DowningRules

I just picked up my new dad this morning from the airport. We went with my mom to the Newport Rib Co. for lunch. Destruction of toilet followed. Weird not having my wife here to fill up the weekend. Now I'm on this message board with the A's vs. Giants on the tube. The crowd is having a blast. I need to start some new semi-traditions. I'm going to me mum's tomorrow for Honey Baked Jamon. My mom and sort of in-laws will be killing the chardonnay. Mum dyes Easter eggs and makes us do a two minute Easter egg hunt. Mother-in-Law won't eat the eggs since her background is as an infection control supervisor at a hospital. She thinks if something's been sitting out for more than two minutes, it should be trashed. My mom will give me some chocolate, but more hopefully, some red vines. I will also be given some of those Easter eggs which I'll probably throw out in a couple days, worried I'll get some sort of funk. Other than that, nothing too special or traditional. And you?

You may be able to get tickets the day of show, if the El Rey releases some. That is the cheapest - and riskiest - route. Unfortunately, the El Rey is pretty small so there won't be a ton of tickets. If she's a huge fan, you may want to arrive around 4pm or so. This is typically about the time a band will show up for their sound check. The El Rey is remarkably accesible for fans looking for autographs since there's no where to hide the tour bus. They usually park on a side street off Wilshire and the band goes back and forth from the venue and tour bus. My friend (yes, a friend, not me!) goes there to get autographs for his vinyl collection. He got pictures with members of Killing Joke a while back.

He's hard to understand clearly, but it's not necessarily his fault. The mix at the Big A needs to be changed up to accomodate his tone. There's too much 'low' in the PA and it's squishing the new dude's somewhat nasally tone. It's getting buried in the ambient noise. I know, I think about this sort of thing too much.

wtf? This ad on KCAL is in spanish. Where the f am I?

No scrubs, tomorrow. Scioscia should play the starters for all 9 innings. F this.

Couple things here on summation: Skyfall would have been alot better if the haunted mansion scene at the end didn't take so g'damn long to wrap up. I hate that about movies these days. The final act should be the shortest! "24" creator Joel Surnow was a writer on Miami Vice. Anna Kendrick's hairline always creeped me out. Sort of an Eddie Munster thing going on there. My belief is that "Rock of Ages" was the kicker which convinced Katie Holmes to bail on Tommy Cruise. She must've seen a couple out takes and thought, "WTF? He really is gay." The last few episodes of "Legit" with Jim Jeffries have been a disappointment. The show needs to get better, funnier. It has alot of potential...it just needs to kick it into gear with the funny. I have "La Femme Nikita" on the dvr. I love that movie.

It's time for a Donald Bellisario Production.

I wore Angel red. Dressing for an Angel game gives me a mini-crisis. Michael Mann, the executive producer of Miami Vice who was responsible for much of the show's initial look had a strict rule about the clothing: no earth tones and no red. In some ways, the Angels worst uniform -- the periwinkle -- might have snuck in as a Vice/Angel compromise.

You should know by now that if there's a post from "DowningRules," Miami Vice is inferred.

It's a good thing homos will be allowed to marry soon because I'm going to change colors and propose to Trout.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the fabulous Mitch Stetterrrrrr!!!! Put your hands together...

Terribly concerned that this game is a precursor to the season.

WOw. That mexi music they're plaing in the background is brutal.

The renovations are nice and fancy and all that, but they are rendered useless without metal detectors being installed.

Conclusion: the stock market does better when more people are against the war in Iraq.

Observations: 1. The concession workers might be older than usual. And not by a year. Feels like they are 10 years older than last season. Not the smoothest operation. One hot dog and a bag of peanuts = a half-inning. 2. New, easier to read concession menu which, of course, confuses people. 3. The music and ads between innings is still jarring and offensive. One upside: It's so loud that people have a hard time talking on their cell phones. Downside: People wait until play resumes to make calls. 4. The new PA dude's voice isn't my favorite. It's hard to understand his tone at times. Probably not the best idea to pipe in music while he's announcing some of the stuff. 5. The greenery growing on the rock pile is filling in more and more. I hope it takes over all of the faux rock. 6. It took until the 8th inning, but alas, there was a massive fight in the RF seats. Several fights, I think. 7. Caucasian Doyyer fans seated behind me. It was like an episode of Mad Men. A real throwback to the '60s. 8. My brother ate two hot dogs. Neither had stale buns. Usually at least one is stale. Can't believe one or both of them didn't get stale in the time it took for one of the old people to retrieve it. 9. The Angels were shut out and had what, two hits? So in this sense, it was alot like last season. I walked out of the Big A wonder why in the f I wasted $160 watching that crap. 10. I wish the Angels would stop forcing pre-season tickets on season ticket holders as part of their season ticket package. Doesn't seem right to charge full freight to watch whoever the last two Angel pitchers were. 11. Can't wait for the regular season to start. So I can repeat most of the complaints then. And next season.

Scary that legislation has been signed into law designed to protect what is essentially one corporation.

The larger paradigm of this is that these rapid-fire moves put some pressure on the current Angels relief corps. It's not another day at the office. Pitch better or the sharks circling the pen will eat you up and take your place. Scioscia has been more spirited the last couple of days in his on-field management. Dipoto is making some moves. I like it!

I was flipping channels the other night and saw Paul Hyman and his ponytail are back. THis makes me interested in watching WWF again. I may have to start paying more attention. Of course, if Piper's Pit ever comes back, I'll be back for certain.

This is not meant to be a cop out, but imo, spring training pitching is always a worry, even if a staff is doing great. Something just clicks on Opening Day when everything changes. There's a different focus, different distractions and different line-ups. It can all come together and it can all fall apart. My bet is the Angels pen and starting pitching improve greatly within the first week or two of the season. But will they improve enough?

Some of my best friends are...well, never mind. The fifth season Miami Vice episode "Victims of Circumstance" deals with neo-nazis and the holocaust. It's pretty jewish. And one of my favorite Vice characters is 'Charlie Glide,' played by Ned Eisenberg. To bookend it, have you ever been to Miami or Palm Beach? Let's just say there's no shortage of jewish folk.

About the same amount during this spring training with Jose and Terry.

"Well, two top guns on their game on final tune-ups. It's good to see this then to see something else. And I'm speaking about both of them."

What is the demand like for Angels home Opening Day? I got my portion of season tix today and was blown away to see the FACE on my tickets for the game at $200. I would be impressed if those tix were to sell at face value on the secondary market. There's a chick sitting in the second or third row behind home plate, just to the right, at this Angels vs. D'backs game with huge cans. She's wearing an outfit that makes me think she's trying to score a player. She don't know that Juan Rivera don't play for the Angels no more.

It's my Jose Mota translation device. They use them at the UN when a foreigner is speaking. Just kidding. It's for headphones to listen to the audio when a scene's being shot. Often times, the video monitors (aka the 'video village' which was interestingly enough invented by Jerry Lewis) are far from the action or in a place where you can't see the scene being shot, so the remote headphones let you hear what's being mic'd. This is a video village on a set. That's Bruce McGill on the right. He was in an episode of Miami Vice called "Out Where the Buses Don't Run." It's commonly thought of as the best Miami Vice episode. It's in my top five to be certain.