Baseball: In the "that is how it goes" and (soon after) "well, we knew that was going to happen" department, we have the Mets Thursday afternoon loss.
Tied 1-1, a fly ball in the seventh resulting in a horrible collision that broke some facial bones of one Mets outfielder while the other left the game because of a relatively (considering the fate of Mike Cameron, who had to be taken off tied to a cart) minor shoulder injury. This resulted in a triple with one out. A second out was recorded but the third only came after the go ahead run was scored. Two outfielders down, the third one got hit in the knee (but staid in the game), putting two on with one out. The double play was expected. So was the 2-1 loss.
Football: The Jets won their first pre-season game though it went down to a goal line stand (for the tie). TMQ is back, including his various features, including complaining about science fiction: "My departing Star Wars complaint concerns the point that it's fine for sci-fi to be improbable, but not fine for special effects to violate laws of physics." I am unclear about this. The "fi" does not stand (think "hi fi") for "fidelity" but "fiction." Fiction violates various laws of reality. One considers this part of the definition of the term, more or less (need not be, but like deus ex machina machinations, it can be). Silly.
9 Songs: I also caught the artistic film 9 Songs. Not porn, just a "NR" film with a lot of explicit sex. "Porn" works on several levels, though the movie has a story and some serious intentions not connected to hard ons and such (the movie in fact is not very good for that purpose), and exactly has real music (thus the title). First, it is told from the male's point of view. Second, the couple are a pair of young white things with interesting jobs.* She is thin enough to be on your average late night porn, though her breasts (small) aren't fake. Thus, the film deals with a tiny sliver of real society.
And, the sex is boring. Now, yes, generally sex between real people is not always particularly exciting [finding a film (not talking porn here) where the true pleasure and excitement of sex is even suggested is rather tricky -- it's a bit sad], so the fact these two are boring is realistic. But, the problem is that we just get relatively quick shots (except for one fantasy bondage scene) of the sex which results in little context. I guess this "music video" or montage style (resulting also in a relatively short film) was intentional, especially given the title (the scenes basically are set between songs that apparently are about obsession -- the words weren't too clear to me).
Still, if we are finally going to have a non-French film about sex, actually spending a bit of time with real characters would have been nice. The woman basically is a cipher of sorts, a young thing that has the habit (unlike the guy) to say "fuck me" or the like. At least the guy gets to narrate and be pretentious about looking at ice and stuff. This sort of film gave some reviewers a hard-on (mentally speaking) since it has a director with some talent, and one can supply some symbolism to the whole affair. Yeah ok. It basically is boring -- one barely even sees much chemistry between them. A waste.
I wonder how that Natasha Richardson movie about a woman who risks all to have an affair with a mental patient is like. Or, that new cruel satire with Selma Blair playing a small role ... her in a high school uniform might we worth at least a rental price. Anyway, along with The Aristocrats, 9 Songs is an overrated piece of adult filmmaking.
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* I believe she works at a club, though it's a bit unclear. She's an American living in Britain, thus adding to her charm. His is connected to Antarctica, resulting in some pretentious dialogue and rather lackluster scenery shots.