Basketball Prediction

As with yesterday’s prediction, I realize that this isn’t exactly going out on a limb, but despite being down 2 games to 1 to the Warriors right now, I predict that the Dallas Mavericks will win their first round series. What makes me feel the need to make this prediction? I have been a regular viewer of ESPN’s The Sports Reporters for as long as I can remember and it seems as though whenever they anoint an underdog a winner before a playoff series is over or praise a team after winning one game of a seven game series, that team ends up losing. Tremendous praise was bestowed upon Golden State head coach Don Nelson this morning, as well as scathing criticism of Dallas forward Dirk Nowitzki. Which to me means that Dallas will win tonight and go on to win the series.

April 29, 2007 11:46 am. Sports. Leave a comment.

Yankee Predictions

Nothing earth shattering here, but despite no indications of any injury at the moment, I predict that Mariano Rivera will land on the DL within the next month. I’ve seen many cases where a pitcher won’t admit there is something wrong and then after several bad outings it comes out that he was hurt all along. I think that may be the case with Mariano right now.

And when Francisco Rodriguez, current closer of the California Angels, becomes a free agent after the 2008 season, George Steinbrenner will write a blank check for Rodriguez to join the Yankees and he will become the heir apparent to Mariano Rivera.

April 28, 2007 10:11 am. Sports. 3 comments.

20 years later…

Some time ago I had the idea that I would like to re-experience and reevaluate the entertainment that I have enjoyed the most. My original thought was to listen to music or reread a book 10 years after I first did so to find out if it was as good as I remember it being, or to see if my feelings about it had changed. Well, the window of opportunity to do this 10 years after first experiencing the things I wanted to revisit came and went. So I thought maybe I’d try reevaluating things 15 years later. Then 15 years came and went. So now I try with the same intent 20 years later. And this time I feel the time is right. At first thought it may seem shocking to say so, but as I get older, 10 years sometimes seems like too short a time to revisit some things, mainly because I am a different a person 10 years ago than I was 20 years ago. 20 years ago I was starting high school and was beginning to experience the types of entertainment that would influence me to this day, specifically, science fiction, comics books, and a wide variety of music. So I plan on having a periodic series of reviews addressing music, books, television shows, and possibly movies that I first experienced 20 years ago.

April 26, 2007 9:15 pm. Misc.. 2 comments.

What Makes It Great?

I am a subscriber to a series of concerts at Lincoln Center in New York entitled “What Makes It Great?” The concerts are presented and hosted by Rob Kapilow, a conductor/composer/commentator who regularly appears on NPR radio. The idea behind the concerts is to educate the audience about a specific piece of classical music. Mr. Kapilow presents the piece on conjunction with professional musicians who play parts of the work that Rob Kapilow speaks about. Mr. Kapilow illustrates what makes the composition great by using his engaging enthusiasm along with musical examples, aimed at as wide an audience as possible. While a basic knowledge of music helps, nothing more musically complex than the difference between the major and minor mode is generally spoken about in the presentation. Mr. Kapilow instead lets the music do the talking (so to speak) to illustrate such concepts as modulation or thematic variations. For example, at a recent concert presenting Beethoven’s last string quartet (No.16 in F Major, Op. 135), the audience was asked to identify in what measure the key changes as the Pacifica Quartet emphasizes the change while playing the passage.

These concerts are a fantastic way to enrich the knowledge and appreciation of classical music to both newcomers and seasoned veterans alike. I have one of the two CDs that Rob Kapilow has released that he models after his concerts. Amazon.com has his CD of Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachmusik. (full disclosure, I get no money from Amazon. Maybe I should look into that.)

April 25, 2007 9:02 pm. Music. 3 comments.

Book review: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin

I seem to have less patience these days with fiction that doesn’t grab the reader into it right away or doesn’t explain much at the beginning. But I stuck with The Left Hand of Darkness despite these facts and found the unique aspects of the gender neutral alien society of the Gethen made for thought provoking reading. And I wasn’t drawn into the book until nearly the end during the struggles and journey of the main characters. The book might be better served by rereading some of the beginning to understand the characters and their motives better, but overall the book wasn’t good enough for me to want to do that.

Rating: 5 out of 10

April 23, 2007 7:21 pm. Book Reviews. Leave a comment.

TV review: Babylon 5 Season One

13 years after it first aired, I have finally begun watching Babylon 5, having never seen it before. After only watching season one, I am enjoying the series very much. After watching the first few episodes, the obvious comparisons to Star Trek pervade the series, specifically to Deep Space Nine. But soon into the series you realize that the “Signs and Portents” in each episode which hint at the larger story make the show compelling. The series is written in such a way as to tell enough of a self-contained story in each episode but still leave clues and questions about what will happen next to make the viewer want to continue watching the series, similar to how the X-Files is written and structured.

After watching only one season so far I can say that Babylon 5 is easily better than any of the Star Trek series since The Next Generation.

Rating: 8 out of 10

April 21, 2007 8:13 am. TV Reviews. 5 comments.

Timeliness

More and more I seem to enjoy entertainment, and aspects of life in general, that are not timely. Not necessarily things that are timeless, but things that don’t have to be experienced right away lest they fade from consciousness, only to return on viewing an episode of some VH1 blast-from-the-past TV special. Maybe it could be described as what separates pop culture from art, but I don’t think the two can be defined that easily. Maybe I simply feel that if something is worth experiencing, then the time to experience it should be flexible. Whether it is watching a television show that aired 13 years ago on DVD, reading a book written 40 years ago, or listening to music composed 200 years ago (see my next three entries for examples of each), if it was worth experiencing when it was first created, then it will still be worth experiencing now and in the future.

April 19, 2007 9:27 pm. Misc.. 2 comments.

Intentions

So what do I intend for the new and improved blog/website of bobsala.com? I’m not entirely sure. My primary intent was to move the bobsala.com website away from the poor service and features of Geocities. After considering buying space on a web host or even hosting my own site, Jai Jeffryes, a friend and colleague of mine, suggested simply creating a blog. That along with his suggestion to make technology work for me instead of me working for technology, led me to creating this blog.

In addition to any sort of random musings I feel like writing about, I intend to share my thoughts about certain topics that interest me, most notably music, sports, and books (mostly science fiction). And since “everyone’s a critic,” I for some reason feel that I would like to be one as well, which means I plan on having my fair share of reviews .

April 17, 2007 10:47 pm. Misc.. 1 comment.

Ni hao

While it was nearly two years ago, I have always wanted to post a few pictures from a family trip to China on my website. The 8 day trip during May of 2005 was an incredible experience that words can’t begin to describe, so here are a small sample of some pictures from the trip.

Here I am at a jade factory, where you quickly learn that the term “factory” is another word for a state-owned and operated tourist store.

A view of the Great Wall from the bottom:

The section of the Great Wall that we visited outside of Beijing was more like steps up the side of a mountain than an actual wall. Here is a view from near the top: