Welcome Back to Yankee Stadium Fucksox

Tonight begins a crucial 3 game home series against the Boston Fucksox and if the Yankees have any hope of making the playoffs in the final year of The House That Ruth Built, they must take 2 out of 3. I don’t want to sound like a nay-sayer but I remind everyone that I have predicted problems with making the playoffs from the very beginning of the season. I have a ticket to each game but there is a chance that I might not be able to go to the game on Thursday afternoon because that morning I am having a laser procedure on my right eye to address a pressure problem.

I had a very good but kinda different entertainment program over the past 3 days in that I didn’t see a single theater event. Wow!! It has been a long time since that has happened. What I did do was see 3 movies. As I had posted earlier, on Saturday I had planned to see “Tropic Thunder” then “The Rocker” and then watch the Yankee/Baltimore game that evening. It didn’t quite work out that way. What happened you ask? Well, when I got to the ‘hood movie theater on 62nd and 1st Avenue where “Tropic Thunder” is playing there was a line stretching around the block. Damn. No way. So I hustled over to the theater at 64th and 2nd Avenue just in time to get a ticket to “The Rocker.”

“The Rocker” is about Robert “Fish” Fishman who is unjustly ousted as the drummer for the band Vesuvius just before the group’s megafame. Fish harbors 20 years of self-destructive resentment that finally forces him to move in with his sister’s family. His nephew’s band, A.D.D., has a gig at the prom but suddenly their drummer quits and the group is forced to turn to Fish for help. What happens next is a steady rise to fame and fortune as Fish tries to teach his young protégés how to be “rock stars.” They sign a deal with a record company and are booked to be the opening act for Vesuvius at The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Oh yes ... enough details. It is a very funny show, particularly if you like the Jack Black style of anarchy and badassitude.

When the show was over I swung back by the other theater and there was another line already forming, so I scratched “Tropic Thunder” and spent the time just wandering around the Upper Eastside. Came back to the apartment and settled in to watch the Yankees/Baltimore game with Carl (on the DL) Pavano pitching his first game of the season. And, Thank You Higher Power, he pitched a good game and the Yankees won.

On Sunday I planned my day around the afternoon Yankee/Baltimore game, which took forever and ever. But, bottom line, the Yankees hung on to win 8-7 and remain alive. I actually alternated watching the game, doing my usual Internet research for you, my loyal readers, and watching The Little League World Championship game, won by Hawaii.

“Tropic Thunder” was still on my agenda so I chose the final show time of 10:15pm, thinking that it wouldn’t be a problem, and it wasn’t. The house was only about 1/3 full. Let me say right off the bat, I loved this show and everything about it. I didn’t find it at all offensive. I am certain most of you know the plot line - a Vietnam war epic in filming finds that it’s pampered cast is engaged in real jungle combat with a drug cartel. The cast is headed by Ben Stiller, who co-wrote and directed, and Robert Downey Jr. as a method actor who undergoes a skin-darkening procedure so he can play a black soldier. Downey was sensational as was the rest of the cast, including Jack Black as an over-the-top drug addicted actor and Tom Cruise as a vulgar studio mogul. As I said, to me the show was gut-busting funny and I highly recommend it if you like this kind of in your face humor.

Monday was the usual errands and chores day and then last evening I saw my third movie, the just released “Hamlet 2” starring British comedian Steve Coogan as Dana Marschz, an inept high school drama teacher. When budget cuts kill the school’s drama program Dana is determined to go out in a blaze of glory with an original idea: he writes a sequel to Hamlet, which includes time travel and a musical number called: “Rock Me Sexy Jesus.” Interestingly, Coogan completely loses his English accent. The show is spotty in parts but, again, it is the type of in-your-face humor that I like, so, I also recommend it.

It is Tuesday morning and I am actually writing this as I am waiting for student/bartender/manager Scott Reed to get his lazy ass out of bed and text me the details of where and when we are to meet for lunch.

So, anyway, I will post this now - Go Yankees!!

Billi Pod
wanjr@aol.com