debacle (for Hollywood), the Oscar community has regained its appetite for self-indulgent bullshit, and they want those nefarious cappers stopped! Here’s my take:

  1. Ellen isn’t funny, but she’s safe enough for the establishment
  2. Gore did pretty well enduring to the sickeningly sycophantic treatment throughout the ceremony. It’s clear that Hollywood wants ON(tm) to the green bandwagon, no matter how ridiculously hypocritical that stance is. (besides ineffectual token efforts like the Priuses in LA)
  3. Giving Scorsese the Oscar after so many far better attempts just illustrates the Oscars for the self-congratulatory farce it is. There’s also the tiny fact the Departed was an incredibly awkward hack job trying to stitch all 3 IA movies together, and the ending was pussified to sell to N.America.

On Monday’s Daily Show, Jon Stewart even did a self-mocking skit with John Oliver, focusing on the fact that his skewering of the Hollywood ego machine last year was unappreciated by the live audience. Such delicate sensibilities must be carefully coddled, folks.