Rock and The Police (and other ramblings)

First off, J-Mac and I spent our Saturday night at a Toronto Rock game. My company had a box for the night and I was able to scam us two of the tickets. It was actually the first time I was able to enjoy a game from a box in my life.

The funny thing was that most of us spent the time watching the Penguins/Leafs game on a tv inside the box. It was so confusing at times, we would hear the roar of the crowd inside the ACC we would look up to the tv as if something happened in the game that was taking place in Pittsburgh.

NLL-type lacrosse is quite an event to watch. The goalies have so much padding and the nets are so small, the only way to score is to fake a shot than fling it in the hole that is opened up by the goalies movement. Also there is this cool shot that players attempt where they put the lacrosse stick behind their head and literally shoot it from above their opposite shoulder. The ball then comes from a different angle than the goalie expects.

The hockey influence is pretty obvious in this style of lacrosse. Their is fighting, body checking, on-the-fly line changes and plenty of hitting along the boards. You do seem to be able to use your stick as a weapon more as when defending, you can clearly hit the offensive player with your stick in order to get the ball. The final score was 19-15 for the Rochester Knighthawks so offense is clearly not a problem in this league.

The game was aired on Rogers Sportsnet. There were 16 882 people at the ACC for the game. I have a feeling that number will be higher than the amount of viewers that broadcast will get on Sportsnet.

A funny segment from Sportsnet occured during last Thursday's Leafs/Panthers game. During the second period intermission, the hockeycentral panel featuring Bill Watters, Daren Millard and Nick Kypreos were discussing the game's action. Suddenly, his nose started bleeding. The funny part was watching Kypreos' face as he was looking off camera trying to figure out what to do. As well, he kept subtly looking into his pockets looking for a kleenex for his bleeding comrade. The segment is still not on youtube but I assume it will shortly.

In the title of this blog, I mentioned The Police. The reason is that the rumour du jour regarding their reunion (the worst kept secret in music) is that they will open the Grammy Awards show on February 11th with their first performance together in years. They have only played together twice since they broke up, an impromptu set at Sting's wedding in 1992 and when they were inducted into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame in 2003.

Top 5 Police CDs (they only had 5)

1. Zenyetta Mondetta

2. Synchronicity

3. Outlandos D'Amour

4. Regetta de Blanc

5. Ghost In The Machine

And speaking of award shows, The Razzie Award nominations came out today. If you don't know what that The Razzie Awards are, they are the opposite of the Academy Awards. They are given out the day before the Academy Awards. At first they were an anti-establishment type thing but they have taken steps towards legitimacy as both Tom Green (Freddie Got Fingered) and Halle Berry (Catwoman) are the only actors to ever actually show up to accept the awards. Bill Cosby (Leonard Part 6), Tom Selleck (Christopher Columbus: The Discovery), Paul Verhoeven (director of Showgirls), Brian Helgeland (writer of The Postman) and Ben Affleck (Gigli, Daredevil and Paycheque) have all accepted the awards after the fact.

This year, the films Basic Instinct 2 and Little Man led the way with 7 nominations each.

Tomorrow, the Academy Award nominations will be released and I will have a full analysis. Why? Not because you asked me...but because I want to. I find the history of the Academy Awards fascinating.