Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Team Umizoomi and Gordon Ramsay

My son has recently started watching Team Umizoomi on Nick Jr., and loves the show.  It's all about math, and the main characters are Milli, Geo, and Bot. 

In this cute clip, Team Umizoomi visits the famously angry chef Gordon Ramsay and helps him in his kitchen.  Who knew Ramsay has a soft side? 

Friday, April 26, 2013

Michael Buble Sings in New York Subway Station

I apologize for the long absence.  A bunch of illnesses and craziness at work have combined to make it difficult to post.

This is pretty cool - Michael Buble singing in the Lincoln Center subway station in New York City, accompanied by a cappella group Naturally 7.   He sang the song "Who's Lovin' You" from his new album, To Be Loved.

I wish I had been there to see it.  I've seen and heard a lot of talented musicians in the subway stations and subway trains, and it's always a nice moment as long as they don't get aggressive about asking for money.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Natalie Dormer Cast as Irene Adler in Elementary

British actress Natalie Dormer has been cast as Irene Adler in Elementary, the updated Sherlock Holmes show set in New York.  She will appear in three episodes

It would be nice to see Dormer in contemporary clothes.  Her most famous roles are as Anne Boleyn in The Tudors and Margaery Tyrell in Game of Thrones.

Elementary's executive producer stated that Dormer would show up in flashbacks, but my personal theory is that she is still alive and Moriarty faked her death.  In the episode titled "M", it was revealed that her body was never found.  I wonder if Vinnie Jones, who played Sebastian Moran, Moriarty's assassin in "M," would show up again in the same episodes as Dormer. 

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Michigan Basketball Coach and His Connection to Saving Private Ryan

Michigan is going the the Final Four for the first time since the Fab Five played in the national championship game 20 years ago.  A lot of their success can be attributed to their coach, John Beilein, currently in his sixth season.

Yahoo! Sports' Dan Wetzel wrote an incredible story about John Beilein's family, who inspired the book "Band of Brothers" that became the movie "Saving Private Ryan."  Beilein's mother, Josephine, was the cousin of the Niland brothers, and all of them grew up close to each other in the working class town of Tonawanda, New York. 

Four of the Niland brothers went to fight in World War II.  One of them, Ed, was a pilot, and his plane went down in the Pacific Theater a few weeks before D-Day and he was presumed dead.  Two other brothers, Bobby and Preston, were sent to storm the beach on D-Day and were killed in action.  The military had decided that it was not right for one mother to lose all her sons in combat, so the last brother, Fritz, was found and sent home.  Fritz had also been at Normandy, but had been dropped behind enemy lines as part of the gliders along with his cousin Tommy, Josephine's brother.  He was the real-life inspiration for the character of Private James Ryan, Matt Damon's character in the movie.  Fritz later became an oral surgeon and lived until 1983, and Tommy also survived and lived a pretty long life.  Ed Niland was later found in a Japanese POW camp in Burman and was sent back to Tonawanda and lived until he was 72 years old. 

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Castle's 100th Episode

Castle aired its 100th episode last night, and it was a great one.  Mr. Y and I have always enjoyed Castle because it can be both funny and serious, and it has a great cast. 

Last night's episode was a tribute to the Hitchcock movie Rear Window.  Castle was stuck at the apartment after hurting his knee skiing, so he had to cancel his birthday plans to go to Bora Bora with Beckett.  He got bored and decided to spy on his neighbors across the way using binoculars his daughter Alexis gave him.  He was convinced he saw a murder, and spent his time trying to convince Beckett and to gather evidence.  In the meantime Beckett and her team were working to solve the murder of a female IRS agent seen on security video being bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat.  The twist ending was that the whole murder Castle saw was an elaborate set-up by Beckett to relieve him of his boredom.  Everyone was involved, including Castle's mom Martha as the director and her acting students as the main characters.  Even Captain Gates got into the action pretending to dress Castle and Beckett down after they were caught breaking into a storage space supposedly owned by the murderer.  Castle's reaction was that it was the greatest birthday gift he had ever gotten.  I didn't figure this out until near the end when Beckett went to talk to the alleged murderer after Castle was convinced he was stashing the body in the refrigerator, and the alleged murderer grabbed a knife just as the lights went out. 

It was an episode that had everything - great Beckett-Castle moments, solid supporting turns by the other characters, and little funny touches.  Castle creator Andrew Marlowe made a cameo along with his wife and co-writer Terri Miller as the writers Castle first spied upon.  Ryan and Esposito did the Charlie's Angels poses, and the dress Beckett wore at the end was an homage to Grace Kelly's dress in Rear Window. 

Monday, April 1, 2013

Opening Day

It's opening day for baseball!  It's the time when every fan can still have hope that their team will win the World Series.

I'm a Dodgers fan, and they play against their big rivals the San Francisco Giants later today at Dodger Stadium.  I would love for the Dodgers to hand the Giants their first loss of the season, and with Clayton Kershaw on the mound, there is a good chance this will happen. 

I'm cautiously optimistic about the Dodgers this season.  They have a team loaded with talent after the new owners were willing to spend money, but things did not quite gel last season after all the acquisitions.  There is still a question whether the Dodgers have enough chemistry and leadership to win it all, especially since their toughest competitor and the defending World Series Champion is in their own division, the Giants. 

They do have as their starters two former Cy Young winners in Kershaw and new Dodger Zack Greinke, plus Korean sensation Hyun-Jin Ryu and Josh Beckett.  A bunch of other pitchers are vying for the fifth slot.  Their lineup is pretty solid, even with shortstop Hanley Ramirez starting the season on the disabled list.  Carl Crawford is looking to prove that he is still a good player after an awful two years, and Matt Kemp should come back strong from his shoulder surgery.  Adrian Gonzalez and Andre Ethier provide nice power in the middle of the lineup, and let's hope Luis Cruz will continue to improve.  Mark Ellis provides the veteran dependability, and A.J. Ellis is a very patient hitter as well as a great catcher. 

The best part about Dodgers games is still Vin Scully.  The 85-year-old announcer has slowed down in recent years and is now only calling home games and select road games in California and Arizona, but there is nothing like watching Dodger baseball with Scully calling the game.