Colorado Symphony

Saw the Colorado Symphony Orchestra play on Friday night. I try to at least see one show a year. Always something neat to see when seeing live music. Fascinating to see the many parts putting together musical notes that simply sound amazing. Jeffrey Kahane lead the show but the unbelievable part of the show was 21 year old Natasha Paremski. New nothing about her...when I look for shows I always try to get a solo artist because it seems to me that someone who can get up there and play a memorized piece of music has got something special. She played Corigliano's 1967 concerto and just played it wonderfully. The funny thing is that in the program she was this blond seemingly frail little thing and yet when she walked out she was very "in control" with a black dress and bright red shoes! Wow what an entrance. Then she played a fantastic piece almost seemingly being taken over by the piece. Afterwards she said the the many changing times in the piece cause her to have to count but while watching her she almost seemed possessed by the piano gods. Great show great performance!

This Week in Comics

Daredevil #107

Dakota North! Just recently cut a passing reference to Miss North and just had get back on board with the adventures of Matt. Don't know what is going on jus that Dakota has been resurrected. Whoopee

Mighty Avengers #14

Okay so this must be Bendis's joke on us all. For the next 6 months we are going to simply get backstories on all that we didn't pick up on when leading up to Secret Invasion. Glad to have it but I hate revisionist history. It would seem to me that hints were dropped but the scattered droppings really just messed up the storylines in the past like trying to do two puzzles at the same time with the pieces all mixed up. Sure one puzzle is fun but finding pieces to an entirely different puzzle can be both frustrating and a big ughhhh!

New Avengers #41
See my rift above...same story different book.

Giant Size Astonishing X-men 1

A big D as in Disappointing. Whedon resurrected some great characters with great stories and then laid an egg on his way out the door. What was the point in all that? Wait for 3 months to get here and that is what was served? Can I just say maybe it was all a bad dream...I will go to the comic store next week and find the real ending to his run? No? Please....maybe Ellis can continue the run but my guess is this was a one shot deal. Great run, now we will have to wait a few years for another good take.

Haiku Wednesday

Dad

He is my hero
My protector, provider
A valuable friend

Mars Phoenix Lander

This landing and the picture to the left is quite impressive. An orbiting spacecraft captures the landing of another spacecraft millions of miles from Earth. Wow that is great precision. Interesting mission although kind of boring from a Rover's perspective. Stationary craft that will do boring looking for water and possibly life. No bouncing this time but an actual landing using rocket thrusters. Should be interesting!

Rox Talk

A 3-3 week against the Giants and Mets. Two teams that really aren't playing all that well...of course neither are the Roxs. The Roxs currently stand at 20-30. Ten games back from division leading D-backs in third place (ohhh we gained a game!). Currently 12-14 at home and 8-16 on the road, the Roxs have been outscored by its opponents 210-253 (expected wins is 21 versus historical wins at 23). On pace for 65 wins with 680 runs scored and 820 runs against. Roxs graphical wins (home in Purple, away in grey). 2008 has been a season of hot and cold streaks!

Weekly WPA leaders (overall as well):

Blah week, Holiday continues to be the only one capable of producing when it counts. Of course the majority of these WPAs came during the game where he hit a home run to tie it and then a single in the 13th to win it. Other than that pretty dismal. Only Buckholz in the pen and Cook on the mound are producing for the team.

Indiana Jones and The Crystal Skull

As documented I am a huge Indy fan. Loved the other three films (probably more than the original Star Wars fan) and I anxiously awaited this one. Was a bit anxious since I loved the first three and just didn't need another Phantom Menace. When movies mean so much you don't want your potential last one of the character to be a bummer. Early reviews seem to indicate that Lucas might have done it again so when I sat down I was a bit concern.

In the end it was a respectable movie. Not great like the first one, on par with the third one, and definitely better than the second. Harrison's portrayal was a bit rusty. He seemed to have lost the feel of the character in the mannerisms and his speech. The action was great and very Spielberg. I got tired of the Forrest Gump aspects of the movie. The whole nuke scene was just goofy. I though Shia did a fine job in a very difficult role. Karen Allen's insertion was kind of lame. I thought they could have done better with her. The ending was on par with other films. I had heard a thing about aliens and I was kind of hoping Lucas wouldn't go there but actually it fit the movie very well. Also thought the tone of the movie was so different and seemed to really fit the whole Red Scare era. Loved the ending with the hat. Overall great film.

This Week in Comics

Captain America 38

Sort of a filler issue with some explanation of who the mystery character is...have to admit I just don't know enough mythology of the character to be able to understand the ramifications of the old pseudo Cap. I am sure there will be a throw down which is kind of predictable but hey it is all good.

Fantastic Four 557

Oh hum another dry boring issue. Boy I expected alot out of this new writing and artist team and frankly they haven't delivered. Granted it is a new start but I really wanted this to be good and it is just not.

Haiku Wednesday

Vacation

No alarm clock buzz
Relax, no stress, no traffic
Why only two weeks?

Just Some Things...

As of today, the Burj Dubai skyscraper in the Middle East stands at 650 meters. The construction has finally surpassed the current tallest man-made structure, the Warsawa radio mast in Poland, which stands at 646 meters. Only another 169 meters to go before the tip of the aircraft beacon is up! Wow a...lmost 800 meters tall! That's big

Around the sixth week of gestation, six swellings of tissue called the hillocks of Hiss arise around the area that will form the ear canal. These eventually coalesce to form the outer ear. Darwin's point, or tubercle, is a minor malformation of the junction of the fourth and fifth hillocks of Hiss. It is found in a substantial minority of people and takes the form of a cartilaginous node or bump on the rim of their outer ear, which is thought to be the vestige of a joint that allowed the top part of the ancestral ear to swivel or flop down over the opening to the ear.

A simple and beautiful mathematical curve known as a logarithmic spiral, a spiral whose separation grows in a geometric way with increasing distance from the center. Also known as the equiangular spiral, growth spiral, and Bernoulli's spiral or spira mirabilis. Nature and Math can be beautiful.

Rox Talk

A 2-4 week against the D-backs (I hate those guys) and Twins (Interleague Play!). Still can't win in the desert and frankly at 1 - 8 have we padded the D-Backs record or are they that good? Before they played the Roxs they were swept in Chicago. It would appear they have our number this early in the season. The Roxs currently stand at 17-27. Eleven games back from division leading D-backs in third place. Currently 9-11 at home and 8-16 on the road, the Roxs have been outscored by its opponents 187-226 (expected wins is 18 versus historical wins at 20). On pace for 63 wins with 689 runs scored and 832 runs against. Roxs graphical wins (home in Purple, away in grey). 2008 has been a season of hot and cold streaks!

Weekly WPA leaders (overall as well):
Reynold second pitching performance was the big gainer of the week. Barmes continues to impress looking to have his stroke back that was there before falling down the stairs (or falling off an ATV!). O'Dowd should be commended for holding on to him. Guess he will be moving to 2B once Tulo comes back. Last week the Roxs hit the quarter post with 40 games in the books. Before the season began I looked at projections, so taking the player's marks at 40 games and projecting out to 162 game season to see how they are all progressing versus what we started with (see graphs below).

Well as much as the pitching has been to blame for the slow start I think the offensive has to take some responsibility. Really only Atkins and Holiday have been meeting expectations. On the positive side, Atkins was projected to score 87 runs but is on pace, based on his start, to score 97 while at the opposite end, Helton who projected to score 92 runs is on pace for 77! Obviously the two big holes is that Nix is no longer in the picture and Tulo is on the shelf. At this point the Roxs are on pace for 693 runs versus a projected run total of 825.

Well starting pitching hasn't been much better but overall pitching has at least stayed on pace based on projections. At the start of the season it was projected that pitching would allow 802 runs and currently they are on pace for allowing 851. Redman, Morales, and Wells are all gone with Rosa and Reynolds stepping in. Cook has been great and Francis and Jimenez awful. Hopefully with warmer temperatures the arms start keeping the team in contention so that when the bats wake up we make a run.