How Did I Not Know About Moe Berg? Tooling around Barnes & Noble before seeing "The Forbidden Kingdom" this past weekend, I read the first few pages of The Catcher was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg. Berg was a back-up catcher for the Red Sox in the late 30s, then a coach for a couple years, and (as you may have guessed) eventually a spy working for the OSS during WW2. One of his assignments was to attend a lecture by Werner Heisenberg, determine if the Germans were close to developing an A-Bomb, and shoot him if they were. Fascinating stuff. [Moe Berg Wikipedia page]
Crouching Tiger, Spanking Monkey I've been burned too often (I'm looking at you, The Tuxedo) by American-made Jackie Chan movies to have it be an automatic thatI'll be there opening weekend; but, largely because of Armond White's review [New York Press - ARMOND WHITE - Mash of the Titans], I did open the wallet and make the trek to check out The Forbidden Kingdom.
I was a little worried about five minutes in when the gang of toughs reminded me a little too much of the Rumble in the Bronx baddies. Luckily, the magical transport to the Middle Kingdom happened pretty quickly and the movie hit its stride. Jackie and Jet worked well together, the fight scenes were fun, and there were lots of nods to classic movies to give the geeks like me some chances to buff our Shaw Bros. merit badges earned for learning to recognize the animal styles before they're called out.
This Michael Angarano kid they found to be the student to Jackie and Jet though ... I read he had to learn kung fu to get the role, so I hoped that meant he could already act. He learned enough kung fu to convincingly play a novice but maybe they'd have been better served finding someone with a martial arts background who could learn to act. If he had any screen charisma at all, I'd be pulling for a sequel where Jackie's Lu Yan character continued to mentor him through another adventure.
Good Ol' EHHS The former stomping grounds of several Cryptonauts only shows up in my news feed when: (1) Sexual Assault charges lead to the dismissal of faculty member, (2) the basketball team (or Doug Wiggins) either does well or some current or former player gets in trouble (eg. Doug Wiggins), or (3) the high school receives a bomb threat.
The most important thing I want to see right out the gate is Tina Charles and Renee Montgomery healthy. They both left the floor injured during UConn's sweet sixteen win over ODU. UConn has been saying they're fine, but that's probably what they'd say if they were banged up. They "practiced," but did they practice with other players or a stationary bike? Having already lost two starters during the season, UConn can't afford this.
The other storyline for UConn fans is the end of Brittany Hunter and Charde Houston's careers. Hunter, troubled by a chronic sore knee, turns in amazing stat lines - 9 pts/6 rbs/2 blk 11 min - and won't be able to play basketball after this. Houston has been alternately electrifying and horrible. She's been great for the last handful of games, even got the MVP of the Big East tournament. Hunter can leave everything out there and Houston can erase all those "what if" stories.
Rutgers isn't that deep either, and they play a shovey, grind it out, aggressive (trash-talky) sort of defense so officiating will also be key.
The biggest story seems to be "Just how good can Maya Moore be?" At this point, the only comparisons that make sense are Taurasi (best ever) or Lobo (taking a program to another level - and UConn already is at the top tier). Believe the hype. And since she's come through every time I've typed it, I'll type it again - if you haven't watched Moore play, here's your chance.
(Update: Did I mention Ketia Swanier? On a night when absolutely nothing went right, the Huskies come back from 14 down to win. Rutgers is not a team I'd like to spot 14. As an optimist, I'm going to regard this as a get-it-out-of-your-system game. Too bad for ESPN both this and Tennessee's game were fairly ugly. Tennessee should thank the NCAA. No way they'd be in the Final Four if they were facing Rutgers last night. I thought UConn was the top seed overall.)
