7/17/05--Sports, music, food....and a great movie!

So I haven't mentioned it since it happened, but how about the fact that the NHL has finally gotten over their year-long collective brainfart and decided to settle its labor problems?  Its time for hockey again people!!  Hopefully that means a return to good hockey...and lots of fights!  I love the hockey fights.  Can you imagine how hard it has to be to sit there and take a shot to the face while your standing on a blade that's like less than an inch thick?  Sometime in the near future, I'll take a look at our very own beloved Florida Panthers and how they look for the upcoming season.  That phrase "upcoming season" never sounded so good.

Here's some thoughts on the strike and the settlement, courtesy of "The Fourth Period" website:

NHL reaches tentative deal with NHLPA
TheFourthPeriod.com

 

  The NHL and NHLPA have reached an agreement in principle on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement.

The NHL Board of Governors and the members of the Players' Association must approve the new six-year deal by next week before it is official.

The 600-plus page document took nine consecutive days to finalize and is believed to include a team-by-team salary cap in the range of $21 million to $39 million

Both sides are likely to accept the agreement within the next seven days, with a formal announcement expected for July 21.    
Also included in the new deal is a 24 per-cent salary rollback on the existing contracts of all NHL players, in addition to the league's total expenditure on player costs not exceeding 54 per-cent of all hockey-related revenue.

The salary cap, meanwhile, will move vary as league revenues increase or decrease throughout each year of the new agreement.

After the deal is official accepted and signed by both parties, the 2005 NHL Entry Draft is the next big event.

The league has tentatively scheduled the draft for July 30 in Ottawa's Westin Hotel, where 17-year-old phenom Sidney Crosby is expected to go first overall.

The league will hold its lottery draft a week prior to the draft.

Then yesterday, as I sat around doing...ya know...pretty much nothing, I decided to
throw my latest Rod Stewart DVD into the player and give it a looksee.  The cover of
the DVD looks like the sort of thing you'd find in a throwaway bin at Wal-Mart, but
don't be fooled.  This is a pretty damn good DVD.

Amazon.com: DVD: Rod Stewart & Faces - The Final Concert (1974)

There are a couple of unquestioned highlights to the DVD.  First of all, this may
contain the definitive version of one of my favorite Stewart songs---"I'd Rather Go
Blind".  Not only is Rod in fine singing voice, but legendary guitarist Ron Wood is
joined for this and a couple of other songs by Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones.
What really makes it interesting is to watch Richards let Wood take the lead guitar
role and Ronnie just runs away with it, in a powerful performance.  The video isn't
exactly state of the art, but this performance of an almost forgotten and influential
rock band is definitely worth checking out.  ****

So last night the wife & I ventured out with our friends Will & Amanda (yes, THAT
Amanda) and had a very nice dinner at J. Alexander's.  I hadn't been there in like
forever, but we had a very nice meal.  I had the grilled pork tenderloins, which were
absolutely excellent and came in a huge portion.  Definitely recommended.
After dinner, we headed over to the local movie theatre and went to see:
1) The Wedding Crashers--this may have been one of the funniest movies that I've
seen in a long, long time.  I mean, this may vault into my top 10 comedies of alltime.
Right up there with Stripes, Slapshot, Young Frankenstein....its that good.  Vince
Vaughn & Owen Wilson play a couple of friends who have never quite grown up,
and who...just for fun mind you....like to crash weddings so they can meet women.
The movie is bawdy, dirty, slightly raunchy....and 100% funny.  Okay, maybe 98%
funny as I could've done without the whole "message" at the end.  Surprise cameo
right at the end of the movie by a big movie star is also very funny in a twisted way.
Very, very good stuff and highly recommended (if you didn't figure that out by now).
****3/4

Later,
Jeff